Talk:Tax forms in the United States

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[edit] 1040EZ

I believe these forms are issued by the IRS, so I'm placing it under category:IRS (which is a subcat of cat:taxation in the united states). Taxation is theft, btw. Paul 07:41, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

When was form 1040EZ introduced? 209.74.147.202 03:57, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

As one tax preparer's opinion, the EZ form is a bad bargain for taxpayers. It exists to save only a half a page in preparation. In exchange, large categories of one's financial life are never asked about, and you don't even know what questions are worth asking of a professional, a book, or the internet. For example, a taxpayer may have (or be thinking about!) a retirement account, and reading the long form's "Retirement Savings Credit" line could give them an "Aha!" worth hundreds. A reservist may read the EZ's "Combat pay exclusion" line and think the form is soldier-safe, but then they'd miss out on the 1040's "reservist training mileage". —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.0.226.163 (talk • contribs). on 20 January 2007.

The above comments by user IP 68.0.226.163 are not directly related to the article itself, but I have to say I completely agree with the comments. One of the dirty little secrets of tax return preparation in the United States is that there is absolutely no tax advantage to filing any short form (Form 1040A, Form 1040EZ, etc.). These forms were promulgated by the IRS for the benefit of public relations with taxpayers. Short forms actually introduce needless complexity, for reasons such as those outlined by IP 68.0.226.163. The regular long form (Form 1040) allows you to do everything you need to do, no matter how simple or complex your client's situation. Years ago I stopped bothering even remembering what the requirements for filing short forms are, as the short forms are pointless. They don't save you five seconds in preparation time; they actually make more work for you. Yours, Famspear 03:17, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Post-script: Form 1040EZ was introduced by the IRS for the 1982 tax year. I have added that to the article. Form 1040A goes back further; if I can locate information on the history of that form, I'll put that in the article for Form 1040A. The big one, Form 1040, goes back to the year 1913. Yours, Famspear 03:58, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bad link

Going to 1040EZ has a bad redirect, and I am not sure how to fix it. For example, click [1] —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 64.5.88.115 (talk) 19:51, 25 January 2007 (UTC).