Fascinating. Thanks for highlighting a part of the IRS that the current administration has, surprisingly, left alone. I'm stunned it hasn't apparently lost employees due to DOGE or other choices made in the last year. I spent three years as a part-time tax preparer after I retired from the Army and moved to Missouri. My wife and I were both Army officers who'd never been stationed in our home states so did not have to complete a state tax return. I took the prep course to learn how to do that and got hired. I even taught the basic tax prep classes the company required for a year.
I've received those IRS letters when I've made an error, and I've also had to interpret them for tax clients, and they're hard to understand. I'm happy to see that there's now an effort to make that process simpler. I should mention that every IRS employee I met in my tax prep days was unfailingly smart, courteous, and genuinely helpful. The folks you mention here certainly exemplify that.
Here's the problem. That same company that I worked for has joined others in the world of tax preparation in keeping our tax system complicated so it can keep its business model intact. That group also got the IRS to shut down its free tax prep system (though not its free e-filing system) that basically does what other countries you mention do. And other countries have simpler tax codes than we do, so having the government send an estimate of taxes owed is also much simpler. The scandal is deliberately keeping our tax system complicated for the benefit of the few, connected entities who can influence legislation with campaign contributions.
I wish this mentioned the IRS's Direct File program, which allowed people to file their tax returns directly to the government for free like those 30 countries. The tax prep industry spend decades lobbying against any improvements like that, and then Direct File was shut down by the Trump administration. https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free
Fascinating. Thanks for highlighting a part of the IRS that the current administration has, surprisingly, left alone. I'm stunned it hasn't apparently lost employees due to DOGE or other choices made in the last year. I spent three years as a part-time tax preparer after I retired from the Army and moved to Missouri. My wife and I were both Army officers who'd never been stationed in our home states so did not have to complete a state tax return. I took the prep course to learn how to do that and got hired. I even taught the basic tax prep classes the company required for a year.
I've received those IRS letters when I've made an error, and I've also had to interpret them for tax clients, and they're hard to understand. I'm happy to see that there's now an effort to make that process simpler. I should mention that every IRS employee I met in my tax prep days was unfailingly smart, courteous, and genuinely helpful. The folks you mention here certainly exemplify that.
Here's the problem. That same company that I worked for has joined others in the world of tax preparation in keeping our tax system complicated so it can keep its business model intact. That group also got the IRS to shut down its free tax prep system (though not its free e-filing system) that basically does what other countries you mention do. And other countries have simpler tax codes than we do, so having the government send an estimate of taxes owed is also much simpler. The scandal is deliberately keeping our tax system complicated for the benefit of the few, connected entities who can influence legislation with campaign contributions.
Thanks Gabe. This was really informative.