 Internal revenue service IRS tax news IRS free file launch aims to save taxpayers hard earned dollars Save us hard honestly It would save us a lot of time and money if the tax code wasn't so complicated You needed the expensive tax software just to do your taxes Even if you only earn like five dollars Due to your business being shut down during the whole crazy covid lockdown thing Plus, I mean the irs keeps on asking for more and more information in case you haven't noticed Like they keep doing that and I mean It caught me crazy, but i'm starting to not trust the government with information Uh what with all those like leaked irs documents to the press and the government's poor handling of like top secret super classified documents I mean for all I know my tax returns could be sprawled all over joe biden's many residencies at this point Hunter biden possibly rolling up my w2 form which he took from the irs So we could snort a line of parmesan cheese off a top secret document containing the nuclear codes Why? Because it's cool, man I mean how many people could say they use stolen personal data to snort illegal stuff off top secret documents containing the nuclear codes Think about it That kind of thing will really blow your mind man He's like I totally nuked my noggin and it was great And and all the while the biden's trying to prosecute their political rivals for doing the same dang thing They're like they're like hey Do you see this document right here containing the current nuclear codes? Documents like this could have been stolen due to my political rivals incompetence Yeah, pull the camera in closer dang it pull the camera in closer I want people to really see these current nuclear codes so they can understand The gravity of the situation Particularly after going through the trouble of digging up this document out of that top secret box in my garage Under that shelf of wine that I routinely send the ukrainian prostitutes to select from while we parse out the parmesan I mean it's ridiculous. I've created a special council to look into this whole thing. Dang it IR 2023-06 january 17th 2023 washington The internal revenue services free file guided tax preparation services live and ready for taxpayers to use Free file went live january 13th 2023 10 days prior to the 2023 filing season start date The irs starts accepting individual tax returns on january 23rd irs free file there's a link to that here it marks its 21st filing season this year And it's one of the many free options available to taxpayers for filing their taxes either online or in person So it'll have a link to actually third party provided software software that's on the market And they kind of have an agreement it looks like or is my interpretation between the irs and these Software providers to be in this free file area. So on the irs web page They'll give you kind of a grouping of these Softwares and the possibility to access them so you can kind of see which option would be best for you So irs free file is offered via a public-private partnership between the irs and the free file incorporated Formally the free file alliance Now I think it's important to note that anytime we see some kind of free thing that the organization Offering it and I don't care if that organization is a business organization A not-for-profit organization or a government entity a type of not-for-profit organization The organization offering it is going to present it as if They're doing it just out of the kindness of their heart as if they don't have any personal gain Involved with the offer now note if you see anything that's free any person see something that's free That's coming from a corporation the thing that comes to mind is okay. It's a marketing thing They're going to try to benefit from this in some way But when we see free stuff that's coming from a government entity or not-for-profit We tend to be less critical about our thinking process And I think we need to be more critical oftentimes whenever we see That the framing that's coming from any organization Whether that organization be a company whether it be a not-for-profit Whether it be a government entity so obviously in this case you've got private companies That are partnering to some degree or with the government to be part of this free file incorporated in order to be putting Their personal company information on this free file page now obviously for them They're going to have to offer some of their software and there are for-profit companies For free but they're also having an alliance with the government Which means they might have access to information possibly allowing them Maybe to to put the software together faster and they've got some kind of advertising Kind of situation because now they're on the irs's free file page themselves And obviously their business is intimately tied and doing tax preparation Which is mandated by irs law on the irs's side of things Note that the government wants to wants to be saying hey look we're not making the tax code to burdensome We're trying to do everything we can to be transparent and obviously on their side of things The idea is that they're going to frame everything as though they're not collecting taxes, but they're actually giving you A refund that's what they're obviously the the tax season from the iris's perspective the way they're going to frame it Is of course tax season is good because we're giving you money But in a lot of cases they're not giving you money They're giving a refund of the money that they took before so now they're saying We're giving you free software which should make people happy Although the only reason you need the free software is of course because of all the changes in the tax code That's part of the of the need for for this mandatory socks for even for low-income individuals Whereas at one time it would have been very you could have called in your tax return or not even had to file If your income was below a certain threshold because you wouldn't own any taxes and it was pretty pretty easy So so i'm not saying it's a bad thing to this free file software I'm thinking i'm just saying that I think we need to look more critically When claims are made you can see the same thing made with these with the claims for environmentally friendly stuff and on the business side and on the on the on the government side when they were saying We're going paperless and then they're going to frame the idea that they're going paperless As they're going to save the trees and save You know save the world in that way But really obviously it's cheaper to go paperless at the same point at the same time And so you know we got to kind of say okay, you know, maybe it's a good idea to go paperless But I don't really like being you know manipulated and you acting like there's no you have no personal Gain in this right? Let's put the cards on the table. It's like be honest with the full range of benefits and pros and cons No matter the entity involved is is what I would think now. I think it would go further that way But in any case Through this partnership leading tax software providers make their online products available in both english and spanish for free Seven partners will provide irs free file online products this year to any taxpayer or family who earned $73,000 or less in 2022 because the filing season does not start until january 23rd irs free file providers Will accept completed tax returns and hold them until they can be filed electronically on that date So in other words you can start to file earlier than that and you can send in the tax return if you want But it won't be electronically accepted until This tax season starts january 23rd for them to accept them those who make over 73 thousand dollars Can use the irs's free file fillable forms the electronic version of irs pre-performs being Beginning january 23rd now again I think they offer this free file fillable forms as an option so the irs can basically say Look, we provide a free option for everybody no matter your income level But on a practical basis, I would think that if your income is over 73 thousand dollars You probably don't want to use the free file fillable forms as your ultimate form of filing Because your tax return is getting complex. Usually the tax return gets more complex as your income gets higher Although many of the changes to the tax code have been on the low-income side and some of the very complicated credits Like the earned income tax credit and the advanced payments to child tax credit are getting quite complex Same with some of the insurance stuff. It's you got advanced payments and whatnot Which are getting quite complex But as your income gets higher that'll clearly usually increase the complexity and also lead to things that you can do In order to do tax planning So I would think if your income was over 73,000 You probably want to pay for the software just as an in a double check Or you might say hey look i'm getting My income is being high enough that I might have tax planning needs and therefore Maybe I want to hire a tax return not just for the immediate need of completing the taxes this year But so I can do tax planning and whatnot in the future So the so that's uh The this product is best for people comfortable preparing their own taxes Nobody's comfortable preparing their own taxes by hand Not even tax professionals if their income is quite high even if their income is low Because again the earned income tax credits and whatnot on the low income is are quite complicated too so How irs free file online works each irs free file provider sets its own eligibility rules For products based on age income and state residency So you can't just pick any one in there and say oh i'm under 73,000 I'm just going to pick the one I know best Because there's different options depending on Income level and the state options are important too meaning if you have a state tax obligation You don't really want to have two separate softwares to complete your federal and state And the states the states will differ so states are generally more difficult for tax software providers because it's not one universal law for the whole country But it needs to change from state to state So you would like to pick a software that can pick up your state as well So taxpayers that made 73,000 or less in 2022 will likely find a product that matches their needs Some providers also offer free state return preparation Active duty military can use the irs free file products if they're adjusted gross income with 73,000 in 2022 or less To find the right irs file product taxpayers can Number one go to irs.gov forward slash free file. There's a link to that here number two Click on use free guided tax preparation Then select irs free file online lookup tool for help in finding the right product So they've got a little little questionnaire that can help you to find the right tool the free one Hopefully for your circumstance number three Use the browse all offers tool To review each offer so then you can browse all of them if you want But then you got a then you got a you know narrowed them down yourself Number four select the best product for them for them and five Follow the links to the provider's website to begin their tax return meaning number five You're leaving the iris website going to the third party provider That is a private company I believe it's a private company that you're going to do your taxes on so no computer no problem I are as free file product support mobile phone access I wouldn't recommend doing your tax return on your phone, but maybe I'm just like I don't trust the phone at all in any circumstance that do as little as possible But I would think it would be hard to do that on your like your eyes and stuff But you can do it if that's what you've got if that's what you've got Then you can do it on your phone. I would take a little bit more time On that but taxpayers can do their taxes on their smartphone or tablet irs free file Participants for 2023 the following providers are participating in irs free file. You got the 1040 now You've got the easy tax return dot com file your taxes dot com online taxes tax act free tax Usa and the winner for the coolest name tax slayer I'm not sure the iris likes tax slayer. They might that sounds a little scary for the ira tax slayer software I noticed that I I think a few years ago like a turbo tax was on there most people when they first think about tax software, they're probably thinking Uh into its software, which I think is turbo tax and if you go to them directly They might have Like like software that if you're under a certain threshold that is that is free or something like that So that's another one That's a popular and I think h and r block has a version That you can fill out yourself on tax software as well That's probably the two softwares most people would think about and they're not on here Although they might have if you go to them directly a free option as well So you might want to look look into them. I'm not sure why they they don't the iris doesn't get them in their in their free file Uh lineup or whatever they call it they but I guess the the biggest some of the bigger players maybe Are saying it's not worth it's not worth it to them or something. Maybe I don't know So the 2023 uh easy tax return dot com will provide an irs free file product in spanish So you can also do it in espanol Movie b to the n All right, so uh, there's links to that here and there'll be a link to this in the description