So I know intuit is an easy and guilty party in this whole situation, but let’s not pretend it’s all their fault. Plenty of politicians benefit from this mess.
This isn’t meant to pick sides in politics, but if you’re a politician and you’re running a “lower taxes and less government bureaucracy” re-election campaign, it’s in your best interest to make paying your taxes as noticeable and painful as possible. It’s in politicians best interests to make the government as unfriendly and time consuming as possible.
Filing a tax return manually should only be necessary for a small percentage of people with complex situations. Most people’s entire income is a single W2, and their payroll provider should be able to deduct the exact amount down to the penny. No-op for the individual. Everyone else can keep their existing process applying for deductions and breaking out their income streams. Anything else is theater to make you hate taxes.
This isn’t meant to pick sides in politics, but if you’re a politician and you’re running a “lower taxes and less government bureaucracy” re-election campaign, it’s in your best interest to make paying your taxes as noticeable and painful as possible. It’s in politicians best interests to make the government as unfriendly and time consuming as possible.
Filing a tax return manually should only be necessary for a small percentage of people with complex situations. Most people’s entire income is a single W2, and their payroll provider should be able to deduct the exact amount down to the penny. No-op for the individual. Everyone else can keep their existing process applying for deductions and breaking out their income streams. Anything else is theater to make you hate taxes.