Quick: when you hear “1040 Form,” what do you presume of?
Taxes, yes, IRS, yes, April 15th, yes – but anything else?
Cash? Yes, you’re getting warmer….
More particularly, “money” such as “investment,” as in “stock market.” As in companies like H&R Block (HRB) and Jackson-Hewlitt (JTX).
State the Form 1040 and if you think hard or long enough, you’ll eventually give thought to the tax preparation industry. So, how about it? Well, how about the truth that it’s an excellent line of company to invest your cash in? After all, there’s a captive audience involved, and though profits are seasonal it’s guaranteed every year since virtually everyone has to file a return!
A true winner, right?
Not always. Not anymore.
Like just about everything else in our world, computers have modified things considerably.
Tax preparation software carries on to be popular, and its usage is even expanding now that web-based services exist which involve no installation procedures on one’s computer. In fact, many of these web-based services are sometimes free – that’s right, free!
It’s not because the organizations offering them are doing it out of any altruistic urges, obviously. The truth is, far from it. For the IRS was about to take edge of modern technology – ultimately – and offer online tax preparation and filing to all for free, but the industry lobbied intensely vs the idea. It would, after all, put them out of business. And while jobs are important, so is serving the public good. And although jobs definitely fall within the description of a public good, so is making government more accessible.
So, where to start?
A compromise was brokered which lead to online tax preparation software being absolutely free for those making below twenty-five thousand dollars a year or so. In exchange, the government have agreed to not offer their own free preparation and filing service at the IRS website!
Now back to stocks.
Having saved fee-based online preparation and filing services, the companies offering them will continue generating money – indeed, to keep on increasing their profits as a lot more people log onto the web to do their taxes. This puts those running brick-and-mortar operations, such as H&R Block and Jackson-Hewlitt, on the same road the dinosaurs found themselves, the fast track to annihilation.
So, what to do?
The writing’s on the wall. It’s only a matter of time prior to hardly anyone will do tax preparation and filing offline! The point that some of these forms are entirely ridiculous and a waste of time, let alone money which is also just as important, but there are counter forms to retaliate against time- wasting forms which virtually do absolutely nothing with no gains in any way, that is, depending on what the cause may be. Makes sense right? Well in a nutshell let’s just say now they have much more proper forms which are proper and accounts instantly to the cause of the form rather than a general form which follows up an appointment to format to the guy or woman what the actual reason is in filling up that form…maybe more. Makes more sense now doesn’t it?