- Republicans, including White House adviser Ivanka Trump, are promising that the vast majority of Americans will be able to file their taxes on a postcard-size form under the newly passed GOP tax bill.
- But tax experts and preparation professionals say otherwise.
Republicans are promising that the vast majority of Americans will be able to file their taxes on a postcard-size form under the newly passed GOP tax bill, a claim that is disputed by tax experts.
"I'm really looking forward to doing a lot of traveling in April when people realize the effect that this has. ... The vast majority will be [doing their taxes] on a single postcard," White House adviser Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter, said on Fox News on Thursday.
"We're making it so simple that almost nine out of 10 taxpayers can do their taxes on a form like a postcard," House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Wednesday shortly after GOP lawmakers passed the bill. President Donald
)
)
)
Experts and tax professionals say that taxpayers will still have to keep careful records and do calculations to figure out whether they qualify for deductions.
"You can file with the EZ form, but it's probably not in your best interest," Mark Steber, chief tax officer at tax preparation company Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, told NBC News. "I do not envision a scenario where our society is so simple and so standardized that ... 100 million plus Americans will pay a fair amount of tax and be equitably treated with nine lines."
On the campaign trail, Trump predicted that his tax reform plan would hurt the $11 billion tax preparation industry. But tax professionals say otherwise.
"I'm already getting new clients," Karla Dennis, the founder of tax preparation firm in California, told NBC this week. "It's really confusing — it's not simplified in any stretch of the imagination."