‘New IRS’ ALLOWS AMERICANS TO CHOOSE HOW THEIR FINANCIAL INCOME TAX DOLLARS ARE SPENT
TheNewIRS.com LETS TAXPAYERS DEVELOP PERSONAL ALLOCATION PLANS, PRESENTS LAWMAKERS WITH A CROWD-SOURCED, DEMOCRATIC REPRESENTATION OF TAXPAYER DESIRES
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April 14, 2014 – Tax day is upon us, and for the first time ever, Americans everywhere will have the chance to say -and meticulously catalog- exactly how they want their Federal Income Tax dollars spent. TheNewIRS.com provides users with interactive, visually arresting, and shareable info graphics that juxtapose how users choose to have their taxes allocated versus how they will actually be spent by our Federal Government. On April 17th, 2014, TheNewIRS.com will issue a detailed report comprised of “Personal Allocation Plans” created by thousands of New IRS users, wherein the allocation data collected will be paired against the projected use of our 2014 Federal Income Taxes.
Conceived by Alex Ebert (the Golden Globe winning front-man for Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros), TheNewIRS.com was born out of the Sundance Film Festival’s star-studded “Hackdance” hackathon, which awards innovators that use technology to create social impact.
TheNewIRS.com is the first in a series of websites created by Ebert and his team that will provide users with virtual methods of experimenting with new forms of government.
From National defense to healthcare, education and agriculture, TheNewIRS.com is a medium in which to democratize what some critics consider stagnant or misrepresentative forms of government spending.
“We present to you a simulation, that you may peruse and develop a taste for a new paradigm of citizen power,” said New IRS founder Alex Ebert “through your participation, we will be able to collect national data that will serve to reflect our ethics as a nation, as well as to illuminate disparities between our will and the actual expenditures of the current political powers”
“Whitehouse.gov has provided a great interactive webpage to see what tax money goes towards on a national level,” said New IRS developer and designer Dru Clegg. “Unfortunately, seeing how things are done ‘after-the-fact’ doesn’t make me feel any more involved. The New IRS user interface is unique because it’s not just showing you how your tax dollars were spent last year. It’s ASKING you how you would prefer it be spent. It’s asking what YOU want, and then storing the information you give to us so we can consolidate and share it.”
TheNewIRS.com is a virtual experiment with real life implications. The data collected in the lead up to tax day will be published shortly thereafter in a detailed report on April 17, 2014.
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ABOUT ALEX EBERT: Alex Ebert is an American singer-songwriter and composer. He is the lead singer for the band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Ebert won a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for his musical contributions to the film All is Lost.
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