NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. (SOUNDBITE OF KHALID SONG, "SATURDAY NIGHTS")Ĭopyright © 2022 NPR. SIMON: Justin Elliott, a reporter of ProPublica, thanks so much. So there's definitely a population of people like that as well.
#Irs free file turbotax for free
So we've heard from a lot of Americans who have just never heard of the IRS Free File option and have been paying TurboTax or H&R BLOCK for years and years when they could have been getting basically the same product for free if they had simply known about the IRS option. So why would you trust them to sort of prepare your taxes? But the companies also point out people are sort of voting with their feet and they appear to like using these products. You know, the IRS obviously has an interest in collecting as much money as possible. What's the argument that the tax preparation companies make? I mean, is it essentially - why should you trust the government to figure out your taxes?ĮLLIOTT: That's one of the core arguments. And there's been really decades of lobbying by that industry to ensure that the IRS doesn't take a sort of more robust role in helping people file their taxes. One of the reasons that doesn't happen here is the influence and lobbying of the for-profit tax prep industries. Why doesn't that happen in the U.S.?ĮLLIOTT: So in a lot of other developed countries, you essentially get a tax return that's already been filled out by the tax agency, and you sort of just look it over and click submit. The government essentially does that for them. SIMON: Some of ProPublica's coverage mentions that in other countries, people actually don't file taxes at all. And we ended up with this sort of strange hybrid system that we're living in today. And the private tax prep industry didn't want that to happen. Bush administration, the IRS was actually considering offering its own official tax prep service. I mean, the history here is 20 years ago during the George W. But also, I mean, I think it's an interesting story of privatization of government services and how that's played out over time. I get tons of calls and emails every year. SIMON: What's kept you on this story for nine years? I think Woodward and Bernstein were done in just three or four.ĮLLIOTT: (Laughter) Right, a couple things. So if you just Google IRS Free File, and make sure to click on the dot-gov site and try to ignore all the ads for other services labeled as free - as long as you start from the IRS site, you should get that free federal return. The IRS has this program called Free File that if you manage to find it, which very few people do, you will actually get a free return if you make under the $73,000. So there's a lot of offers from companies like TurboTax and H&R BLOCK that are labeled as free that are sometimes free but sometimes sort of put users on an off ramp into paying a fee.
Are you referring to people that are using a tax prep service or software?ĮLLIOTT: I am. So it becomes very confusing very quickly. SIMON: And why do so few people take advantage of this option for free filing? Is there any one answer?ĮLLIOTT: Well, I would say the biggest factor is confusion between the sort of truly free IRS-sponsored option and then a bunch of commercial options that are advertised as free but are not always free. Why? Justin Elliott, a reporter with ProPublica, has been reporting on this issue for nine years now. If your adjusted household income is less than $73,000, you don't have to pay to file to the IRS, but only a tiny percentage of those eligible for free filing actually take advantage of it. Here's a tax tip with the filing deadline less than a month away.
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