Can’t follow directions?

What is this, tax advice from Stack Overflow? I don’t understand why people like you don’t save your criticism for the system, instead of at the people using the system.

Yes, the system is fucked up… because the instructions are intentionally designed to be complicated to follow. I don’t know a single person stupid enough to waste their time doing their own taxes by following the directions on the IRS documentation. Horrible advice. Not even professional tax accountants do that.

The IRS free tax-filing service is in limited trial in a few states, eligible only to simple returns within limited income ranges. Most people, including 1099 people like OP, can’t use it.