They wanted Income Tax Returns to be the size of a post card - some musings

[question everything]

After the "Tax Reform" Act. Yes, it was, a size of a large post card; would require extra postage. A two sided form with tiny fonts that I, at least, needed a magnifying glass to read it. Thankfully, TurboTax and other tax preparers would generate the final returns on regular 8 x 11 pages.

All this is out of the window. Form 1040 for 2019 had 24 Lines; for 2020 - 34. And these are just the numbered lines without the sub lines a, b, c. etc. For example, Line 25a is for Federal Tax withheld on Form(s) W-2, 25b - Form(s) 1099, 25c - Other forms and 25d - total.

And some of us may wonder whether the 2020 return may be missing a form. On the 2019 return we reported Estimated tax payments on Schedule 3. On the 2020 - Line 26 on Form 1040. Bye bye Schedule 3. For now.

(OK, Schedule 3 is still used for credits like childcare, education, IRA, contributions and others. Again, for now)

[Midnightwalk]

1. Send me the bill

That would work for most people voting including people with mutual funds or stock sales.

Intuit turbo tax and hr block would hate it, but why should we mind. Let people with unusual circumstances continue to file manually.

That may not have worked 20 years ago but it can work now.

[Girard442]

2. About a bazillion years ago, New Yorker had an excellent article on tax reform. You can:

1. Make your taxes simpler.
2. Make your taxes fairer.
3. Make your tax bill smaller.

You can accomplish #1 if you forget #2 & #3. You can accomplish #2 (and for some people #3) if you forget #1. Anyone who tells you they have a plan to accomplish all of them is bullshitting you.

[Shermann]

3. The 1040-EZ form is still jacked up

They have an arbitrary income limit on it. Why??

Also if you have any dividends or interest you can't seem to use it.

[question everything]

5. Before the Reagan "tax reform" one could exclude $200, I think, of interest and dividends from

their income.

I thought this exclusion was a good incentive to save ..

[nilram]

4. I took the H&R Block tax preparers class once.

44 or so hours of instruction, in my state. There was big talk of tax reform and simplification then, too. “Don’t worry,” the instructor said, “your job is safe.”

[progree]

6. Tax return on a mega-postcard. "Bigliest postcard ever, many people are saying. MAGA!" /nt