As you get ready to file your taxes, you may wonder which software is best for you.
The King of Tax Software, though, has a few problems.
The dirty little not-so-secret secret of tax filing is that the IRS already has your information.
It gets thesame forms you receiveeach tax season: Your W-2s, 1099s, investment information, etc.
That would save millions of Americans considerable time and energy every year, but the idea has gone nowhere.
Lobbying from
Intuit
and
H&R Block
.
Automatic filing isnt new to policy makersits been proposed by both Democrats and Republicans in the past.
And it wouldnt work foreveryone, particularly those who itemize.
But pre-populated forms and automatic filing would work for tens of millions of Americans, perProPublica.
All it would take is five minutes, and best of all, it would be free.
And thats because, well, Intuit makesa lotof money off of selling you tax software every year.
Areported 31 millionpeople used TurboTax in 2016, more than any other service.
Those who can afford to hire the best tax preparers, obviously, fare much better.
TurboTax Alternatives
Review sites likeWirecutterstill recommend Turbotaxs softwareits considered one of the easiest options to use.
If you dont want to give TurboTax and Intuit any more money, you have other options.
The most basic option is tofill out your taxes by hand.
You download the forms for free from the IRSs website and mail them in.
If you earn less than $66,000, you qualify for free federal filing.
In many cases, this is used to charge you for the deluxe version of the software.
And, as ProPublicas investigation notes, H&R Block also lobbies against automatic filing).
Here arestate-by-state resourcesto file for free.
The catch here is that it might take slightly longer to do your taxes this year.
Convenience is a hell of a drug.
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