Are there any statistics on how many individuals do their own tax returns usingtax software (such as turbotax) or without just the old fashioned way? If you could point me to something I would be most appreciative; google doesn'tcome up with much.

based on my informal survey, I think I am the only one.

How many individuals do their own tax returns?

Apr 28, 2013 24 Replies

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Mark Bole 13 years ago

The IRS was just barely starting a consumer education program before their registration system was shut down pending further legal action.

It's been a while since I obtained mine, but at the very least you have to provide a SSN to obtain a PTIN, and there may be other checks enforced, so it's not quite so bad as implied by "you can get one in 5 minutes". However, unfortunately there is little to prevent PTIN fraud, i.e. using someone else's PTIN.

Someday the IRS will publish a public PTIN database, similar to what CTEC does (see below), which would at least let consumers verify PTIN validity, just as they can do with state-level contractor licenses, for example.

CTEC (California Tax Education Council) at ctec.org is a long-standing example of what the IRS is still trying to accomplish. The other primary example is Oregon, which also licenses tax preparers at the state level. To its credit, CTEC has actually spent some money on public advertising this year to educate consumers on the the need to hire a legal paid tax preparer. (billboards, etc)

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Mark Bole 13 years ago

On 2013-04-29 18:40, Mark Bole wrote: [...]

I should add, you also have to pay a non-trivial fee ($63) to obtain/renew your PTIN every year, so there is also an identity trace to your payment account.

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Salmon Egg 13 years ago

In the old days, before IRS had much computing capability, there were scaled standard deductions. For example, a certain fraction of your AGI would be allotted as a deduction for sales tax dependent upon your state. That meant you did not have to keep track of everything taxable that you bought. That was a complication because many sales tax rates were used around by the various states.

It also was a simplification, because it was easy to understand because you did not have to jump from form to form to figure out what to do.

With all the push to keep taxes low and make them even lower, why not do it by allowing larger standard deductions in various categories, to the point that you do not go through the songs and dances necessary to find if your eligible for a particular loophole.

I certainly am willing to pay an extra few hundred dollars a year so that tax preparation does not ruin the first third of every year for me ..

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D.F. Manno 13 years ago

Intuit Tax Online claims to do it.

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bill-deja 13 years ago

This is (essentially) how the sales tax deduction works today.

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