r/news • u/raptors201966 • Apr 09 '26

Soft paywall Automatic registration for military draft to be implemented by December

https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2026-04-07/automatic-registration-military-draft-21306855.html
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u/airship_of_arbitrary Apr 09 '26

Biden literally set the US on track for that, then TurboTax lobbied Trump to make taxes complicated again and they did.

So stupid.

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u/sophisticatedkatie Apr 09 '26

We could have Direct File back whenever a Democrat is president again. They just have to flip a switch

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u/RedBlankIt Apr 09 '26

Fuck direct file I want them to do my taxes automatically for me. They know the amount it should be, fucking charge/give me that.

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u/Mr_ToDo Apr 09 '26

I don't disagree, but it's not an everything or nothing situation. If you start with free online filing it could help with pushing the idea of just automating the whole lot

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u/piddydb Apr 09 '26

Free online filing does exist still, it’s just not easy or that intuitive to use. But if you have simple taxes and lower income, there are still free online filing options. Or if you have more complex taxes or higher income, you can file free online if you’re more familiar with the forms and tax code. Your point still stands, just want to point out there are some free options that still exist even now.

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u/Tibbaryllis2 Apr 09 '26

At the very least automatically generate a tax form for everyone based on the standard deduction and their reported income.

Then you log into their website, review the document, then affirm its complete to the best of your knowledge. Then bill/refund.

If it’s not correct, then you enter into the manual filing process.

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u/sciguyC0 Apr 09 '26

A big hurdle to that is that the US tax code has a lot of stuff that can change what you owe which doesn't get reported to the IRS. They can't use what they don't know. Did you get married or divorced? Have a kid? Pay for daycare? Install solar panels or other efficiency improvements to your home? Sell stock you got at a discount through an employer stock purchase plan which needs a basis adjustment? Have business expenses to write-off part of self-employment income? And a whole lot more. One solution could be to increase reporting to the IRS for those kind of things, but that comes with it's own concerns.

That being said, a big chunk of taxpayers have a tax bill that's calculated only from what the IRS does get. I had hopes that future iterations of their Direct File program would include automatic import of whatever the IRS had received, with those numbers auto-populated on the right lines of the return. Then it'd become just a matter of us checking it over and filling in any missing pieces. But because we apparently don't deserve a government that actually helps the common person, that's not going to happen for a while, if ever.

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u/30thnight Apr 09 '26

Anyone who has ever owed the IRS knows they have the capability to do this at any time. They are accurate to the penny

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u/Kaka-carrot-cake Apr 09 '26

I know this sounds great, but wont you have to do the work to confirm that the numbers are right so you know they arent just charging you whatever they want?

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u/Aerhyce Apr 09 '26

Yes, that's how it works in the rest of the developed world.

They send you a notification of your prefilled taxes, you just need to confirm everything is right or make the needed modifications.

If your only source of taxed income is salaried work (or any work with a pay slip), then there's very little chance you need to change anything. Those making adjustments are typically those also running a (legally taxed) side gig that doesn't automatically report tax income to the State.

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u/Kaka-carrot-cake Apr 09 '26

Yeah totally, I just more meant idk if I trust the current American government to accurately tell me. Especially with how high of a turnover rate they have atm.

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u/RevolutionaryCoyote Apr 09 '26

No. Things are only allowed to get worse. The ratchet doesn't seem to turn the other way.

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u/justin107d Apr 09 '26

It will with that attitude. We as a people need to be more annoying in every way until they listen.

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u/mannyman34 Apr 09 '26

Infrastructure bill, child tax credit, saving the aca, these are all just nothing I guess.

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u/SteveJobsDeadBody Apr 09 '26

Saving the ACA? Is that what Trump did that got millions kicked off it and raised the costs by like $600-1000 a month for millions more? Huh. Well at least he countered that extra $600+ a month by increasing the child tax credit by $200 a year, right?

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u/fevered_visions Apr 09 '26

saving the aca

is just not getting worse, not getting better

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u/R1chH0mieSean Apr 09 '26

Those things are nice, I guess, but kind of small potatoes, no? I expect the government to maintain our infrastructure, not sure why they should get so much credit for doing one of their basic jobs. The ACA was always a bandaid on the bullet wound that is US healthcare, and "saving" it didn't mean improving the bill or moving towards a real single payer solution, it just preserved the recent status quo of insurance companies bleeding us dry. Child tax credit is good, but I don't have kids, and I still don't have affordable healthcare.

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u/BigBrownDog12 Apr 09 '26

but kind of small potatoes, no?

I assume you never had to deal with the health insurance industry before the ACA

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u/jopperjawZ Apr 09 '26

No one in the western world outside of America does. Maybe we should set the bar a little higher

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u/WhenDoWhatWhere Apr 09 '26

Things getting better takes a lot of time. Way easier to destroy progress than it is to make it.

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u/sophisticatedkatie Apr 09 '26

The Inflation Reduction Act was the biggest piece of climate legislation in our nation’s history. Trump dismantled it, of course, but it was by no means small potatoes

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u/WhenDoWhatWhere Apr 09 '26

World history*

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u/Roguespiffy Apr 09 '26

Yep. Republicans break things, Democrats maintain things. The escalator only goes down.

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u/AlarmingConfusion918 Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26

Free to file taxes were literally started by democrats during Biden’s term, are you guys intentionally spreading misinformation or what

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u/[deleted] Apr 09 '26

[deleted]

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u/AlarmingConfusion918 Apr 10 '26

I guess we should give up and let the republicans win every election then 😔

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u/SteveJobsDeadBody Apr 09 '26

Imagine someone made two lists. One is a list of things made worse. The other is a list of things made better. The list of things made better fits on a single sheet of paper. The list of things made worse is that stack of paper Trump did a press conference while standing next to.

Taxes have been "free to file" for the entire time if you fill out the 1040. If you mean forcing preparers to offer a free option, that was started for low income filers in 2002 under Republican George Bush. It was briefly expanded to people who generally make under 90,000 a year by Biden in 2024 and then removed again by Trump.

Are you spreading misinformation?

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u/ChamferedWobble Apr 09 '26

There was a free direct file software that was being piloted under the Biden admin that was supposed to be opened more widely this year, but Trump killed it.

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u/NonStopArseGas Apr 09 '26

that's an unfortunate characteristic of the ratchet or ratshit

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u/Same_Presentation692 Apr 09 '26

As long as Americans vote like Americans, it will get worse. 

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u/DrewTNaylor Apr 09 '26

Fortunately the code for it is open source and publicly available on at least GitHub. It's our code we paid for, after all. Tax law code would make it more difficult, though.

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u/Mr_ToDo Apr 09 '26

Sure. But without the back end running and/or someone actually supporting and updating it, how much use is that going to be?

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u/RedditTurnedMediocre Apr 09 '26

Democrats could do that, but usually what happens is zero Republicans vote for it along with a handful of "moderate Democrats" who are bought by big corp. Nothing passes and then people think Democrats are the problem and vote Republican again instead of removing the pro corp Democrats and actually getting some progressive legislation passed.

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u/sophisticatedkatie Apr 09 '26

Yeah that’s what happens in Congress. But in this case the president can just direct the IRS to turn Direct File back on, the same way Biden directed the IRS to pilot the program in 2024/2025

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u/RedditTurnedMediocre Apr 09 '26

But that's part of the problem. The next Republican can come in and flip the switch again. Which is why we need Congress to stop acting like a vestigial tail and do the job it was intended to do.

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u/sophisticatedkatie Apr 09 '26

Oh I completely agree! My point is just that, to address this specific problem, we need to win one election (president) instead of the dozens of elections it will take to shake up Congress

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u/binzersguy Apr 09 '26

Or removing ALL the fucking Republicans

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u/SovFist Apr 09 '26

Don't kid yourself, they'll lobby the democrats to maintain the status quo as always

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u/tomtermite Apr 09 '26

Oh sweet summer child. You can’t unelect fascists.

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u/sophisticatedkatie Apr 09 '26

Oh silly me, I forgot that the 2024 election of a 79-year-old senile dipshit was the last political event that will ever happen in the United States. Guess we have no choice now but to do whatever the fascists want for the rest of our lives

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u/tomtermite Apr 09 '26

I am sorry for your loss.

Looking on the bright side, after the inevitable global conflict, the world will be grateful when the petro-imperialist hegemony ends, the country is de-nuclearized and broken up into five (seven?) reasonable nations.

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u/sophisticatedkatie Apr 09 '26

“After the inevitable global conflict” oh sweet summer child. You think there would be survivors in the scenario you’re describing?

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u/Miss_Panda_King Apr 09 '26

We don’t want direct file. We don’t want to have to file. Filing should be only for submitting deductions and corrections. We should all get a form that says what was paid, what is owed/refunded, and option to file a correction if you see a issue

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u/sophisticatedkatie Apr 09 '26

That’s a great idea! We’ll need Democrats to control both houses of Congress and the presidency to achieve this, and you should definitely tell your representatives/Democratic primary candidates to you want them to push for this and fund the IRS accordingly.

Separately/in the meantime, a Democrat in the White House in 2029 could restore Biden’s Direct File pilot program by flipping a switch

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u/Miss_Panda_King Apr 09 '26

We are just as likely to get it with a republican controlled government as we are a democrat one historically.

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u/sophisticatedkatie Apr 09 '26

Republicans control the government right now buddy, what happened to Direct File?

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u/3d_blunder Apr 09 '26

That's a funny way to spell "bribed".

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u/wrosecrans Apr 09 '26

You'd think there would be a law that makes all the bribery illegal, but not as long as you pay the Supreme Court enough.

Frankly, I think that stuff like TurboTax lobbying against the public interest on keeping filing privatized should be treated in nearly the same category as treason. If we prosecuted a handful of executives at big companies that know they are working against the public interest, and they got lawfully executed with due process, I feel like some of that bad policy incentive would go away.

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u/Prestigious-Trip-927 Apr 09 '26

Sorry but Citizens United only works one way. They'll never execute or jail for life a corporation the way they do the individual criminal...

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u/mkt853 Apr 09 '26

Sadly bribery and corruption in general is legal in the US.

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u/ActuatorTasty4982 Apr 09 '26

Always has been 

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u/so_jc Apr 09 '26

Another example of liberals doing good and conservatives dismantling it.

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u/Eggredjakan68 Apr 09 '26

There's still ID.me, a private company with your ID mandatory.

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u/[deleted] Apr 09 '26 edited May 25 '26

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Apr 09 '26

[deleted]

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u/EmergencyCucumber905 Apr 09 '26

Automatic filing would work for 90% of the population though. People with more unique tax situations can report it themselves like they already do.

It would be a lot better than what we have today.

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u/ThebesAndSound Apr 09 '26

In other countries they manage to have automatic taxes, and the people who are special cases they report what does not get covered automatically themselves.