OpenTreasury New Ways of Doing Business, New Tools...

TeleTax was a well rated, effective way of filing a tax return for millions of people until it was unnecessarily closed. For the majority of people, something like TeleTax or a simplified form that can be filled out on the IRS website (not some random third-party website) should take the place of the 1040EZ. It should allow the IRS to make all the calculations and send the refund/bill. Simplified processes that take less ...more »

Why do millions of Americans have to waste time filling out their own IRS forms, when their taxes are simple and the IRS already knows what they owe? Amend the Internal Revenue Code to require the Secretary of the Treasury to establish a program for mailing pre-filled income tax returns to assist certain taxpayers who may be eligible for the earned income tax credit in completing their tax returns. This was proposed ...more »

TREASURY CONSUMER'S BILL OF RIGHTS Note: a hyperlinked version of this text is available at http://bit.ly/TCBoR We, the taxpayers of the United States of America, have the right to be free from government waste and abuse. Inherent in that right is: 1. The right to prevent our taxes from being used to pay banks to refrain from lending commercial paper and to small businesses. Section 128 of the Emergency Economic Stabilization ...more »

Modernize the IRS to allow individuals who have grievances about how an IRS case is handled to make the process less paper-intensive and more due-process oriented. The overwhelming perception that the current system is a virtually "closed process" where extagent circumstances cannot be discussed prior to full compliance, a formal hearing delays handling enormously and case resolutions are inflexible.

Do you think it's important for Treasury to make its internal culture more agile and innovative? If so, you can vote for this idea or a leave a comment supporting this idea. And if you've got a better idea, submit your own!

Do you think it's important for Treasury to learn lessons from innovative organizations outside of government? If so, you can vote for this idea or a leave a comment supporting this idea. And if you've got a better idea, submit your own!

Here is a link to paper written by Richard G. Little (University of Southern California - School of Policy Planning and Development) on the idea of using infrastructure projects that generate revenue to encourage investment in rebuilding the country's infrastructure. Because the funds are invested only in projects that generate revenue, the money spent is recovered plus interest. The focus of the paper is on rebuilding ...more »

America has a very large international balance of payments deficit. One of the best ways to encourage exports by American businesses, and encourage imports by those living abroad, is to end the practice of imposing income taxes on individuals’ worldwide income. Section 911 of the US Tax Code penalizes Americans abroad vis-à-vis their foreign counterparts by raising the cost of employment and living. Americans abroad frequently ...more »

The hold time at the Internal Revenue Service call centers is not good and has been a hot topic this past year. Training more employees to assist with peak times on specific notices would be beneficial, but as one who works in a call site I see alternatives. The recorded informational messages could be "NOTICE Specific" to direct callers to seek other sources even though they are already mentioned on notices ...more »

A pilot project to build a next-gen Dept of Treasury portal for the Federal Community Cloud. The idea is to build a suite of opensocial portals, one at each Federal Agency, based on The Open Stack that will enable communication with all opensocial partners.

Useful Links:

http://tinyurl.com/yks78pg

http://bit.ly/cUrTv8

We will save trillions of tax payer dollars if we the people, the common wealth and the issuance of our currency were done by government and for the people. Look into bonds, greenbacks, and all possible alternatives to get the economy functioning. In order for a free market to function we need the 6 pillars in place. So far, all have been destroyed by Wall Street and the ever present menace of conglomeration which crushes ...more »

My idea is to repeal the federal income tax as we know it. Instead, institute a 5% federal sales tax on all consumer goods. I know that this sounds drastic but read further,please. In todays business world there are so many people that are self employed and fall behind on their taxes because of an inability to make ends meet or math? Under this idea ,and foward thinking everyone not the rich , middle class, and not the ...more »

It would be great if people could file their taxes via telephone call and most important make payments without having third parties involved.

A sustainable approach to strengthen the foundation of our economy is an educated and skilled population combined with entrepreneurial spirit. We hear over and over our economy's strength is in in consumer spending yet no connection has been made that 20-30 years of educational debt that we are steadily saddling the largest generation. The deregulation bonanza of the last two presidential administrations has created ...more »

Why is the Board still using "snail mail" to send government employees their TSP account numbers and password, especially when the employee needs to reset their password? This is a waste of money and time. The TSP website says that for "security reasons, you cannot receive this number [or password] via e-mail or over the telephone." Why is this? Thousands of other institutions allow their customers to change passwords ...more »