Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

propublica.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

421–430 of 454 posts

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

#421

Post by ensignavenger »

xupybd wrote: post #97

I live in New Zealand. I don't have to file taxes if my income is a standard wage my tax payments are automatic. My employer deducts them from my wage and they are sent to the IRD (Our government tax dept). My student loan and super payments are also automatic. If there is anything wrong then at the end of the tax year I can file to correct things. I also get donations rebates, this is a one page form that lists all…

In the US, taxes are usually deducted from your paycheck- however, you have to file every year because the amount deducted is rarely even close to the actual amount owed. Not sure how it breaks down, but I would not be surprised if the majority of people in the US get refunds every year because the Government takes more than they are entitles to. This gives the Government free float. It would be wonderful if we had a more simple tax system where the withholdings could be accurate without needing to tell your employer too much about your private affairs.

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

#422

Post by ensignavenger »

nodesocket wrote: post #82
dustinhlyons wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I just did my taxes with them, and it does have some support for business income and loss, so I think in your case (pass-thru entity) you may be okay- I didn't have to use this section this year as all of my income came from my salaried position this year, so I can't ssay for sure how it works.

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

#423

Post by mikeash »

oblio wrote: post #389
joering2 wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Im not sure if there is anythng special about it. You can take a bribe, get caught and sentenced but that doesn't excuse you from paying taxes. IRS just wants their cut; they are not criminal law enforcers, just a collection agency.

I think the common expectation is that the illegal income/property will be seized by the state and hopefully returned to its rightful owner. No need to tax anything since the thief won't have anything left at the end.

The IRS seems to account for that with "unless in the same year, you return it to its rightful owner."

I wonder what happens if you steal something, keep it until the next year, and then return it? Do you declare it as income in the year you steal it, and a loss in the year you return it?

(Probably not. I'm too lazy to look it up, but I recall another document that explains that, while income from illegal activities is taxable, expenses for illegal activities are not deductible.)

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

#424

Post by 0xfeba »

ransom1538 wrote: post #206
jwilliams wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how complicated the US system is FYI - At various stages of my life I've filed in New Zealand, Australia, UK, Switzerland and the US (California). I can't generalize to all persons, but I do have a decent spread of countries in my own experience - and the US was by some serious margin the most complicated.

It isn't that bad in the US using turbo tax. Just remember to answer no to receiving payments from the "Ottoman Turkish Empire Settlement". (Actual question).

> It isn't that bad in the US using turbo tax.

That's entirely the point of the linked article. TurboTax has lobbied to keep the system convoluted so they can sell you their software.

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

#425

Post by 0xfeba »

georgeecollins wrote: post #232
sampo wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Government which stays in power based on people's anti-government sentiment, isn't that something.

Welcome to the United States! We are governed by people who don't believe in government. :)

> We are governed by people who don't believe in government.

This is more true now than ever. An EPA head that doesn't accept climate change, or believe in the EPA at all. A DOE head that wanted to eliminate a specific department that he heads, but can't quite remember what it is; an FCC head that wants to remove most FCC regulations (this is not as bad as the other examples, though), a SoE that doesn't believe in public education...

In a work of fiction, it'd be hilarious.

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

#426

Post by adaml_623 »

greedo wrote: post #416
arethuza wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I think 'right sized' armed forces for our needs" The UK armed forces do seem a bit top-heavy and our record when it comes to procurement is, by most accounts, appalling.

Right-sized? You have almost no tanks anymore, and the ones you do are 80's era. The Royal Navy is a shadow of a shadow navy. The RAF is woefully under-equipped to protect against Russian incursions.

Maybe they are not worried about the Russians but about other "under the table" threats where someone might shoot first.

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

#427

Post by mvindahl »

xupybd wrote: post #97

I live in New Zealand. I don't have to file taxes if my income is a standard wage my tax payments are automatic. My employer deducts them from my wage and they are sent to the IRD (Our government tax dept). My student loan and super payments are also automatic. If there is anything wrong then at the end of the tax year I can file to correct things. I also get donations rebates, this is a one page form that lists all…

Pretty much same system here in .dk. I remember when I was a child back in the 1980s and my dad went through the annual ritual of filing taxes. It was a big hairy mess of papers accompanied with colourful cusswords. These days it's just a quick glance at a prefilled form (we can correct values but we usually don't need to).

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

#428

Post by wnevets »

cderwin wrote: post #339
wnevets wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

because far too many people vote against their own interest just so gay people can't get married, or transgenders using the right bathrooms or to stop the war on christmas or whatever fake crisis was invented for that election year.

> because far too many people vote against their own interest You don't get to decide what other people's interests are, and you certainly cannot make an empirical case that the interests of all individuals would be better served by voting one way or the other. This sort of reductionism and failure to interact with people you disagree with in good faith ought to have no place on a professional forum like this.

>You don't get to decide what other people's interests are,

I absolutely can,there are far too many voters who are now upset that obamacare & the aca are the same thing and they're going to lose their health insurance.

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

#429

Post by scurvy »

waqf wrote: post #209
scurvy wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since some people are downvoting for bad reasons, I'll just toss in this anecdote: My parents were audited by the IRS for 5 years straight. They were convinced that my father "was hiding income through losses in your wife's business." My father was a surgeon; my mom ran an antiques shop. The IRS auditors setup camp in our living room for a month going on five years. That quote was straight from the lead auditor's mou…

If married filing jointly is sexist, why does it have the same income brackets irrespective of the sexes of the people in the marriage?

That's only a recent development since the 80's. In 1948, when the filing status was adopted, married women overwhelmingly didn't work.

Look at the law through a historical lense, not today's.

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

#430

Post by M_Grey »

elefanten wrote: post #265
M_Grey wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, a couple of wars for one thing, but not fixing dams, that's for sure.

What a sophomoric, bad faith quip. What agent of common infrastructure do you prefer? How many dams have they fixed and how much diplomacy do they engage in? Hint: zero.

>What a sophomoric, bad faith quip...

There's no need for that, and it occludes rather than clarifies what little point you have.

Post reply on HN