21–30 of 90 posts
I've been using TaxACT ever since I became an "adult" and started filing my tax returns. I can't really compare it to TurboTax, which I've only used for business taxes, but I can't imagine anything else being easier or cheaper. It amazes me how some people who have really simple tax forms still pay accountants..
I've been using TaxACT ever since I became an "adult" and started filing my tax returns. I can't really compare it to TurboTax, which I've only used for business taxes, but I can't imagine anything else being easier or cheaper. It amazes me how some people who have really simple tax forms still pay accountants..
My W2 is "simple" (single, no kids, etc.) but I give it to an accountant anyway. Costs $30 or so but the accountant knows certain tricks to maximize my tax return. Not illegal, but she knows how broad exemptions can be. For example, I work from home some days. I built a new computer. Technically, it's exempt because it's a work expense.
If it wasn't for this story I would have used TurboTax again. I hope this backfires with free publicity for TaxAct and many people like me will switch this year.
I estimate I'll be saving about $60 as a result of this article this year. For TurboTax, because I have a small mutual fund account, I have to upgrade to the "Premium" option just for those extra two or three boxes. H&R Block had similar pricing last year. TaxAct has a similar pricing strategy but much lower prices: instead of $50 for the federal and $40 for the state, it's just $15 each (or something like those numbers).
I'm thinking of it like this: TaxAct needs to afford their $200k houses in Iowa, while TurboTax needs to afford their $1M houses in the Valley.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
(For instance, stock brokers must now track lots for their customers, employers withhold payroll taxes and report income, etc)
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".
There's a fair bit of sleaze when you use TurboTax, at least this year: * If you enter any IRA contributions, including Roth IRA, it suggests you update to Deluxe to get "your biggest refund" even though Roth IRA contributions don't qualify you for deductions. * They plaster "e-filing your federal returns is free!" everywhere while obscuring the fact that they want $20 to help you e-file a state return * The audit st…
Way to reward loyal customers. I found another provider to do my taxes this year.
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.
I've been using TaxACT ever since I became an "adult" and started filing my tax returns. I can't really compare it to TurboTax, which I've only used for business taxes, but I can't imagine anything else being easier or cheaper. It amazes me how some people who have really simple tax forms still pay accountants..
If your tax forms are simple, the IRS could do it during your electronic filing (providing pre-filled forms with the information they already have and recomputing on the fly if e.g. you add dependents or non-salary income). That's how much of europe works.
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:…