A 1040 Form isn’t really hard to fill out.
The truth is, it’s the easiest tax form available in the United States (though an even easier – that is, more streamlined – one exists, called the “1040EZ”).
It’s only all of two pages, the 1040 Form.
It’s the instructions, however, that really intimidate people.
But even then things are actually pretty simple and straightforward.
Though running many, many pages, instructions are really easy to follow and, in a great majority of cases, one can skip over most of the text as much concerns all the various cases that might be possible, sections which if not applicable to oneself may be skipped.
So why do people still hire others to fill out and file a 1040 Form for them?
It is not clear.
The worldwide web has made tax season a much simpler matter, with interactive help that’s immediate and frequently relevant.
And for the typical 1040 filer, it’s free!
Together with private companies such as Intuit (more on this later), the IRS has made federal tax preparation and electronic filing services cost-free to people making under a certain amount of money; the cut-off has been about twenty-five thousand dollars for the last few years.
Such a cut-off means that only poor people can rely on this kind of help even though the IRS had first offered to move all American tax reporting online, via its own website.
But the makers of tax accounting software, big-name companies including Intuit, Microsoft, and the like, lobbied hard for the government to stay out of the business.
A compromise was eventually brokered, resulting in the current system whereby federal taxes are prepared and filed for free for those making less than twenty-five grand a year.
State and other local taxes are not covered under this agreement, even though generally they cost a few dollars for most people.
