
But the moderator warns: "If you make the decision to file now, you may need
to amend your return if the final instructions produce a tax liability
different than the liability computed using draft instructions. You
assume responsibility for checking for product updates to determine if
the final instructions require an amended return and for paying any
additional tax and interest."

With the filing deadline not until April 15,
why would a taxpayer be eager to file in February? Presumably because
he is due a refund and wants his money back as soon as possible. By
contrast, if you owe money to the government, it is in your interest to
wait until the deadline--the latest date on which you can file without
paying interest or penalties on taxes underwithheld.
As we noted last year,
taxpayers experience a refund as a windfall, but that's an illusion. In
reality overwithholding of taxes is an additional tax in the form of an
interest-free loan to the government. By delaying its final
instructions and thereby creating a bottleneck that prevents some
taxpayers from filing early, the IRS has effectively imposed a new tax.
There's
no reason to think that's the intent behind the delay, for which
bureaucratic inefficiency seems to us a sufficient explanation. But
given that the new tax was enacted years in advance--ObamaCare became
law March 23, 2010--the IRS's sluggishness seems especially noteworthy,
and unnecessary.
It also raises a
worrying question about the changes in tax law that took effect at the
beginning of this year, the effects of which taxpayers will see when
they file their 2014 returns early next year. The IRS is charged with
administering the insurance "mandate" tax and the income-based ObamaCare
premium subsidies. The latter is a considerably more complicated
provision than the net investment income tax. The former may be as well,
especially given the exceptions and waivers the administration has
decreed to compensate for the botched rollout of the ObamaCare exchanges
(and the possibility of more to come).
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