irlpinkiepie pinned a message to this channel.
WHAT THE FUUUUUUCK
ME ME ME ME ME ME
irlpinkiepiepsa for usamericans
if you live in any of the states below: the tax filing resource you should be looking for is IRS Direct File; you can file federal taxes directly on the IRS' website, they have a free support helpline if you're stuck, they'll also redirect you to a free preparer for state taxes, and it should work with most tax situations
if you live in any other state (or aren't eligible for Direct File) and your total income for the year was $84,000 or less, you're eligible for IRS Free File; this only covers federal taxes, and works through external providers, but will guarantee that you can use their tax preparation services for free
if you are eligible for Direct File, though, you should use it! obviously very few things about the current political situation are certain right now, but it is a genuinely good and revolutionary way to handle tax paperwork and it's a lot more likely to stick around and expand into more states if more people actually know how to access it and end up using it
technicallyoneofakindAlso, if you know that your state doesn't require filing State taxes, Free Tax USA is a free and helpful resource! It's just as easy to understand as Turbo Tax and won't charge you any fees!
irlpinkiepiefavourite tags on my taxes post:
- the multiple people who tagged a four sentence post #long
- the multiple people who are also from ohio complaining about ohio not offering direct file
- the one person who tagged it “not homestuck”. fuck dude it sure isn’t,
irlpinkiepiepsa for usamericans
if you live in any of the states below: the tax filing resource you should be looking for is IRS Direct File; you can file federal taxes directly on the IRS' website, they have a free support helpline if you're stuck, they'll also redirect you to a free preparer for state taxes, and it should work with most tax situations
if you live in any other state (or aren't eligible for Direct File) and your total income for the year was $84,000 or less, you're eligible for IRS Free File; this only covers federal taxes, and works through external providers, but will guarantee that you can use their tax preparation services for free
if you are eligible for Direct File, though, you should use it! obviously very few things about the current political situation are certain right now, but it is a genuinely good and revolutionary way to handle tax paperwork and it's a lot more likely to stick around and expand into more states if more people actually know how to access it and end up using it
irlpinkiepiegreat question! free file is basically a stopgap measure in order to ensure some amount of people are able to use tax software for free, but is not really an actual reform of how the tax system works? it is basically, if you go to a participating tax company and your income is low enough, they are not allowed to charge you for filing federal taxes
and to clarify, this is absolutely a net good thing! it is good when you do not have to pay money in order to file taxes! but the fact that it is essentially just ‘a free pass to use a tax preparer that otherwise costs money’, it means that a) a lot of those tax preparers will try to charge you anyway, or charge exorbitant fees for state taxes, or trick people into signing up for their paid tier of services, in a way that is frustrating to deal with if you know how to work around it and absolutely predatory to anyone who doesn’t, but also b) it makes people loyal to specific paid tax providers, which makes them a lot more likely to use their services when they’re no longer eligible for free file - the same way amazon gives prime memberships to college students for free to try to get them hooked into their ecosystem
direct file, though, is directly through the government, and is always free. which is the way it should be! and which would actually be a major shift in how taxes are done because it would fundamentally cut for-profit companies out of the market and just let this be handled simply and straightforwardly by the government itself. like the irs’ equivalent of medicare for all, basically; lower stakes, but the same principle of 'it is good when there is not an entire industry of middlemen enmeshed with this important governmental function’
but, y'know, it’s also still a pilot program, and more importantly it’s a government program which directly harms the business interests of the wealthy in a country with an imminent conservative government. which means it is very likely to be at risk of being cut after this year! so it’s important to actually push for more people to know about this, partly in the naïve hope that the incoming government won’t cut a helpful government program if it actually gets used, but more realistically in the hope that the more people actually get to experience that paying taxes can be something that is free and low-stress and straightforward the more those people will actually fight to ensure that that isn’t taken from them
irlpinkiepiepsa for usamericans
if you live in any of the states below: the tax filing resource you should be looking for is IRS Direct File; you can file federal taxes directly on the IRS' website, they have a free support helpline if you're stuck, they'll also redirect you to a free preparer for state taxes, and it should work with most tax situations
if you live in any other state (or aren't eligible for Direct File) and your total income for the year was $84,000 or less, you're eligible for IRS Free File; this only covers federal taxes, and works through external providers, but will guarantee that you can use their tax preparation services for free
if you are eligible for Direct File, though, you should use it! obviously very few things about the current political situation are certain right now, but it is a genuinely good and revolutionary way to handle tax paperwork and it's a lot more likely to stick around and expand into more states if more people actually know how to access it and end up using it
irlpinkiepieno problem! and remember, if none of these options are available to you, you can always print out the tax forms at your local library and fill them out by hand! it’s fun!!!
gremlingirlsmellshoutouts to nonbinary transfems with it/its pronouns. let's make some noise. wawawa
lemoncakejayi just need you guys to know that i have been annotating all of these birds, in a list i am now calling Tumblr's Favorite Birds, and I have 71 birds so far. So uhhh guess I've got my art planned out for the year!
