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TurboTax Takes Aim at Smaller Rival in Fight for Filers

bloomberg.com

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Re: TurboTax Takes Aim at Smaller Rival in Fight for Filers

#2

Post by zdw »

Intuit's PolOps are also continuously trying to keep the US Tax system complex, so they have a reason to exist that isn't the case in other countries:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/business/24digi.html?_r=0

http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/27/turbotax-maker-funnels-mill...

If you want something evil to disrupt, disrupt this.

Re: TurboTax Takes Aim at Smaller Rival in Fight for Filers

#3

Post by patio11 »

I last used TaxAct in 2011, and would still be using it but for an increasingly complicated business situation which necessitates lots of accountant time (one benefit of which is that form manipulation is thrown in for free). It's great. If any of you are doing uncomplicated W-2 or small business returns which don't have a gazillion moving parts, give it a spin; it's much better than the price suggests.

Edit to add: I'd be remiss if I didn't note "Small software company in Iowa which doesn't have a blog, didn't invent Rails, and which > 90% of HN has never heard of before has > $100 million in annual revenue." It's a great time to be alive, isn't it?

Re: TurboTax Takes Aim at Smaller Rival in Fight for Filers

#4

Post by dsmithatx »

TurboTax should focus on making long term paying customers happy. I did not file taxes in 2014 since I didn't really owe much and decided to put it off. I went last weekend to do my 2014 taxes before submitting 2015.

Turbotax told me I had to purchase the software for $60 even though I always have used their online service until 2013. A quick Google search and I found a free service that allowed me to get my 2014 taxes done in 30 minutes.

It was FreeTaxUsa if anyone else is in the same boat.

Re: TurboTax Takes Aim at Smaller Rival in Fight for Filers

#6

Post by username223 »

zdw wrote: post #2

Intuit's PolOps are also continuously trying to keep the US Tax system complex, so they have a reason to exist that isn't the case in other countries: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/business/24digi.html?_r=0 http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/27/turbotax-maker-funnels-mill... If you want something evil to disrupt, disrupt this.

Yep -- this is some pretty evil rent-seeking. Unfortunately, disrupting it (i.e. automatic filing) requires political action rather than tech. For people with a single wage/salary job, the IRS already has a good idea what they owe thanks to their employers' reporting. IRS could simply mail them "we think $X is what you made, and $Y is what you owe," and they could either say "okay" if they agree, or fill out the forms otherwise.

Re: TurboTax Takes Aim at Smaller Rival in Fight for Filers

#7

Post by tosseraccount »

Speaking of smaller rivals ... This guy provides free US federal tax forms for Excel : https://sites.google.com/site/excel1040/ ( old school shareware)

Fill in, print out, mail in. (Absolutely great if you have to file previous years returns to qualify for Obamacare subsidies.)

Turbo Tax tries to trick/force you into buying "audit protection": "Please enter your credit card number to submit form".

Re: TurboTax Takes Aim at Smaller Rival in Fight for Filers

#10

Post by cballard »

username223 wrote: post #6
zdw wrote: post #2

Intuit's PolOps are also continuously trying to keep the US Tax system complex, so they have a reason to exist that isn't the case in other countries: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/business/24digi.html?_r=0 http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/27/turbotax-maker-funnels-mill... If you want something evil to disrupt, disrupt this.

Yep -- this is some pretty evil rent-seeking. Unfortunately, disrupting it (i.e. automatic filing) requires political action rather than tech. For people with a single wage/salary job, the IRS already has a good idea what they owe thanks to their employers' reporting. IRS could simply mail them "we think $X is what you made, and $Y is what you owe," and they could either say "okay" if they agree, or fill out the form…

It seems that we should just require any company providing taxable things to common people (e.g. employers and banks) to do all of the work. Then the IRS can just figure it all out from that, you have a few checkboxes for if you have dependents, and it does all of the math for you. That way we have a smaller set of organizations doing the work once instead of every taxpayer doing it independently.
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