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Filing your taxes could be free starting this year. The IRS is running a direct-file pilot program. The goal is to make companies like TurboTax obsolete through a system where your taxes are filled out for you. But tax prep companies are spending millions to block them.
Why are Intuit and H&R Block so against making filing your taxes free and easy? Because they’re making billions by charging you. Americans spend $31 billion each year on tax filing.
The fun part is explaining to all your European friends that you still not only have to file tax forms, but also have to report to Uncle Sam exactly how much money is in your European bank account year after year even if you’re settled abroad, married with kids, and haven’t set foot on American soil in over a decade. If you forget to report and they catch you, they just get to take it.