[GNC] US Bans Free tax Software

[Adrien Monteleone]

I’m not a fan of the corporate protectionism in the bill, but it doesn’t change anything practical-wise for anyone. It enshrines the status quo. The IRS currently does not have free tax filing software made available to taxpayers. This law prohibits the IRS from ever developing it. (a protectionist kickback to Intuit and H&R Block)

This will have no effect on GnuCash. The bill doesn’t prohibit free tax software from the private sector, it prohibits the IRS from developing it and making it available.

If the bill doesn’t pass, the IRS intends to proceed with plans to develop a free .gov filing system and to mail out pre-filled forms with the data they have on file about you. (essentially, a "check the box that’s correct and sign here, don’t forget to include your payment” form, for those who don’t want to file electronically)

There was an agreement in place that the IRS would not create such a system (undercutting the aforementioned companies) as long as those companies offered free filing to anyone making less than $66k per year. While they do offer such free filing, they tried to hide it and try to cross-sell/upsell other services so that only a small percentage of those eligible actually file for free. Because of this, the IRS has intentions not to continue the agreement.

Regards,
Adrien

> On Apr 10, 2019, at 11:33 PM, David Cousens <davidcousens at bigpond.com> wrote:
> 
> Just noticed this post.
> https://news.yahoo.com/free-irs-software-filing-taxes-191746938.html?fbclid=IwAR3-GIPM3S6SazRqcyKb1Lywu4wMhtWB9Je8YU_cK_usuW4FLf13y07ATJs. 
> Impact on the use of GnuCash for Tax preparation in the US could be
> profound. Looks like the US government is trying to head the same way as the
> Brits.  Australia has done something similar recently in that one has to
> join a consortium of software developers (at a significant fee) to get full
> access to the information needed to build in software communication to the
> ATO. The ATO no longer publishes the protocols in use and has outsourced
> developmemnt of the protocols to a non-government consortium
> 
> David Cousens