Virginia Free File program; Tax Commissioner to establish and model after IRS Free File program. (HB1349)
Introduced By
Del. Kathy Byron (R-Lynchburg)
Progress
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Introduced |
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Passed Committee |
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Passed House |
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Passed Senate |
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Signed by Governor |
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Became Law |
Description
Taxation; Virginia Free File program. Requires the Tax Commissioner to establish a Virginia Free File program, modeled after the federal Free File program, no later than December 31, 2010. The new Virginia Free File program would be offered to certain lower-income taxpayers. View Full Text »
Outcome
Bill Has Passed
View Bill's History
Comments
Another long overdue item
I don't want this to become law. Why are we getting rid of the iFile system and forcing Virginians to pay for tax preparation software?
They passed it becuase the software/online tax preparation industry wants to force Virginians to pay them to file taxes. This bill will cost Virginians millions of dollars. So instead of raising our taxes thay force us to pay more to file our taxes.
Michael, it's tempting to dismiss your claim as wild-eyed, but campaign finance data supports your assertion. Intuit (the maker of TurboTax) has given $113,500 to Virginia candidates in recent years, despite being located in Seattle. You might not be too far off the mark.
I was wrong - this bill does not do what I thought it would.
Actually, you've all got it wrong. Free File does not replace I-file -- all Virgians can file their state taxes online as before. Free File is a public-private partnership between the IRS (Federal returns) and 21 states (Va just joined) that allows eligible taxpayers (lower income, military) to use private companies' online tax prep and filing services for free! The income requirements vary depending on the software company (such as TurboTax, Tax Slayer, etc.) and are determined through a complicated formula by the IRS. About 70 percent of taxpayers -- 95 milion people - are eligible to use this free service. Go to www.irs.gov and search for Free File to find out more.
By the way, the people who really hate this bill are the storefront tax prep companies (like H&R Block)whose bread and butter is working people who are intimidated by duing their returns, and the tax-refund loan companies who make a killing charging high interest and fees on people who need their refund cash fast. When people learn to do their own taxes (espcially since most of the eligible people will be filing simple returns) for free, it's empowering. But these companies don't want working people to know how easy it is to do their returns using an online program. If you realy want to see politics in action, check the political donation records to see how much was given by those types of companies to support the opponents of this bill.