INFOWORLD GRIPE LINE BY ED FOSTER Bookmark this page

 
Display: Sort:
Taxing Software Experiences | 12 comments (12 topical) | Post A Comment
Why should we have to use a vendor at all??[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#7)
by MrsPost on Thu May 01, 2008 at 11:23:57 AM PDT

The IRS lets folks under a certain income e-file with them for free. Everyone else has to go through a vendor. There's some ridiculous line in their explanation about not wanting to compete with third parties.

Excuse me? When did filing our taxes become something that should require a third party?

Yes, I know. Paper returns are free. But how long until that's no longer the case? The list of 'approved vendors' seems split into two:

  • Completely untrustworthy
  • Competely unknown and therefore untrustworthy
  • And one of those little tidbits. You can deduct the cost of having your taxes prepared from your taxes due. So essentially the federal government (our money) is paying these people!

    I used TaxAct because my accountant neighbor recommended it. It matched my paper return completely. But it still needed a 'processing fee' to do the direct deposit.

    Time to write our congresscritters and see why we can't e-file directly.

    [ Reply to This ]



    As I recall there was a lawsuit[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#10)
    by Reziac on Tue May 06, 2008 at 10:57:22 AM PDT

    .. there was a lawsuit brought by the tax software companies against the IRS when the IRS initially offered free online tax filing, for being "anti-competitive". The tax software companies WON and the IRS had to stop offering the service.
    ~REZ~
    [ Parent | Reply to This ]


    Taxing Software Experiences | 12 comments (12 topical) | Post A Comment
    Display: Sort:

    Menu
    · create account
    · faq
    · search

    Login
    Make a new account
    Username:
    Password:

     HOME  NEWS  COLUMNS  BLOGS  PODCASTS  TECHNOLOGIES  TEST CENTER  EVENTS  CAREERS  IT EXEC-CONNECT   About Awards Contact Us 

    Copyright © 2006, Reprints, Permissions, Licensing, IDG Network, Privacy Policy.
    All Rights reserved. InfoWorld is a leading publisher of technology information and product reviews on topics including viruses,
    phishing, worms, firewalls, security, servers, storage, networking, wireless, databases, and web services.

    ComputerWorld :: LinuxWorld :: Network World :: CIO :: PC World :: Darwin :: CMO :: CSO
    IT Careers :: JavaWorld :: Macworld :: Mac Central :: Playlist :: GamePro :: GameStar :: Gamerhelp
    ITWorld Canada :: Computerwoche :: Techworld UK :: tecChannel :: IDG.se :: IDG.no :: IDG.pl

    create account | faq | search