Whatever comes to mind, and then the interesting directions that thought will take you on the web.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Tax Time

It's that time of year when I go through the ritual called Tax Time.

It's such a screwed up process - buy and install the software (I know that online options are available), wait for pieces of paper to arrive in the mail (W2, 1098, 1099), type into your tax software, try to remember charitable contributions.

Why doesn't the IRS run an online system? They have all those W2, 1098, 1099 in electronic form. Why can't I just log into an IRS system and then just fill in the blanks?

The makers of Turbo Tax and At Home (formerly Tax Cut) could then concentrate on creating software that helps you with tax planning, looking for deductions, etc. I'm sure their lobbyists would disagree with this approach, though.