I’m wonder how cost-effective this is compared to, say, a regular apartmentblock with external stairs/walkways and shared ammenities? Density would go up, but that doesn’t mean much if you don’t need to build a kitchen/bathroom in every unit anyway.
Most of these houses are gardensheds, they don’t look very durable to me, and very unsuited to, say, a 2021 Texas winter.
I think the difference in building codes alone could make this much less expensive.
My understanding is these places are designed to promote the independence of residents to give them a base to build on to put their life back together. The separate space really helps drive that home in a way that an apartment can’t. In an apartment, you can often hear what’s going on in the next room, and that’s not great when you’re trying to build better habits and your neighbor isn’t.
Men (and granted I am male) really do need to drop the alpha male stuff. It’s a shame so many men are drawn into this weird mentality on YouTube thinking that’s what is going to get them a girl… When really it’s the furthest from the truth.
I met my wife at work, made some awkward jokes with her, and eventually asked her out. We split everything a perfect 50/50 and I’m proud to say she is a strong independent woman who definitely does not need me. I can’t imagine the disrespect she would feel if all of a sudden I went all alpha.
Also a man, I haven’t tried being an “alpha male” because I’m not a toxic asshole. But being genuine and kind has gotten me absolutely nowhere in the girlfriend department and the fact is the worst men I know all have girlfriends. If I was willing to be like that I probably would too.
Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington State and Wyoming are participating.
It’s a shame more aren’t participating but I can see the reasoning behind staged access and iterative improvement. The real pity is that data they’ve already got won’t be preloaded in this stage. It would have been the nail in the coffin for Intuit and other companies’ predatory practices on lower income folks, at least as they exist currently.
Just New York and California alone. If the expected turnout is in the millions, one can only hope IBM isn’t behind the cloud infrastructure - word to Obama care.
After the ACA had such a bad start, the obama admin actually opened up "innovation" departments to invite technical experts to modernize goverment infastructure. Those teams have likely done a lot over the decade or so to prevent haphazard rollouts.
EDIT: looks like they work under the title of the “US digital corps” banner and are looking for people.
My understanding is that this program only applies to federal taxes, so I’m not sure that the particular state’s income tax laws will have much bearing on selection for participation or which stage of rollout they’re added with.
I used FreeTaxUSA last year and after I entered all the info and had everything finished they said “cool we’ll file federally for free but if you want us to file your state tax then it’s gonna cost you like $30” and I gave in
The article is only talking about federal as well. The IRS doesn’t do anything with state taxes, so that’ll probably still cost money unless your state makes their own free solution.
Paying for the honor of either giving the government more money, or convincing them that they took too much and to give it back. But don’t worry, they’ll double check your work sometimes to make sure you gave them enough (fuck you if you gave them too much though). Oh, thinking “if they know how much I owed them anyway, why do I have to do this shit in the first place?” Fuck you, that’s why.
Oh, thinking “if they know how much I owed them anyway, why do I have to do this shit in the first place?”
They do that in pretty much all other developed countries. Never had to worry about filing taxes when I lived overseas. Just double check their work and forget about it until next year.
A spokeswoman for Intuit, Tania Mercado, criticized the direct file project as a “half-baked solution” and a waste of taxpayer money. “The direct file scheme is a solution in search of a problem,”
That’s rich coming from a company that created a problem so they can sell their solution.
Either way, there are better software than Intuit, like FreeTaxUSA.
I liked that quote. Intuit being the biggest waste of money claiming direct filing is a waste of money. Like you said, FreeTaxUSA is at least reasonable.
Hard to argue that having a dozen companies developing IT software and systems to file taxes is more efficient them the organization that specifies the filing requirements do it once. The current system is more like a welfare program for the tax companies.
Here in Australia, you can literally file your tax now for free in a few clicks using the government website. If you wait a few weeks, everything for most people is prefilled except deductions
Pretty much the same in the UK. Most people don’t have to file their tax at all (it’s automatically deducted from wages for most people), but for those that do, you can do it for free on the government’s website, which is largely a matter of saying how much you earned, and any relevant deductions. The government then calculates what tax you have to pay. If your tax affairs are more complicated than that, you’re earning enough that you’re in the “having an accountant is mandatory” territory anyway.
Yeah, it’s not flawless, but it’s straightforward to use, which really is the thing you need for this kind of service, since it’s intended to be used by normal people rather than experts. The one and only thing that our glorious Conservative overlords have done well in the last 13 years is modernising a lot of official administrative processes like this so they can be done digitally and without a load of needless complexity.
I can't wait to use it, but it seems it doesn't support overseas income yet and I live full-time outside of the US (and yes we legally have to file taxes every year even if we won't owe anything).
Yes it has become increasingly difficult for me to file taxes abroad. For my 2021 taxes I had to print out and physically mail my return since for some reason the electronic filing failed. For my 2022 taxes every company I used to file taxes from in the past refused to take my non-American credit card. I couldn’t even access the free stuff, presumably due to some IP blocking.
Hopefully eventually the IRS will solve this and everyone who needs to file taxes can easily do it for free.
I've been using H&R block, but every year shit breaks and I have to fight with them. Latest was that my NRA wife broke all their validations (despite it properly flagging her an NRA)
Drinking a little isn’t necessarily an issue. It’s good to be mindful of quantities as you are.
The goal of Dry January is to either take a break or reduce consumption for a month, everyone can pick a goal. A periodic break helps manage consumption. People who participate often end up drinking less for the remainder of the year.
over concerns about staffing shortages and violence against jail workers. Mayor Eric Adams has argued since he took office two years ago that isolating detainees is an important tool to help protect jail workers and detainees.
The mayor and the union representing correction officers, which also fiercely opposes the bill, are expected to continue to lobby against the ban right up to the vote. But the bill’s sponsors and supporters say there are enough votes to pass the bill and to override Mr. Adams if he vetoes it.
Last time I used Android was years ago, so I don't remember how in-app browsers worked. Don't they have a one-click "open in browser" button like Apple does?
Just goes to show that love can help turn someone’s life around.
Thankfully I haven’t been in the prison system (and I don’t know anyone personally who is), nor do I hope to. But it seems like a very bleak existence.
I’m glad cats are giving the prisoners at least a substitute of love and support.
Americans: demand from your government the responsibility to handle your taxes directly.
I’m in the EU, from a small country, and all tax forms have to be filed through government tax authority servers, running state designed programs.
I can hire a legion of accountants, a lawyer firm and third party to represent me and still everything will still go through the same channels.
Or I can simply use that same program, through the same website, with my secure credentials, and file my own taxes for free, calling the tax department whenever I have doubts on what I’m doing.
demand that your taxes supply you with the government services it supports
So I’m an American expat living in Australia. Australia has had the option to file directly to ATO, electronically, longer than I’ve been here. (Google suggests since 1999? So, more than 20 years.) It’s an easy process if you have a straightforward tax return.
It never ceases to amaze me how far behind the rest of the world USA is in some things that just seem like really obvious solutions. Like… Why wouldn’t the IRS want to get tax returns filed directly from the tax payers, skipping the middleman? At least for simple returns. More simplicity, less confusion all around if they get everyone onto the same system. Less paper to wade through, by significantly reducing paper returns. Etc.
It just seems like such a no-brainer. But I guess that’s why it doesn’t work in the USA. >.<
nytimes.com
Active