Grover Norquist hates taxes, but still wants you to spend money preparing them

[Indy Texas]

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/03/how-maker-turbotax-fights-keep-your-taxes-complicated/63541/

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[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Complaining about "socializing tax preparation" is about as logical as demanding "keep your government hands off of my Medicare".

[TDAS04]

Figures.

[Linus Van Pelt]

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Tax preparation should be much simpler, but still, I'm always surprised by people who think you can't just do your taxes yourself, without any of this commercial tax preparation racket. It's really not that difficult if your employment situation isn't too complicated.

[King]

Tax simplification would probably cause a recession.  Tax accounting is a huge source of employment.

[Indy Texas]

Tax simplification would probably cause a recession.  Tax accounting is a huge source of employment.

Even if that huge source of employment is due to favoritism by the government towards large corporations?

It's not as if Intuit and TurboTax and H&R Block are going to vanish if something like this is passed. Higher-income people with lots of different income sources are probably going to want someone to double-check the return. Some $30K a year Tea Party loon who owes no taxes to begin with will pay someone to look his over because he's convinced the feds are out to get him somehow.

Most of the people who will use the return-free filing are the people who bought the software. That wasn't a huge source of employment to begin with. CPAs won't be affected. Tax attorneys and auditors won't be affected. The people who work in the H&R Block kiosk at Wal-Mart for $14 an hour three months out of the year will be affected in that fewer of them will be needed, but are we really going to institutionalize inefficiency and limit everyone's choices for sake of protecting those jobs?

[Lief 🗽]

Plus I'm sure the IRS would need to hire a good amount of well-paid, unionized employees to take on the extra work.

[Benj]

Plus I'm sure the IRS would need to hire a good amount of well-paid, unionized employees to take on the extra work.

You seem to be assuming Congress would take the logical step of actually providing sufficient funding to the IRS, given that every dollar spent by the IRS makes the government money quite directly. But, they don't, and the IRS is chronically underfunded.

[TNF]

Plus I'm sure the IRS would need to hire a good amount of well-paid, unionized employees to take on the extra work.

Well I'm sold on the idea then.

[greenforest32]

Plus I'm sure the IRS would need to hire a good amount of well-paid, unionized employees to take on the extra work.

You seem to be assuming Congress would take the logical step of actually providing sufficient funding to the IRS, given that every dollar spent by the IRS makes the government money quite directly. But, they don't, and the IRS is chronically underfunded.

Exactly, shouldn't the CBO score spending increases for the IRS as leading to net reductions in the deficit considering the data we have right now?

http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/National-Taxpayer-Advocate-Delivers-2012-Annual-Report-to-Congress

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