IRS Weighs Creating a Government-Run Tax-Prep Option - WSJ

“It’s problematic that we instead provide it through these private corporations that prey on people and extract profits from taxpayers that are just fulfilling that civic duty.”

No one has to use paid software, the forms are available everywhere and you can do them by hand.

What’s problematic is that we’ve implemented a tax code that’s so complex that even accounts and CPAs use software to prepare their own returns.

I pay $60 to TurboTax to save me tens of hours per year on preparing my return. If the IRS prepares a “draft” for me, with the strong incentive for them to make calculation decisions in their favor, how much more will that cost me?