Meanwhile, here in Sweden everyone can logon to the tax authority's website get a prefilled out form ans digitally sign it in 2 min total.

This has been the norm for me the last 5 years, before that I used the preprinted tax form in the mail, I signed it and sent it back. Done.

The US needs to make it easy and convenient to pay taxes.

These states:

• Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming
• Arizona
• California
• Massachusetts
• New York
• Washington

Back in the mid 90s, when I was a very low income earner and filing the 1040EZ, I could call an IRS phone automation and input my SSN and the relevant numbers and be done in minutes. Did that go away with the internet? Seems like they were on the ball technically then.

Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wyoming, Arizona, California, Massachusetts, New York, And Washington are the states you can use this in, since the site in the OP just gives you a link to the IRS website that lists the states.

I don't think I'd be able to use this service even if it existed in my state, my self-employed taxes are apparently too complicated even though I currently only have one contract/employer. They need to simplify the tax code.

Imagine going to the only grocery store available, there are no prices on any of the items, you shop there because you're starving and have no choice.

You go to the checkout after each time you shop and there is a single cashier that says this:

"Fuck you. In about a couple months we'll demand that you figure out how much you owe us. If you don't figure it out then we'll potentially place criminal charges against you. Thanks for shopping here."

You realize that you have no fucking clue about how much the stuff you bought costs because it changes all the time and nothing is labelled and there's no system for keeping track.

Welcome to the tax system in America.

This is great, but I still don't understand why we even need to file anything.

Would've liked to know this 2 days ago before I filed my taxes.

Well I'll try it out next year.

Anybody here used this yet? How is it?

yknow, it would be cool if there was like, income tax.

And only that. I think that would make me happy.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The service available in English and Spanish underwent "weeks of successful testing" before the launch, the US Treasury Department said today.

"Direct File is easy to use, with no hidden junk fees, and works as well on a smartphone as it does on a laptop, tablet, or desktop computer.

Direct File shows taxpayers the math so they can be sure that their return is accurate, and they are getting the refund they are entitled to."

"Thousands of taxpayers across all 12 states have already successfully filed returns during the pilot's testing phase," the Treasury Department said.

The government is calling this year's version of Direct File a pilot program.

The pilot is also available in eight states without an income tax: Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming.

The original article contains 643 words, the summary contains 132 words. Saved 79%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Would be better if people would vote for candidates that would work to eliminate income taxes entirely.

the US thinks if it fixes a problem that all fifty states have but only fix it in a handful of states that it has solved the problem one hundred percent

meanwhile the citizens go "We have to start somewhere this is a great thing!" and the leaders never get criticized sometimes the opposite people vote them back in

then that is all you hear until the issues reach critical because everything was quarter assed at best

this is how abortion, cannabis, all kinds of insurances, education, food assistance, etcetera already are played in the US

and at that point the citizens and the states are to blame for why things suck so hard

"well they should have voted better over there it is their faults that state sucks!"

which drives us further from solutions