If You File (Personal Income) Taxes for a Living, You MUST File Electronically
Both houses of Congress passed a law extending unemployment benefits today, and as part of an amendment to the bill, tax language was included requiring tax preparers expecting to file more than 10 individual returns to file returns through e-file. The amendment also extended the homebuyers credit past the end of this month and extended the five-year NOL carryback to other than small businesses.
Last Thursday, I weighed on the homebuyer credit; no reason to comment further today on that. Regarding e-file requirements, while the libertarian in me objects to this type of rule, I suspect that in practice the massive majority of people preparing tax returns for a living were already e-filing. I do not have a strong opinion on the NOL carryback; guess this might help some companies who were profitable before last fall's recession get money back from the government faster.
posted by Dan Meyer at 7:18 PM
2 Comments:
DM-
I currently do not "e-file" because I prepare all individual returns manually -as I have done for 38 tax seasons.
I am not against filing returns electronically, and do so ,when appropriate, with my NJ state returns, as I am required to under state law.
Everyone can submit full-year resident NJ state income tax returns online via NJWebFile.
I will gladly submit my federal tax returns electronically if the IRS provides a similar absolutely free way to do so at its website, without having to purchase unnecessary tax preparation software, without having to go through a "third party", and without having to register as an ERO with the IRS and give the federal government my fingerprints.
TWTP
My point is not advocacy of e-filing; rather, federal law (starting with the 2010 filing season) REQUIRES all but the smallest tax prep businesses to e-file.
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