Page 6 - VTaxOnDemand Independent Industry Analysis of Accounting Industry

compute an individual’s tax liability by using information already reported to the
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IRS each year.
2.) Free File Alliance
a. The Free File Alliance is a nonprofit coalition of industry-leading tax software
companies partnered with the IRS to help millions of Americans prepare and e-
file their federal tax returns for free.
i. More than 46 million returns have been filed through the Free File
program since it began in 2003.
ii. 70% of American taxpayers (about 100 million people) are eligible for
Free File.
3.) Congressional Bills Introduced to provide IRS run and administered Free Filing System
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a. 114 Congress: S. 940 (Simpler Tax Filing Act of 2015)
i. H.R. 1750 (Autofill Act of 2015)
b. 113 Congress: S. 722 (Simpler Tax Filing Act of 2013)
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i. H.R. 1532 (Autofill Act of 2013)
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c. 112 Congress: S. 727 (Bipartisan Tax Fairness and Simplification Act of 2011)
i. H.R. 1069
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d. 111 Congress: S. 3018 (Bipartisan Tax Fairness and Simplification Act of 2010)
i. H.R. 5050; H.R. 5036 (Autofill Act of 2010)
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e. 107 Congress: S. 551 (Fair and Simple Shortcut Tax Plan)
f. 106 Congress: S. 3087 (Fair and Simple Shortcut Tax Plan)
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4.) Real Time Tax Initiative
a. Under this vision, the IRS could embed more information return data into its pre-
screening filters, and could provide the opportunity for taxpayers to fix the return
before it accepts it - if the return contains data that does not match the IRS'
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records.
i. Public Meeting Powerpoint Slides:
1. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/rtts_deck.pdf
5.) Heavy Lobbying by Tax Preparation Industry against IRS Run and Administered Option,
along with eliminating complexity of tax filing.
a. According to a 2013 analysis by the Sunlight Foundation, “Companies that
prepare taxes are throwing millions at Congress to oppose making tax filing
easier. Since 1998, major tax preparers have spent almost $28 million lobbying
Congress. ... Professional tax preparers like Intuit, H&R Block and others have
opposed programs that would allow taxpayers to pay their taxes without filing
return for years.” Expenditures have increased since Sunlight’s analysis: as of
2016, just three large tax preparation companies, Intuit, H&R Block, and Jackson
Hewitt, have spent nearly $41 million since 1998 on federal lobbying.

Unregulated and Unregistered Tax Professionals
1.) Four states regulate tax preparers
a. New York
b. Oregon
c. Maryland

4 https://www.warren.senate.gov/files/documents/Tax_Maze_Report.pdf
5 https://www.irs.gov/tax-professionals/real-time-tax-initiative

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