This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
For your simple[r] tax needs: https://directfile.irs.gov
Just a heads up it’s only available for the following states:
Arizona California Florida Massachusetts Nevada New Hampshire New York South Dakota Tennessee Texas Washington state Wyoming
For anyone who has filed with it, how much does this return differ from using a company? Is your total return the same or can a tax professional get you back a significant amount more?
You get as much back as you would if you knew what to claim.
I'm 100% for a simple IRS tax return but what the heck is with this?
To use Direct File, you need an IRS account with ID.me.
To get an ID.me account, you need to:
Take a video of your face
If you can't or don't want to take a video of your face, you can have a video call with an ID.me agent who will confirm that your face matches your identification.
Is that really necessary???
It's the same as going to a bank and letting the teller look at your face. It's to prevent someone from stealing your identity using a picture of your ID.
How can they verify the ID is real without physically seeing it? They look up the info but still need to verify that you are the person on the ID.
How have they been verifying mailed in tax forms with no pictures for decades?
Seems like it unnecessarily disenfranchises the poor and the elderly. You have to have access to equipment that can record you and the tech savvy to be able to use it.
How have they been verifying mailed in tax forms with no pictures for decades?
They haven't. Of course, the IRS deals with upwards 1 million potentially fraudulent claims per year. So, at some level, they're trying to avoid exacerbating the problem.
Thanks Brandon
Honestly I'll hope reservations and congratulations till after we see how it goes, but the fact it's a limited pilot makes me optimistic.
the fact it’s a limited pilot makes me optimistic
:-/
I've seen far too many good ideas go through a "limited pilot" program, outperform their intended targets, piss off someone in the DC corporate circuit, and get their budgets vaporized by the next Congress.
