[koolba]

> But the legislation would also permanently bar the IRS from offering its own free alternative.

Why should we as citizens of this great country be forced to give up the right to form a public option? Not quite 1:1 but the analogies to health care do come to mind.

[djsumdog]

Australia has their own tax software. It's not pretty, but it's pretty straight forward. In NZ you don't even have to file. You login to the IRD site and it shows you your earnings, similar to this proposal.

Jobs will disappear and some industry will go away if we had a unified federal run tax system. Most likely though, these two companies will turn into contractors for the government to make an maintain one standardized system. They'll earn less money, but the entire system overall would be better.

This is a good place where we can see capitalism break down; where the public good is done a disservice by those who would seek to retain their earnings from an inefficient system.

[jeffdavis]

How is lobbying the government to create problems for it's citizens (so you can charge to fix them) related to "capitalism" at all?

[coldpie]

The IRS does provide free fillable forms[1] which do some of the math for you, but is otherwise about the same as just doing it on paper. I used them last night for the first time, because I no longer want to support the Tax Complication Lobby.

Republicans oppose having the IRS automate taxes for most citizens. Remember to vote very year.

[1] https://www.irs.gov/uac/before-starting-free-file-fillable-f...

[equalunique]

What's going to happen to all of the nice employees maintaining HR Block and Intuit's tax filling products?

Should they go become used car salespeople and McDonald's fry cooks?

[frgtpsswrdlame]

The same thing that happened to the workers who were displaced by the cotton gin, the assembly line and the plow.

[Apocryphon]

Isn't this disruption? Aren't we supposed to like it?

[RamshackleJ]

As the Market wills! Do not fear for the Market always has a greater plan in mind.

[koolba]

If they can compete with a public option then I'm sure they'll have jobs. If not who's to stop a private competitor from eating their lunch?

FYI I'm not saying ban private tax preparation (though I do think it's unnecessary for 90+% of people as they're just filing a 1040EZ). Just that we shouldn't be restricted from allowing the Feds to provide a default option.

[problems]

Why not just use free tax prep software which doesn't need to be government funded and cost taxpayers.

Maybe the US is different but in Canada at least this is well supported - even endorsed by government.