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If you're among the millions of Americans who rely on TurboTax to file their annual income taxes, you could be in for an unpleasant surprise this spring.

For the first time in years, Intuit-owned TurboTax is not part of the IRS Free File program. Free File is a partnership between the government and several tax prep services that allows people to draw up and, in some cases, submit their federal tax returns online for free. Though Free File is notoriously underutilized, it's typically stacked with name-brand offers from recognizable companies TurboTax included.

Until now.

TurboTax announced in a blog post last July that it was not renewing its role with IRS Free File due to its limitations and "conflicting demands from those outside the program" that leave it unable to continue participating while still delivering "all of the benefits that can help consumers make more money, save more, and invest for the future."

However, the company vowed not to give up on free tax filing options. TurboTax said it processed 17 million free tax filings last season; of that, only 3 million came through the Free File program.

"Moving forward, Intuit is committed to continuing to offer free tax preparation while accelerating innovation to address all of consumers financial problems," it added.

It's worth noting that TurboTax came under fire a few years ago for using code that hid its Free File page from Google results, as reported by ProPublica. It later changed the code.

Even though TurboTax has left the IRS Free File project, it does still have no-cost options. It is possible to file for free through TurboTax but there are a slew of requirements you must meet.

For example, TurboTax Free Edition, TurboTax Live Basic, and TurboTax Live Full Service Basic are all free right now if your return is simple. (TurboTax defines "simple" is defined as "Form 1040 only.") These cover W-2 income, limited interest and dividend income, the standard deduction, the earned income and child tax credits, and student loan deduction.

If your taxes are more complex, including items like unemployment income, stock sales or rental properties, you'll likely have to upgrade.

Assuming your situation is simple enough, you can file one federal and one state tax return without charge, but you have to move fast. TurboTax Live Full Service Basic in which a tax expert does your taxes for you is only free until Feb. 15. The free TurboTax Live Basic offer which comes with live, on-demand expert help lasts through March 31.

If you're fine to file DIY, the TurboTax Free Edition will be "available the entire season," according to a news release.

The deadline for most Americans to file their taxes this year is April 18.

Improve your potential refund amount - Prepare and file your federal income tax return using tax preparation software

Tax preparation software companies like TurboTax will help improve your earning potential.

TurboTax isn't the only service to drop out of IRS Free File recently. H&R Block left the project in 2020.

Even so, IRS Free File is still plugging along. If your adjusted gross income is $73,000 or less, you're eligible for free guided tax prep from options like Tax Slayer, FileYourTaxes.com and TaxAct. If your income exceeds that, you qualify for free fillable forms (but you'll have to actually file them on your own).

Experts generally recommend starting your taxes early so as to avoid software snafus, refund delays and identity thieves. If you're not opting for IRS Free File, there's also a financial reason to avoid procrastinating: Tax prep fees tend to rise the closer Tax Day gets.

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Can You File Taxes for Free With TurboTax? It's Especially Complicated This Year - Money

Ford CEO Jim Farley poses with the all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning pickup truck during the unveiling at the company's world headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, U.S., May 19, 2021. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/File Photo

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DETROIT, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co (F.N) Chief Executive Jim Farley won applause from Wall Street by increasing the production target for the automaker's electric F-150 to 150,000 a year, more than three times the original number.

Now, Farley wants investors and commercial vehicle customers to pay more attention to the software and services Ford wants to sell with those trucks, as well as to the company's electric Transit vans and its portfolio of combustion engine commercial vehicles.

At an event in Sonoma, California, this week, Farley and other Ford executives are rolling out more details of their Ford Pro commercial vehicle strategy - and setting ambitious goals.

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"This is a first move by Ford to really start to scale and commit serious resources to digital software and services-based revenue," Farley told Reuters.

Ford Pro is a standalone unit created last May to focus exclusively on commercial and government customers.

Ford has set a goal to increase Ford Pro's annual revenue to $45 billion by 2025, up 67% from 2019. Farley said Ford Pro is paving the way for Ford to expand digital service offerings to retail customers.

The U.S. and European commercial vehicle markets are fragmented, Farley said. Ford can use its position as the leading commercial vehicle brand in the United States and Europe to be a leader in pulling the pieces together as commercial fleets go electric.

"We are the Tesla of this industry," he said.

Ford Pro, which will house the Dearborn, Michigan, automaker's commercial vehicle operations, is now ramping up a commercial electric vehicle charging business using software and workers who came on board when Ford bought charging startup Electriphi in June 2021.

Ford Pro also has a partnership with Silicon Valley enterprise software power Salesforce.com Inc (CRM.N) to develop software to digitize billing and other paperwork for contractors and other businesses that deploy people to jobs where the vehicle also serves as office space.

Ford Pro Chief Executive Ted Cannis said in an interview the unit has 125,000 active accounts, and a 40% share of the U.S. commercial van and pickup markets. Startups such as Rivian Automotive Inc (RIVN.O) and established rivals such as General Motors Co (GM.N) and its new BrightDrop van unit are aiming for big customers such as FedEx Corp (FDX.N) or Amazon.com Inc as golden tickets to vehicle-based service businesses.

With Ford's stable of small and medium-sized business customers, "I've got 125,000 golden tickets," Cannis said.

TREPIDATION OVER EVs

Ford has tried before to expand higher-margin service businesses to augment its traditional manufacturing business, which do well to crack 10% pretax margins in good years. In the early 2000s, Ford acquired a repair services chain and auto salvage yards in an attempt to capture revenue from a larger chunk of the life cycle of a vehicle. Those diversifications were abandoned.

Ford's new service strategy will have to overcome efforts by rivals that are also racing to sell electric vans and trucks to commercial vehicle fleets. Individual pieces of Ford Pro's service business, such as fleet charging, will face competition from companies such as ChargePoint (CHPT.N) that already offer such services.

Rhett Ricart, whose Ohio-based Ricart Automotive Group is a major Ford commercial vehicle dealer, said Ford executives have "done their homework" on Ford Pro. Now, he said, the automaker must deliver electric vehicles that do not leave business customers stranded.

"Those vehicles have got to be flawless. People will have trepidation. They know what they've got with internal combustion engines. They know where to get gasoline," Ricart said.

Farley and Ford executives said connected vehicle technology - including telematics systems that give Ford a pipeline to receive data from its vehicles - give the company a firmer foundation for recurring revenue, subscription services as well as increased repair business driven by software that tells fleet owners when it is time for vehicle maintenance.

Ford can analyze how many miles vehicles in a fleet drive, and where they are parked, to design hardware and software that allow for recharging at a central depot, or at a worker's home, or both, said Muffi Ghadiali, former CEO of Electriphi and now head of the Ford Pro electric vehicle charging business.

"Because of telematics we can give them a very precise plan based on how the fleets operate," he said.

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Reporting by Joe White in DetroitEditing by Matthew Lewis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Originally posted here:
Ford aims to be the Tesla of connected commercial vehicles - Reuters

The managers of the Rise Fundsprivate-equity firm TPGs impact-investing vehiclesay their success with investments in educational companies such as EverFi and DreamBox Learning stems from a rigorous assessment of their actual value to students.

One of the pitfalls faced by some traditional private-equity firms is that they can sometimes conflate growth with quality, says John Rogers, partner and education sector lead at the Rise Funds, based in San Francisco. As funds with a mandate to realize positive results for society, were not allowed to invest in a company unless we can see the evidence of that impact.

This approach leads the Rise Funds to companies that drive learning outcomes, or improve student progression, in a way that ensures that these are going to be the solutions that will endure, says Steve Ellis, co-managing partner of the funds.

The Rise Funds I and II, with a combined US$4.3 billion in assets, have backed education and educational technology companies from the outset. Education-related investments make up about 25% of the combined portfolios.

Earlier this month, Blackbaud , a South Carolina-based provider of impact-oriented software, bought Washington, D.C.-based educational technology platform EverFithe Rise Funds first investmentin a cash and stock transaction valued at about US$750 million, according to a news release.

Rise had led a US$190 million financing of EverFi in April 2017 with a $120 million investment, while a sister fund, TPG Growth, invested another US$30 million. Other early investors in the company, which provides educational content to financial institutions and corporations, included Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

Among EverFis services is providing digital educational programming on basic financial servicesknowledge that can help people move from lower-income brackets. Meanwhile, more financial services companies are trying to serve lower-income populations, creating demand for the kind of educational content EverFi provides, Ellis says.

Penta recently spoke with Ellis and Rogers about how the Rise Fund seeks out companies such as EverFi that provide educational services needed by society, and that are on a fast-track to growth.

Tipping Point for EdTech

One reason for the growth trajectory of educational technology is deeper penetration of broadband access and technology throughout the world, combined with a sufficient policy focus on the needs of individuals, Rogers says.

Thats made the difference, especially for so-called personalized learningtechnology that adapts teaching methodologies to individual learning styles as a student moves through lessons.

All of the research has always said that personalized learning drives the highest learning gains, Rogers says. The difficulty has been how do you drive personalized learning at scale.

Thats changed in the last five years, leading to growth for companies such as DreamBox Learning, which has developed an adaptive learning technology for Kindergarten through grade 12 schools.

Rise Fund I invested US$130 million in the Bellevue, Wash.-based company in July 2018, taking a majority stake. In November, Evergreen Coast Capital Corp., a private-equity fund affiliate of the hedge fund Elliott Investment Management LP, bought a majority stake in DreamBox. Rise continues to hold a significant minority stake, according to a news release, and is represented on its board of directors.

In the intervening years of Rises investment, DreamBox went from serving fewer than 2 million students to serving more than 6 million, primarily in public Title I schools where a majority of students are eligible for free and reduced-price lunch, Rogers says. Part of that expansion was driven by the coronavirus pandemic, when DreamBox opened its platform for free and in two weeks added 1.9 million students and 2,500 schoolsmany of which converted to paying customers later, Rogers says.

Thematic Investing

The Rise Funds educational investments are driven by themes the firm believes will lead to growth. Among these is personalized learning, but also a desire to address the massive skill gaps in the U.S. that contribute to inequality, Ellis says.

InStride, a company created in 2019 out of a partnership between the Rise Funds and Arizona State University, works with businesses to provide free, online four-year degrees their workers can pursue during their employment to get ahead.

The idea is to make continuing education and workforce development a benefit to workers just like healthcare, Ellis says.

Other themes are addressing mental and behavioral health and solving the national problem of teacher shortages.

In December, the Rise Fund and Spectrum Equity, a growth equity firm, acquired a majority stake in PresenceLearning. The New York-based company, which provides online therapy solutions for schools, initially focused on special education services and has expanded into mental and behavioral health. PresenceLearning isnt a software program, but they are creating greater access and scale through using technology platforms, Ellis says. Their services also help alleviate shortages of special education professionals, particularly in rural areas.

In September, meanwhile, Rise bought a majority stake in Teachers of Tomorrow. The Houston-based company provides teacher certifications often to mid-career job changers. If an individual has skills in math or engineering but doesnt have a traditional teaching degree, Teachers of Tomorrow can accelerate the process of getting them the certifications they need, Rogers says.

Our impact lens is going to enable us to lean into the coaching, the follow-up, the professional development, the continuing ed, so that we can build a complete career life cycle for teachers, and be that solution to the districts who want high-quality teachers now, but they also want to retain them in the classroom, he says.

Measuring Impact

As with most impact-investing funds, the Rise Funds track the impact their companies make throughout the term of the investment, ensuring that they are not only getting a dollar return as the companies grow but multiple dollars of social impact too, Rogers says.

They do this by looking at specific outcomessuch as the number of students reachedand by examining third-party research. Y Analytics, a firm formed by TPG and the Rise Funds, for instance, provides analytical assessments of impact, determining the value of results each company reports.

In other words, if a student performs better in school than they otherwise would have by using a product Rise invests in, that student is likely going to do better in the workforce. Theres a value to that, Rogers says.

Rise has also found that by focusing on impact, the fund gains a better understanding of what makes a business ultimately succeed. A company that is creating demonstrable social outcomes, for instance, is going to have more referrals and higher retention and renewal rates, meaning it is likely to grow and last, Ellis says.

By forcing our way through a separate sort of gauntlet of impact assessment we end up getting into the businesses that are inherently lined up to succeed, he says.

Excerpt from:
Future Returns: Impact Investing in Education - Barron's

In the fall of 2019, Google told the world it had reached quantum supremacy.

It was a significant scientific milestone that some compared to the first flight at Kitty Hawk. Harnessing the mysterious powers of quantum mechanics, Google had built a computer that needed only three minutes and 20 seconds to perform a calculation that normal computers couldnt complete in 10,000 years.

But more than two years after Googles announcement, the world is still waiting for a quantum computer that actually does something useful. And it will most likely wait much longer. The world is also waiting for self-driving cars, flying cars, advanced artificial intelligence and brain implants that will let you control your computing devices using nothing but your thoughts.

Silicon Valleys hype machine has long been accused of churning ahead of reality. But in recent years, the tech industrys critics have noticed that its biggest promises the ideas that really could change the world seem further and further on the horizon. The great wealth generated by the industry in recent years has generally been thanks to ideas, like the iPhone and mobile apps, that arrived years ago.

Have the big thinkers of tech lost their mojo?

The answer, those big thinkers are quick to respond, is absolutely not. But the projects they are tackling are far more difficult than building a new app or disrupting another aging industry. And if you look around, the tools that have helped you cope with almost two years of a pandemic the home computers, the videoconferencing services and Wi-Fi, even the technology that aided researchers in the development of vaccines have shown the industry hasnt exactly lost a step.

Imagine the economic impact of the pandemic had there not been the infrastructure the hardware and the software that allowed so many white-collar workers to work from home and so many other parts of the economy to be conducted in a digitally mediated way, said Margaret OMara, a professor at the University of Washington who specializes in the history of Silicon Valley.

As for the next big thing, the big thinkers say, give it time. Take quantum computing. Jake Taylor, who oversaw quantum computing efforts for the White House and is now chief science officer at the quantum start-up Riverlane, said building a quantum computer might be the most difficult task ever undertaken. This is a machine that defies the physics of everyday life.

A quantum computer relies on the strange ways that some objects behave at the subatomic level or when exposed to extreme cold, like metal chilled to nearly 460 degrees below zero. If scientists merely try to read information from these quantum systems, they tend to break.

While building a quantum computer, Dr. Taylor said, you are constantly working against the fundamental tendency of nature.

The most important tech advances of the past few decades the microchip, the internet, the mouse-driven computer, the smartphone were not defying physics. And they were allowed to gestate for years, even decades, inside government agencies and corporate research labs before ultimately reaching mass adoption.

The age of mobile and cloud computing has created so many new business opportunities, Dr. OMara said. But now there are trickier problems.

Still, the loudest voices in Silicon Valley often discuss those trickier problems as if they were just another smartphone app. That can inflate expectations.

People who arent experts who understand the challenges may have been misled by the hype, said Raquel Urtasun, a University of Toronto professor who helped oversee the development of self-driving cars at Uber and is now chief executive of the self-driving start-up Waabi.

Technologies like self-driving cars and artificial intelligence do not face the same physical obstacles as quantum computing. But just as researchers do not yet know how to build a viable quantum computer, they do not yet know how to design a car that can safely drive itself in any situation or a machine that can do anything the human brain can do.

Even a technology like augmented reality eyeglasses that can layer digital images onto what you see in the real world will require years of additional research and engineering before it is perfected.

Andrew Bosworth, vice president at Meta, formerly Facebook, said that building these lightweight eyeglasses was akin to creating the first mouse-driven personal computers in the 1970s (the mouse itself was invented in 1964). Companies like Meta must design an entirely new way of using computers, before stuffing all its pieces into a tiny package.

Over the past two decades, companies like Facebook have built and deployed new technologies at a speed that never seemed possible before. But as Mr. Bosworth said, these were predominantly software technologies built solely with bits pieces of digital information.

Building new kinds of hardware working with physical atoms is a far more difficult task. As an industry, we have almost forgotten what this is like, Mr. Bosworth said, calling the creation of augmented reality glasses a once-in-a-lifetime project.

Technologists like Mr. Bosworth believe they will eventually overcome those obstacles and they are more open about how difficult it will be. But thats not always the case. And when an industry has seeped into every part of daily life, it can be hard to separate hand-waving from realism especially when it is huge companies like Google and well-known personalities like Elon Musk drawing that attention.

Many in Silicon Valley believe that hand-waving is an important part of pushing technologies into the mainstream. The hype helps attract the money and the talent and the belief needed to build the technology.

If the outcome is desirable and it is technically possible then its OK if were off by three years or five years or whatever, said Aaron Levie, chief executive of the Silicon Valley company Box. You want entrepreneurs to be optimistic to have a little bit of that Steve Jobs reality-distortion field, which helped to persuade people to buy into his big ideas.

The hype is also a way for entrepreneurs to generate interest among the public. Even if new technologies can be built, there is no guarantee that people and businesses will want them and adopt them and pay for them. They need coaxing. And maybe more patience than most people inside and outside the tech industry will admit.

When we hear about a new technology, it takes less than 10 minutes for our brains to imagine what it can do. We instantly compress all of the compounding infrastructure and innovation needed to get to that point, Mr. Levie said. That is the cognitive dissonance we are dealing with.

See the article here:
Why Is Silicon Valley Still Waiting for the Next Big Thing? - The New York Times

While I know that many of my fellow tax professionals would argue that tax season never officially ended last year, were already gearing up for the new tax filing season. Heres what you need to know.

The IRS has announced that tax season will open Monday, January 24, 2022.

Some folks have suggested that a January start date is earlybut Im guessing they have a short memory. Its true that tax season opened a little later in 2021on February 12, 2021but thats an outlier due to the pandemic. The January 24, 2022, tax season open is on par with the open dates for the past few yearsJan. 27 in 2020, Jan. 28 in 2019, and Jan. 29 in 2018. In fact, other than last year, the agency has opened tax season in late January for more than a decade.

Free File opened for business January 14, 2022. The programwhich is what it sounds likeallows taxpayers with an Adjusted Gross Income (or AGI) of $73,000 or less in 2021 to file their taxes electronically for free using software provided by commercial tax filing companies.

You can find your AGI on line 11 on your Form 1040. The amount includes income, less adjustments, and is calculated before claiming the standard or itemized deductions. Statistically, most taxpayers are eligible for Free File.

You can do your taxes now if you use Free File, even though the filing season hasnt yet opened. Click over to IRS.gov/freefile to see the Free File options. The Free File provider you choose will submit your return once the IRS officially opens tax season and starts processing tax returns.

Not every Free File partner has the same eligibility criteriait can vary based on income, age, and state residency. Additionally, some but not all Free File partners offer free prep and filing for state returns. Check the fine print before you start your return since any state preparation or non-qualifying fees are required to be disclosed on the companys Free File landing page.

You can only file your current year tax returnthe 2021 tax yearusing IRS Free File. You cannot process a prior year return using IRS Free File.

Free File isnt the only service opening early. Many commercial tax preparation software companies and tax professionals also will accept and prepare tax returns before Jan. 24. They typically will submit the returns when the IRS systems open.

The filing deadline to submit 2021 tax returns is Monday, April 18, 2022, for most taxpayers. That feels confusing since April 15 is a Fridayno skips, right?

Dont forget about Emancipation Day. A public holiday in the District of Colombia since 2005, it marks the dateApril 16, 1862that President Abraham Lincoln signed the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act, freeing nearly 3,000 enslaved people in the District months before the Emancipation Proclamation. By law, when April 16 falls during a weekend, Emancipation Day is celebrated on the nearest weekdaynot necessarily the following weekday. That means, in 2022, Emancipation Day will be observed Friday, April 15, so Tax Day gets pushed ahead to the next business day, which is Monday, April 18, 2022.

As if that isnt confusing enough, taxpayers in Maine or Massachusetts get an extra day. Taxpayers in those states have until April 19, 2022, to file due to the Patriots Day holiday in those states.

All taxpayers who timely request an extension will have until Monday, October 17, 2022, to file. Remember, however, that an extension gives you extra time to filebut not extra time to pay.

The IRS says it anticipates more than 160 million individual tax returns to be filed for the 2021 tax year, most coming before the April 18 deadline.

According to the National Taxpayer Advocate, the agency still was trying to catch up before the last tax season even started, carrying over approximately 11.7 million returns from 2020.

The IRS did not finish processing 2019 returns until midyearof 2021. Add paper returns, amended returns, and returns flagged for errors due to Recovery Rebate Credit (RRC) claims, and you had a recipe for disaster. This month, the advocate reported to Congress that manual reviews will take substantial time, preventing the IRS from digging out of that hole in the foreseeable future.

Even if your 2020 tax return has not yet been processedlike mineTax Day is still April 18, 2022. The IRS notes that taxpayers generally will not need to wait for their 2020 return to be processed to file their 2021 tax returns.

I knowyouve heard that before. But its true again this year.

We already know that the IRS isnt answering the phone. IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig encourages taxpayers to check IRS.gov rather than calling, saying, We have invested in developing new online capacities to make this a quick and easy way for taxpayers to get the information they need.

Rettig is referring to online services at irs.gov, including:

The IRS also encourages taxpayers to file electronically with direct deposit and avoid filing paper returns wherever possible.

The IRS says it expects it will take around 21 days for most taxpayers who file electronically to see their refund, assuming there are no issues with their tax return. The agency stopped short this year of their often-repeated statistic that the IRS anticipates nine out of 10 taxpayers will receive their refund within 21 days of when they file electronically.

Dont forget that the law requires the IRS to hold refunds tied to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC) until February 15. That extra time allows the IRS to match information from forms W-2 and 1099 with data reported on tax returns; in prior years, refunds could be issued before records were checked, increasing the likelihood of fraud. The hold, together with bank processing times and bank holidays, means that taxpayers should not count on seeing those tax refunds until the first week of March. The rule applies to the entire refundeven the portion not associated with the EITC and ACTC.

While there has been a lot of discussion online about a further filing date extension in 2022similar to those issued in 2020 and 2021so far, thats just talk. If that changes, Ill let you know.

This is a weekly column from Kelly Phillips Erb, the Taxgirl. Erb offers commentary on the latest in tax news, tax law, and tax policy. Look for Erbs column every week from Bloomberg Tax and follow her on Twitter at @taxgirl.

Continue reading here:
Here's What You Need to Know About the Upcoming Tax Season - Bloomberg Tax