This idea has been suggested for the IRS, but I don't think it will fly in practice. Consider: Suppose for some reason you have income that the IRS doesn't know about. Maybe the 1099 form got lost in the mail, or there was a transcription error, or it was a payment from a foreign company, or the payer went out of business or died before sending in the tax forms, or whatever. Anyway, now you get a pre-filled-in form from the IRS that doesn't include that income. What do you do? Whatever you answer, you're wrong. Because if you say that you should report that income, as you are expected to do now, you have just said that even though the IRS fills out the forms for you, and you agree with them, you might still be expected to cough up extra money later if it turns out that the IRS didn't know about something. On the other hand, if you say that you shouldn't report that income, you have just established the principle that if for some reason the IRS doesn't find out about it in time, you don't owe it. Which means you have just given the IRS the responsibility of tracking all financial transactions all the time, just in case. Either way, I don't think this is a winning idea.

Ah ha! I think I see where our misunderstanding lies. I see anything that is in the GROSS INCOME part of my paycheck as income. That is all taxed, except for what I may decide to put into a 401k, IRA, etc or into a tax-deferred saving plan for medical savings accounts or childcare accounts. So the gross income amount has my tax-deferred retirement savings and my tax-deferred health or childcare subtracted out. Then I pay income tax on what is left. Then they take out Social Security tax, and Medicare tax. You want the Social Security tax and the Medicare tax taken out, then the remaining income taxed. I, on the other hand, contend that the money you are using to pay your SS and Medicare tax IS income and is taxed like income. You disagree and think it should be treated like the tax-deferred savings for retirement, health care, and childcare. I still contend that these tax-deferred savings are a new development and have nothing to do with what money you pay your SS and Medicare tax on. Before about 1980, they never existed! The income tax was figured on your income, then you used part of that income to pay SS tax, Medicare tax, state income tax, sales tax, user fees, whatever. Actually, self-employed folks do not have the convenience of having SS and Medicare taxes taken out of our checks and must pay them ourselves. Employed folks get their employers to pay half of SS tax. I don't, I pay the whole amount of SS and Medicare taxes when I pay my taxes each year. I do get to deduct half of the SS and Medicare tax that I pay out of my income (so technically I do not have to pay income tax on the half of it that I pay for myself that others who have employers have paid for them. I pay $x extra in tax because I am self employed, and get all of 20% of that back by not paying taxes on it - but I am still out the other 80% that I had to pay - that employed folks had their employers pay for them.) Anyhow, we are paying income tax on our income, then using that income nanoseconds later to pay SS and Medicare taxes. And later to pay State and local taxes. And buy whatever else we buy. We do use our taxed income to pay for state income tax and to pay for real estate taxes. If you do the long form (most working-class folks do not earn enough to do so), you then can deduct these taxes from your income on Schedule A. Again, you are getting back maybe 15 - 30% of that money you paid in these taxes by deducting them from your income. Sales tax, building permits, licensing fees, all kinds of taxes do not get this special deductibility. So we are constantly paying taxes with money that we already paid income tax on. In a few special circumstances we may deduct these taxes from our income and thereby reclaim a portion of that money, but by no means are all taxes given this special treatment. Again, since fairness lies in the eye of the beholder, there is no way to construct a tax system that all would find fair. You don't like to pay taxes with money that was already taxed for income tax. Okay, I guess that this is as good a gripe as anyone has. As Albert Ellis, the great psychiatrist says, "Who said life is fair?"

None of those homes are selling if they are still on the market. The correct selling price for any of them may be thousands less than they are asking. Only a realtor who does a competent market analysis using sold homes can help you to price your home. But, if the one realtor is suggesting that you price your home the lowest of the bunch that are for sale in your unit, then that realtor probably understands the urgency that you will need to have in actually selling. If you want to sell, price it lower than any of the comps and sell it, not at around what other people are asking and NOT selling. Otherwise, you're likely to be on the market for months chasing it down one price reduction at a time. Price it aggressively from the beginning if you actually want to be in that new home.

When I said 'fillable,' I meant fillable on the computer. The meaning of this sentence is ambiguous/unclear, with either of the two different alternatives I mentioned being the possible intended message. There's no reason to print or fill out or mail anything if one uses a free site from which the return is E- FILE ABLE. The most common return mistakes made by people who do their own are arithmetic and incorrect tax calculations. Using one of these free prep and efile websites eliminates these errors.