YES iff the IRS releases tax preparation software that allows you to prepare your taxes and submit them, in a way that is significantly easier than using the forms (should be a reasonable competitor to tax preparation software). The software should be available for use and free for at least 10% of American taxpayers. Those 10% should theoretically be able to use it as their primary way of filing federal tax. State taxes are out of scope. Has to be made by the IRS or their contractors
1,000@TiredCliche that has always been true, but those who cared got it up and available for half of the country anyway. See for yourself. https://directfile.irs.gov/
At the current moment, you are profiting because Elon Musk put a target on this program.
I sold my shares at a huge loss and regret it 😭.
@TiredCliche yup enjoy the Mana!
https://apnews.com/article/irs-direct-file-musk-18f-6a4dc35a92f9f29c310721af53f58b16
Users of Manifold and X should know that Elon Musk deleted Direct File’s X account, presumably to halt the public awareness and growth of this program.
Don’t make my mistake and sell off because you’re discouraged the program can withstand the efforts of the world’s greatest billionaire tech bro.
Also don’t make the mistake of imagining this program HASN’T been effective in it’s modest way at countering decades of lobbying by Intuit and the like.
@Shump this can resolve yes.
Is available in 25 states, where over 60% of the US population resides.
The IRS estimates 30 million taxpayers are eligible, which based on the 153 million returns filed in 2022 is just under 20% and well over 10% of all US taxpayers.
Does a pilot program or test still satisfy the 10% criteria?
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/10/17/politics/irs-free-tax-filing-pilot-direct-file/index.html
How user friendly and reliable does it have to be to be considered a reasonable competitor?
@SpeaksForTrees As long as 10% of Americans are eligible to use it, and actually can use it for their entire tax prep if they wanted to. From what I understand, this pilot has a more limited scope.
@SpeaksForTrees It can be buggy or have awful UX, people would probably still use it anyways. But it does need to be usable to a non-expert, in a way that just filling out raw tax forms usually aren't