The Online Income Tax Preparation Controversy
Tax Preparation
Online tax preparation is gaining in popularity today. When Intuit first developed TurboTax, the first internet tax program for home use, many people were wary about how the Internal Revenue Service would feel about taxes being prepared through an online program. Today, Intuit is a major lobbying entity that is fighting to keep the US Goverment from competing with the online tax preparation services.
This online tax preparation controversy is rather interesting. Intuit created the idea of charging tax filers to use a computer program that was designed to file taxes quickly while eliminating chances for inaccuracies. The government needs a system that is easy to use, that explains all recommendations completely, and one that files taxes quickly. The electronic tax filing programs are exactly what the IRS needs. Intuit also needs these programs for profits.
According to the Government Accountability Office,GAO, in year 2005, the America’s public spent up to 600 billion dollars, or about twenty % of collected taxes, on the act of hiring Federal Income Tax Preparation services to prepare the federal tax returns. With our country experiencing fiscal problems today, experts are considering ways to free-up some of the Federal Income Tax Preparation money so that it can be helping the economy in other areas.
If Intuit, and all other online tax preparation services were to become obsolete due to the IRS placing their own programs on the Internet for consumers, the online tax preparation money could become the Federal Government’s to use for their own expenditures. As it stands now, the money that consumers use on a tax preparation program is used as a entry on their taxes so that the IRS is in essence funding the private online income tax preparation services.
Heated debates are developing on both sides of online tax preparation money debate. As Americans, we do not believe in our government banning free enterprise. Still we also do not believe that it is wise to let our governmental fiscal problems continue unchecked. The IRS is responsible for the income tax system; some believe that it makes sense that the government should be running their own online tax preparation programs.
As it stands right now, Intuit and the government have reached a deal that keeps the government from putting their own online filing programs into place. Instead, a percentage of online tax preparation services will offer free filing services to people who make less than 52,000 adjusted gross incomes per year. This is the government’s way of eliminating a little bit of the money that we spend on online tax services.
Nobody knows what the future will hold in the debate between the private online tax preparation services and the governments desire to enter this arena. Today, one of the advantages of using an online filing service are the fast refund programs that allow for refund money to be disbursed through a loan, sooner than the official tax service can provide. The Internal Revenue Service has countered with CADE a system that will be making refunds in just 2-3 days from the US Government by the year 2012.
Online Federal tax preparation