51–60 of 90 posts
Currently I use H&R and went that way after years of Turbo Tax simply for cost. Even now the F&S version was twenty bucks cheaper than the Turbo Tax equivalent. I figure many must think themselves locked into to continue with Turbo Tax.
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Sounds glorious. In the U.S., figuring out taxes is like: Take line 39b, multiply it by your age as determined by worksheet 6689. If you are between 41 and 43 years of age, enter '0'. If you were not subject to the Railroad Act of 1938's exempt dependent pension clause (this is not common), add 13 to this number in hexadecimal, else, subtract 2 and multiply by 1.388688. If you did not have healthcare for more than 14…
Is this really the case? Can't most people can just file with a 1040(A or EZ) and be done pretty quickly. I was under the impression that you only have to break out the crazy worksheets or software if you want to get fancy with your deductions or take advantage of tax credits. You can save alot of money this way, but really it's the deductions that are the complication (and the audit risk...) but how can you simplify…
I don't think you can use a 1040EZ if you want to take any deductions (like mortgage interest, student loan interest, etc).
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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…
Pretty much how it works in most of europe. Not even mailed, during the filing period log into the tax authority's site, check that the pre-filled declaration looks OK and validate.
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Pretty much how it works in most of europe. Not even mailed, during the filing period log into the tax authority's site, check that the pre-filled declaration looks OK and validate.
I don't see this working in the US without first simplifying the tax code. Right now if the government sent this out I would assume a majority of people would have some deduction they could take.
2. if the default doesn't match your status, you just change what you need to change and validate that
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 tax…
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.
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Has anyone tried to make an open source version? Any 18f or USDS folks around who want to save us from Intuit and H&R Block?
Yes. The problem is the damn tax code changes every year (see: Intuit's lobbying) and you need to pay for an army of lawyers for when you get it wrong.
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Sounds glorious. In the U.S., figuring out taxes is like: Take line 39b, multiply it by your age as determined by worksheet 6689. If you are between 41 and 43 years of age, enter '0'. If you were not subject to the Railroad Act of 1938's exempt dependent pension clause (this is not common), add 13 to this number in hexadecimal, else, subtract 2 and multiply by 1.388688. If you did not have healthcare for more than 14…
Is this really the case? Can't most people can just file with a 1040(A or EZ) and be done pretty quickly. I was under the impression that you only have to break out the crazy worksheets or software if you want to get fancy with your deductions or take advantage of tax credits. You can save alot of money this way, but really it's the deductions that are the complication (and the audit risk...) but how can you simplify…
If you want to claim deductions (healthcare expenses, mortgage interest, charitable donations, etc) you need the full 1040. It's still pretty easy, but you would at least need to tell the IRS what those deductions are before they can compute your taxes.
I think the really complex stuff doesn't kick in until you have a complex scenario and you want to completely optimize it. I had a complex tax return one year when I got a large stock grant. Every other year it's taken 2-4 hours to finish a 1040 with some normal deductions.
2-4 hours is way more than I want to spend, but also not enough to get me motivated to fight for simpler tax codes.
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I don't see this working in the US without first simplifying the tax code. Right now if the government sent this out I would assume a majority of people would have some deduction they could take.
1. I was under the impression the vast majority only gets the standard deductions (which would probably be applied by default or something) 2. if the default doesn't match your status, you just change what you need to change and validate that
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Pretty much how it works in most of europe. Not even mailed, during the filing period log into the tax authority's site, check that the pre-filled declaration looks OK and validate.
I don't see this working in the US without first simplifying the tax code. Right now if the government sent this out I would assume a majority of people would have some deduction they could take.
Its not done in the US because the makers of tax prep software and providers of tax prep services have lobbied against it the several times it has been proposed, and with a very substantial industry that is completely threatened, they have plenty of motivation to lobby hard.