The New Tax Form Is Postcard-Size, but More Complicated Than Ever

This is going to be a disaster next year. Many people are going to think the deductions that used to be on the main form are cut, or that they don't have to report self employment or other types of income. What an idiotic decision.

I wonder how much of our taxpayer money was spent on this piece of ludicrosity that changes absolutely nothing for the taxpayer come filing time.

Most people have used tax prep software for a decade or more. The idea that a smaller piece of paper would make them go back to paper filing is just silly. Here's hoping that the staffs of Turbotax and the others are ramping up to modify their software to accommodate the changes in time for the filing season!

Where are the deductions for medical expenses, mortgage interest, donations? Shoudn't they show up on schedule 1? Am I missing something?

This looks more like a postcard with many pages to attach. The article calls the exhibits “worksheets” but the drafts shown are all schedules, with attachment sequence numbers. To me, this means if you have to enter something on one of the “worksheets” it will be attached to the postcard. All this amounts to is reducing Form 1040 from two pages to one and adding six new schedules, some or all of which may have to be attached to the postcard (along with our old favorites, Schedule D, etc.) What a joke.

Will this make it easier for Trump to show us his tax return?

Here is an old joke on taxes and a simple post card form. The post card form reads only, "How much did you make last year? Send it in." I'm retired and played the American tax game for 58-years since I was 16. I worked hourly when young and salaried later in life. I scrimped to save and invest and pay into my company’s savings plans. I worked to 70 to maximize my social security. I thought the system was reasonably fair, but now I don't. It's a gamed system that cares only about getting money in from the middle and lower classes of earners. Money it pours into the military rat hole, the cushy lifestyle of our state and federal politicians and deliberately more and more away from the overall benefit of the common man. I paid nearly $5K in taxes last year and fully expect to pay more this year thanks to our president and his minions. My bottom line is that I’ll never vote for any GOP candidate again. Their party is truly a self serving party of the wealthy.

No matter how the form has changed, most Americans will still cheat on their returns.

The IRS has worked so hard over the years to get taxpayers to file online. Let's hope that the tax preparation software companies (Intuit's TurboTax, H&R Block, Tax Act, TaxSlayer) are able to program the myriad number of tax law changes in time for the upcoming tax season. You can bet your bottom dollar that they are burning the midnight oil to be able to have a product available for the filing season. Else, we will see millions of paper returns and their associated processing problems. Take it from one who has worked with the software community - "It ain't easy".

I am a tax preparer & have just picked myself up off the floor, where I have been rolling around giggling. Leave it to the T administration to place form over substance & think shrinking the form = shrinking the time needed to complete it. Not to mention, of course, that this hot mess has just about no effect on the millions of taxpayers who file electronically, either using consumer software or the services of someone like me.

Okaaaaay, so to deliver on a campaign pledge to reduce the 1040 to postcard size (albeit a size known in the marketing business as 'jumbo') they simply added forms. Now, yes, it's a postcard but with up to six additional pages. Going to be more than a single stamp, eh.

Does this mean we, the US taxpayers & voters, will finally get to see Trump's postcard? His worksheets? And, just who is tallying up the hours individual taxpayers spend on their returns to see if any time savings accrue in other than Trump's imagination?

How much does the new postcard-size paper for our printers cost at the office-supply store?

Since most people use software and many submit electronically what is the point of a postcard size form. If it requires several worksheets? I guess it gives the IRA at lot less to look at. A silly campaign promise.

"I win." The Trump/right wing philosophy in a nutshell. Keep it all for myself; contribute nothing to the country.

This will make it easier for Trump to release his taxes?

Demonstrates a fundamental ignorance of the entire tax policy and burden placed on individuals; corporations get huge tax breaks and have in reality a very small form. Now individuals have a small form but still have the majority of tax laws to comply with. What a fraud- like everything Trump, it’s all about appearances.

Contrary to campaign predictions and threats to the industry of tax preparers, H&R Block, TurboTax, and the like won't be going out of business any time soon.

A double sided half page is not a postcard. All they did was remove lines that guided calculations to worksheets that you have to go dig for, fill out, then transfer the result to the form. Fail.

I think readers might want to know, what % of filers use paper, and what percent use software also, not included, many people use the 1040A or EZ which is already a page and, an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper is not, imo, a postcard, so why is postcard in the headline ?

Most of the folks I know either: (1) Use a computer program like Turbotax to file their taxes; or (2) Seek professional assistance to file their taxes. Now, it has always been the case that the 1040EZ made it easy for those not in the above categories and with very simple tax circumstances, but now, the new form, that replaces the 1040EZ is more complicate for those few. To sum up, most folks will either NOT be filling out the new form (see my categories (1) and (2) above) OR they will be filing out a form more complicated than what they are used to. While the Administration will say that this is better, objective reality indicates otherwise (P.S. I live in NY State, where for most, electronic filing is required. I am still awaiting how NY State Income Tax will work as they used to make some infrequent adjustments to the Federal Form. If NY State (for example) continues the itemization of deductions (former 1040A), there will be no saving in complexity as you will need to do your tax returns both the new and the old way.) This is not simplification except in how it is being described. Once again, to benefit the owner class, all of us little guys are losing.

Seems to me that the most-annoying and most time-consuming part of filing remains. And it may be even more important to keep not only documents like receipts, but also final versions of worksheets. Unless you are single with no dependents, no education credits (do we still have them?) and no deductions, what have you gained? And won't the IRS need to see more people's worksheets etc.? What about people whose deductions exceed the new allowances - wouldn't a Schedule A be helpful? I realize that I'm a bit peevish, because it looks to me as if my taxes will increase under the new law.

It doesn't look like a postcard; in fact, the worksheets make it look more complicated. In addition, I am losing the ability to deduct thousands of dollars in professional dues and expenses, so my taxes are actually going up.

Whenever the government claims They’re through with the red tape and games, I do not pretend The puzzle will end -- But watch as they go down in flames.

Why can't the USA, that promised land of online, put tax returns on line? Many European countries have done it, and thereby simplified tax reporting. For example, this spring my tax return took me 20 minutes. And - those that have nothing to add or correct to the report proposal pre-prepared by the Tax Office don't have to report at all!

Let me get this straight. The IRS just proposed replacing a two page form with a one page form plus six schedules in order to prove that the tax process has been simplified and can be completed on the back of a postcard? This is a postcard with six pages attached to it. And that does not include Schedules A, B, C/C-EZ, D, etc. which will still be required in many circumstances. Bravo to the IRS!

Where is the adjustment for domestic production activities deduction which helps create jobs?

This would make sense if people were still filling out a tax return with pencil and paper then mailing it. Most everyone uses tax software and e files. I prepared a tax return last tax season and when I got ready to print there were 67 pages total and only 7 were the actual return the rest worksheets. The software picks out your form based on what is entered I just don't see how this is going to be any easier.

Technically, it should not matter if someone enters the dividends correctly on the 1040. The IRS' computer is supposed to be verifying the figures from the 1099-DIV to make sure that all dividends are reported. At the same time, the IRS computer is supposed to record the Qualified Dividend, and compare those totals to the 1040 figures. Any differences are supposedly reported to taxpayers with a CP2000 NOTICE. Even if the taxpayer messes up his preparation of the tax return, the IRS computers should have caught and corrected it.

On the one hand, I'm sympathetic to the view that this reworking is designed to give Republicans a good talking point on tax reform. On the other hand, it seems kind of silly to suggest this will complicate filing by virtue of moving some calculations to separate worksheets. Worksheets already exist today for capital gains, etc. and aren't required to be turned in with your 1040. Whether reported numbers are truthful is an entirely different beast, but one that they IRS already handles through random audits. In terms of behavior, for the 10% of taxpayers who file by mail, I think it's safe to say the new form won't change a thing. And the vast majority will continue to utilize e-filing; these modifications don't strike me as driving significantly more people to file by mail... the "postcard" rhetoric are just talking points.

So the PIN that IRS wants our clients to keep secure is going to be written on a postcard along with all their personal information and mailed through the USPS? As a tax professional, I would advice my clients NOT to use this unless they wanted to open themselves up to fraud. So who will then be liable when our clients get hacked the IRS or the USPS? We are just supposed to stop e-filing which, saves millions of dollars for IRS, and now they are going to hire people to input this information, after just laying off 27,000 individuals. Maybe I should apply to IRS.

I work as a tax preparation volunteer as part of the IRS's VITA program. After I prepare the taxpayer's return, I use the 1040 to walk through the return and explain the figures. Having to jump back and forth between the main return and additional schedules will be cumbersome. Not to mention the fact that this will waste paper as we add more pages to the taxpayer's return. This is clearly a PR stunt that has no foundation in common sense or good forms management. What a shame.

This sounds more like it is intended to trick people out of claiming deductions to which they are entitled rather than to make filing your taxes easier.

I don't suppose the Feds could put Form 1040 online. Tsk, Tsk, We should put TurboTax out of business. I think for 95% of us, they could collect our taxes at the source of income and send an annual summary for approval.

Another con pulled by the GOP. They will promote this in the next election cycle and claim how they simplified taxes and made government more efficient. Meanwhile the government will be faced with record budget deficits and crippling debt, thanks to the GOP tax heist on behalf of the corporations and uber wealthy.

My mother at 85 does her own taxes. She has a visual impairment so this type better be easy to read as the standard 2040 and its' instructions are.

Apparently the CPA's of the world will be able to knock out tax returns in minutes rather than weeks as before since the form is so simple now. So what are all the CPA's going to do with all that extra time they will have? Apparently starve because they won't be able to charge very much for minutes of work. Just another Donald PERK.

And the winner in the tax cut contest is, as usual now in America, the economic elites, the 1% who have enough money to game the system no matter what happens. The rest of us get to pay the costs for them. Thank you GOP, for being the party of Greedy Obnoxious Pirates.

I really don't think this is good for the IRS. They are moving all the calculations onto worksheets that are not submitted with the tax form, so they are just seeing the final numbers. They have no way of telling if these numbers are right or wrong, or if the taxpayer is simply fibbing. When I sold my NYC apartment, I prepared a series of spreadsheets to show how I arrived at the cost basis and the net sale price. But in the end, I just put two numbers on Form 8949. Unless these numbers are obviously ridiculous, the IRS is not going to question them.

Yesterday my husband and I got a check from the IRS. It could not be deposited to an account because we actually paid taxes in April. According to current forms and the paperwork we owed taxes. Except that we didn't. And these forms will not change the glitch that caused us to have to pay instead of receiving a small refund. Income from dividends is not supposed to be taxed in our income bracket, but it has to be declared, and it has to be added to total income. Previously, because we received a refund, we just got a bigger refund, but refund paperwork goes to one place, and paperwork with a check goes to a different processing center. The check was cashed within days of being sent. It took the IRS 10 weeks to send my money back. This postcard form changes nothing in that regard.