Tuesday, April 09, 2019

A bipartisan group in Congress wants to make it harder for you to do taxes - Article

Congress is set to pass one of the most blatant pieces of corporate welfare in years.


By Dylan Matthews@dylanmattdylan@vox.com  Apr 9, 2019, 10:40am EDT

Only one day left to stop Congress from deliberately screwing you over. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Congress is set to make it illegal for the IRS to create free tax preparation software, software that could save millions of Americans from wasting their money on TurboTax, H&R Block, and other tax preparers currently profiting from the IRS’s failure to help taxpayers.

ProPublica’s Justin Elliott reports that the Taxpayer First Act, sponsored in the House by Democratic Rep. John Lewis (GA) and Republican Mike Kelly (PA), and in the Senate by Finance Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), would prohibit the IRS from creating an online tax preparation system that would compete with TurboTax and H&R Block.

As Elliott explains, this provision is a long-held priority of those tax preparers, who have spent massive sums of money ($6.6 million just last year) lobbying Congress to keep taxes complicated and prevent the IRS from simplifying the process.

Read more
https://www.vox.com/2019/4/9/18301943/last-minute-tax-preparation-h-r-block-turbotax

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