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CA State Offers To Prepare Simple Tax Returns
Makarand writes "California is ready to roll out a program for taxpayers where the
state will
offer to fill out their tax forms for them if they are simple enough. Taxpayers
will merely have to go online, download and review the completed forms prepared
for them and confirm their return. This program is supposed to save money
for the state, reduce tax related headaches for many and bring into the
tax system those who are not paying any taxes currently.
The state will take information it already receives on W-2 wage statements,
put it in the right boxes on the tax return, and do the math."
The only reason it's not national is due to pressure from tax preparers to prevent the loss of money that they make by doing peoples' taxes each year. H&R Block and other big tax preparers are huge roadblocks towards online filing directly with the IRS. I'm sure they are claiming it wouldn't be safe, or some nonsense like that. Really they don't want to give up the opportunity to sell those "refund anticipation loans", which have insane interest rates.