It seems illogical for the government to not have a free, easy way for the taxpayer to remit their taxes to the government (or submit the paperwork that should generate a return from that government). But at the same time I think it's fine to be skeptical that you should trust the government to be honest in showing you what amount of taxes you actually owe given how complicated the tax code is, and because there exists, ahem, a bit of an incentive problem there.
Is the free-filing system designed to maximize your return? Is it designed for ease of use? Generally I agree that TurboTax is a leech, but just because they're leeches doesn't mean there isn't an incentive problem that should be addressed.
>Then, truly public-minded services can use the receipt to help people understand if their filings were correct.
Do you mean a private company does this? Or something else?
It seems illogical for the government to not have a free, easy way for the taxpayer to remit their taxes to the government (or submit the paperwork that should generate a return from that government). But at the same time I think it's fine to be skeptical that you should trust the government to be honest in showing you what amount of taxes you actually owe given how complicated the tax code is, and because there exists, ahem, a bit of an incentive problem there.
Is the free-filing system designed to maximize your return? Is it designed for ease of use? Generally I agree that TurboTax is a leech, but just because they're leeches doesn't mean there isn't an incentive problem that should be addressed.
>Then, truly public-minded services can use the receipt to help people understand if their filings were correct.
Do you mean a private company does this? Or something else?