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For almost 70% of US taxpayers this is the case. Free of charge tax payment. You literally type in your address and other info along with your w2(these days many w2s have codes where you only have to type in a number and it fills the whole thing in).

https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-f...

Otherwise we're just talking about state taxes which the federal government has no control over.

I expect to see this on some Facebook/reddit post, but on HN it is depressing to see how many people don't realize that what this comment describes has existed for decades.

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nulbyte|7 years ago

On the contrary. Free-file does not let you "literally type in your address and other into along with your w2." You have to first choose a third-party tax preparer based on your qualifications (it's not the same across the board). Then you have to remember your password, or create an account. Then you have to hope the preparer's service puts you in the free package, while navigating through a site designed to get you to pay more for things you don't need. Often, you'll have to decline to upgrade multiple times, and it is downright annoying, if not confusing, as to how to do that. And if you do choose the free option, the preparer will not pull in your wages automatically, despite Intuit and others building systems that could (but don't) do this. No, the proposed system has not existed for decades. It has never existed. And as long as we keep listening to Intuit and the like, it will never exist.