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How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013)

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Re: How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013)

#81
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doctors want you to be sick? - no. HMOs? - maybe. Lawyers want you in trouble with the law? - no. Prison Corporations? - definitely. People are generally good, corporations are evil by design.

Coporations need to make a profit. I don't think this necessarily makes them evil. The ones that you mention make a profit at the expense of people's wellbeing and happiness, so their profit motive definitely puts them in conflict with the better good of people. I would say corporations are generally amoral, not evil. This is why regulations for corporations are so important; they guarantee an appropriate way to make…

What can evil ever mean then? Like by that logic, slave-owners were not evil because they wanted to make a profit.

Re: How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013)

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've looked at Credit Karma tax free, but I'm a bit nervous as I own a California LLC (100% sole owner), and also have capital gains, dividends, write-offs. Is Credit Karma a good choice for more complicated returns? Last year I paid H&R $650 for literally one hour of time which infuriated me.

This is our first year, so we don't currently support filing as an LLC (just individual income/loss as a result of a small business): https://help.creditkarma.com/hc/en-us/articles/216489263-Cre...

I'm 100% owner of the LLC, so all income is mixed with my personal. Just need the ability to do itemized deductions including rent.

Re: How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013)

#83
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or $650 which was my fee from H&R last year for one hour of service. (I own a California LLC) Anybody know a good alternative? I'm thinking about trying TurboTax Self-Employed for $89.99.

HR Block's online filing system is pretty good. I have used it every year since 2005. I only started recently in the past few years paying for the upgraded services(about $50) due to mortgages and other income.

Are you using the self-employed version? I need itemized deductions including rent.

Re: How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013)

#84
post #71

TIL how I file my taxes (log in and submit a pre-filled web form, or send a text message approving it) was the exception, not the norm. I would have expected at least most of western Europe to have reached that point.

here in NZ most people don't even have to file taxes - we have NO exemptions, if you have one job your boss will have gotten your tax right, your bank will withhold tax on interest at your declared marginal rate - if you have multiple jobs filing a one page web form might get you a refund (with interest!). less than 5% of us, those with complex financial lives who can likely afford it, have to file a more formal retu…

Same here, but I have to actually confirm that I have seen it and sign it (via text message, online or paper). The stuff I have to manually add to the filing is s.g if I bought or sold a house or did any complicated stock market trades (but then the broker or bank usually lets you take that form pre filled from them at least).

Re: How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013)

#85

slightly off topic, but... you can file for free using any number of tax prep software if you make less than ~64k a year: https://www.irs.gov/uac/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-...

Or use Credit Karma Tax. Completely free software assistance at any income level. ( https://www.creditkarma.com/tax ) Disclaimer: I work there.

I signed up for the beta, but my taxes were long done by the time it was released...

Re: How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013)

#86
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The IRS already knows what taxes you owe. In most cases they could just send you a bill.

For a W-2 employee taking the standard deduction, perhaps. The IRS cannot correctly calculate what the typical small business owner owes, what the typical real estate investor owes, what the typical upper middle class family owes, because they don't have all the information available to them.

What's your point? They can help all the typical cases. If you need additional help, then you can find an accountant to help.

Re: How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013)

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or use Credit Karma Tax. Completely free software assistance at any income level. ( https://www.creditkarma.com/tax ) Disclaimer: I work there.

I've looked at Credit Karma tax free, but I'm a bit nervous as I own a California LLC (100% sole owner), and also have capital gains, dividends, write-offs. Is Credit Karma a good choice for more complicated returns? Last year I paid H&R $650 for literally one hour of time which infuriated me.

For tax purposes, a Single-Member LLC can be treated as a disregarded entity (i.e. similar to a sole proprietorship - all the business income and expenses go on your personal return).

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employe...

Re: How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013)

#88
post #38
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course, you shouldn't need to pay anything. That is a false dichotomy. The way tax returns are done is deliberately abusive to citizens. They'll chase you down if you owe them money, but not if they owe you. In that case you need to jump through flaming hoops every year to appease them. It's not a coincidence.

Not entirely true. I have received money back on taxes that I filed with an error that resulted in my overpayment. So in a simple case, yes they will return money they owe you. But I would not expect them to file an optimized return on your behalf and you probably already know if you should be doing this yourself.

> But I would not expect them to file an optimized return on your behalf and you probably already know if you should be doing this yourself.

Playing devil's advocate, why not? They all claim to maximize your tax return, and TurboTax specifically claims no tax knowledge needed too.

Re: How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013)

#89
post #9

well, of course. imagine you are a business and the govmt could change a law and put you out of business. wouldn't you put as much money as you could into preventing that change? this is why money in politics causes problems...

Same old same old: show me a doctor who doesn't want you to be sick. Show me a lawyer who doesn't want you to get in trouble with law. Show me a priest who doesn't want you to sin. It just blows my mind up to what degree TurboTax will go with this!

Chinese system: pay doctor only when you're well.

Allign incentives.

Re: How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013)

#90

Serious question: Is it possible for society to criminalize rent seeking behaviors like this? It seems clear that there's no benefit to keeping the status quo tax filing system except for the benefit of tax preparers. What's stopping the US from creating a law that says if a company attempts to lobby for something in bad faith (like the tax example), they will face sanction?

Fair question and I dislike this sort of thing as much as anyone. And of course such an opening comment means there is a "but..." coming.

What you're asking for is to criminalize certain petitions of government. So how do you choose whom to discriminate against such that they cannot petition their government in regards to law making without, at the same time, simply institutionalizing the viewpoints of the other side? Maybe we shutdown corporate lobbying, but then do you need to shut down other associations of individuals (consumer groups, unions, etc) from lobbying government in order to keep equity, or tacitly assume those other organizations must be right anyway? There are many ways to play that game and the only options are those that simply favor one interest group over another... sure, the winning side probably won't complain about undue influence or insensitivity to the concerns of the losing side... but when has it ever been that way?

If you want a real solution to problem you're talking about without explicitly shutting down the give and take of ideas (good and bad) that are required to make the democratic aspects of our system function, your only solution is to limit what power the government has to influence preferential outcomes for anyone that would lobby it and increase the rights of individuals to act on their own accord or in trade with other, similarly free individuals. Without the power to deeply intrude into the economic lives of people (regardless if employee or shareholder), lobbying government for favors simply wouldn't be a good investment. Indeed, it is ironic that you ask to outlaw this sort of thing... because any time you expand the government power to regulate or influence outcomes you make the lobbying dollars just that much more worthwhile. Going further, you simply are considering a totalitarian systematization of your ideas: something worse than the rent seeking you rightfully decry.

(edited for slightly better use of language)

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