With just two weeks left until the 2024 tax deadline, the IRS's new direct file online filing system has seen only around 50,000 users, falling short of the agency's earlier projections. Despite efforts to promote the program, including in pilot states, experts are questioning its midseason launch and limited eligibility criteria, while acknowledging its user-friendly interface.
Faculty experts at the George Washington University are available to provide context, commentary and analysis on the new online filing system. If you would like to speak to an expert, please contact GW Media Relations team at [email protected].
Steven Hamilton is an Assistant Professor of Economics at The George Washington University. His primary area of research is public finance, where he studies the effects of taxes on behavior with a view to designing better tax policy. Hamilton made significant contributions to small business support policy during the COVID-19 crisis, authoring a major small business support policy proposal for the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution, and providing extensive commentary in the US and Australia on wage subsidies and other business support measures. Hamilton is a former economist at the Australian Treasury, where he worked on the federal budget, and reviews of climate change policy and flood insurance.
William Stromsem is a teaching assistant professor of accountancy. Prior to his post at GW, Stromsem spent most of his career at the American Institute of CPAs Tax Division, where he became the Director of the Tax Division. Since retiring from the AICPA, Stromsem consults with the Texas Society of CPAs and currently serves on the board of Community Tax Aid, the largest low-income tax return preparation clinic in the Washington D.C. area.Stromsem can discuss a number of different aspects of related to the tax filing season, including best practices and tax credits filers should know about, as well as the new free filing system by the IRS and its limitations.
Jeremy Bearer-Friend is an associate professor of law at the George Washington University Law School. Bearer-Friend is an expert in tax law; including federal estate and gift tax, tax procedure, and tax policy. Bearer-Friend’s current scholarship views taxpaying as a civic act that shapes a citizen’s relationship to government. His research examines the omission of race and ethnicity from federal tax data, the use of administrative discretion to shape the civic features of taxpaying, and the potential of elective in-kind contributions to government in lieu of, or in tandem with, cash payments.
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