Author Topic: Do your taxes on a postcard  (Read 2562 times)

OurTown

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Do your taxes on a postcard
« on: June 29, 2018, 12:04:36 PM »
So this just happened:  https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/29/treasury-irs-announce-postcard-size-form-1040-for-next-year.html

If you make the print small enough, you could put The Lord of the Rings on a post card.

seattlecyclone

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Re: Do your taxes on a postcard
« Reply #1 on: July 01, 2018, 03:10:37 PM »
They're not even making the print smaller, they're just moving most of the lines of the old 1040 to new forms. Here's a draft of the new form. You can use the postcard if all your income comes from wages, interest, dividends, retirement accounts, or social security, you're taking the standard deduction and no tax credits other than the child tax credit. Otherwise you'll have to fill out more forms than before.

kanga1622

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Re: Do your taxes on a postcard
« Reply #2 on: July 02, 2018, 12:05:36 PM »
I hope they have some sort of special envelope that fits in as I certainly wouldn't want to have that info floating through the mail system without an envelope.

Assuming they continue e-filing, I will keep doing that and just mail any amount owed separately. That's been working for us for years.

OurTown

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Re: Do your taxes on a postcard
« Reply #3 on: July 02, 2018, 12:19:49 PM »
How do you send in the check?  Staple it to the postcard?

ScreamingHeadGuy

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Re: Do your taxes on a postcard
« Reply #4 on: July 06, 2018, 04:43:36 PM »
Come on - who files on paper anymore?  😀

bacchi

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Re: Do your taxes on a postcard
« Reply #5 on: July 06, 2018, 08:08:49 PM »
Come on - who files on paper anymore?  😀

Yep. If you can use the new, simpler, form, it's free to file your taxes electronically.

DS

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Re: Do your taxes on a postcard
« Reply #6 on: July 09, 2018, 08:53:20 AM »
How do you send in the check?  Staple it to the postcard?

It's not actually a postcard, it's postcard-sized.

robartsd

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Re: Do your taxes on a postcard
« Reply #7 on: July 09, 2018, 09:38:59 AM »
So good to see that the GOP directing the IRS to spend taxpayer money redesigning paper forms. Looks like they took 1040 EZ, added the ability to attach supplemental forms and formatted it to fit on two sides of a postcard sized paper. I'm sure I'll continue to file on some free online site that will try to cross-sale filing my state return (free to e-file on state's website) and upsell me bound copies of my return and audit insurance of some sort. If I get audited, I'll likely have PDF's of the returns (including scans of the signed forms) along with the supporting documents - if I'm lucky I will have managed to find the paper records too.

jpdx

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Re: Do your taxes on a postcard
« Reply #8 on: July 10, 2018, 09:37:26 PM »

seattlecyclone

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Re: Do your taxes on a postcard
« Reply #9 on: July 10, 2018, 11:38:17 PM »
Nope, not a joke. The tax reform did very little to reduce the number of inputs that go into calculating a person's tax, but filing taxes on a postcard was a campaign promise and so they're following through. The postcard will work as is for a large percentage of Americans. If you get all your income from a job or social security, and don't have any itemized deductions or weird tax credits, you're all set with the postcard. For those of us who previously had to file the full 1040, most of the things that used to be on it are now shoved onto one of these new schedules, which seem to have even kept all the same line numbers from the old 1040. Looks like I'll be e-filing Schedules 1, 3, and 4 in addition to the "postcard."

robartsd

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Re: Do your taxes on a postcard
« Reply #10 on: July 12, 2018, 08:28:32 AM »
Nope, not a joke. The tax reform did very little to reduce the number of inputs that go into calculating a person's tax, but filing taxes on a postcard was a campaign promise and so they're following through. The postcard will work as is for a large percentage of Americans. If you get all your income from a job or social security, and don't have any itemized deductions or weird tax credits, you're all set with the postcard. For those of us who previously had to file the full 1040, most of the things that used to be on it are now shoved onto one of these new schedules, which seem to have even kept all the same line numbers from the old 1040. Looks like I'll be e-filing Schedules 1, 3, and 4 in addition to the "postcard."
In a decade or two they can campaign on tax reforms that reduce the number of forms needed to file taxes, pass another tax break for rich, then have the IRS redesign form 1040 to be a single sheet of paper printed on two sides.

DS

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Re: Do your taxes on a postcard
« Reply #11 on: July 12, 2018, 08:50:31 AM »
Nope, not a joke. The tax reform did very little to reduce the number of inputs that go into calculating a person's tax, but filing taxes on a postcard was a campaign promise and so they're following through. The postcard will work as is for a large percentage of Americans. If you get all your income from a job or social security, and don't have any itemized deductions or weird tax credits, you're all set with the postcard. For those of us who previously had to file the full 1040, most of the things that used to be on it are now shoved onto one of these new schedules, which seem to have even kept all the same line numbers from the old 1040. Looks like I'll be e-filing Schedules 1, 3, and 4 in addition to the "postcard."

It is somewhat nice that the postcard-sized sheet replaces the 1040-EZ and 1040A though, just making the actual 1040 the EZ version. *shrugs* just trying to find some type of benefit

jpdx

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Re: Do your taxes on a postcard
« Reply #12 on: July 13, 2018, 01:02:08 PM »
True, however it seems like everyone will be required to use the new 1040, not just those with "EZ" tax situations. They should instead make a new 1040EZ on a postcard, and keep a robust 1040 for the rest of us.

The nice thing about the old full 1040 was that all sources of income and all adjustments were on one form. You could get an idea of your yearly tax situation at one glance, and see how all the numbers combine to arrive at your AGI. With the new 1040, much of this is pushed to Schedule 1, so many of us will have to sift through more pieces of paper to see what's going on.

MustacheAndaHalf

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Re: Do your taxes on a postcard
« Reply #13 on: July 15, 2018, 04:13:49 AM »
Assuming they continue e-filing, I will keep doing that and just mail any amount owed separately. That's been working for us for years.
You might try IRS Direct Pay, where you verify your identity using tax information, and then provide your bank information for a withdrawal.  Skipping the voucher form and check is worth it for me - much more convenient.  Since nobody should trust a forum link for paying anything, I'll instead suggest you search for "pay irs".  The irs.gov "Direct Pay" link should be the top result.