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TurboTax Freemium Funnel: Critical Analysis and UX Teardown

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Re: TurboTax Freemium Funnel: Critical Analysis and UX Teardown

#21

Post by Lendal »

I was with this article until the last paragraph, "Millennials rightly demand more from their products and services than any generation before, and are increasingly skeptical toward disingenuous brands like Walmart and McDonalds. They abhor deceit and trickery, and increasingly gravitate toward brands that align with their values."

Really? Only millenials (whatever that means) are characterized by these values? How do you figure? My experience has been exactly the opposite, actually. But Brandon Read appears to believe that purely because of my "generation", I gravitate toward deceit and trickery. Okay, thanks for that valuable insight, Brandon. Whatever.

Re: TurboTax Freemium Funnel: Critical Analysis and UX Teardown

#22

Post by dlp211 »

nsxwolf wrote: post #14
cproctor wrote: post #7

It's not that hard to do your taxes on your own, especially if you have last year's as a model to check yourself. For computationally-oriented folks, I imagine you probably want to have a mental model of how you're presenting yourself tax-wise (instead of just blindly trusting Turbo Tax). In that case, most of what you're getting with Turbo Tax is UI.

There’s a lot of deductions I qualify for that I didn’t know about until I hired a real accountant. I also didn’t know about depreciation recapture on the sale of a rental property. I didn’t know about depreciation at all. If I hadn’t hired an accountant I never would have known to take the depreciation, and wouldn’t have learned that your depreciation gets recaptured even if you don’t claim it. If your tax situation…

For the record, Turbo Tax handles this fine. I have used TT for over a decade now and they have been able to handle every situation with no issues. Doing my taxes usually takes me about an hour. Cheaper and faster than having a CPA do it.

Re: TurboTax Freemium Funnel: Critical Analysis and UX Teardown

#23

Post by osrec »

djcapelis wrote: post #3

I stopped using TurboTax some years ago and switched to TaxAct as a less bad alternative. I didn’t believe them to be necessarily tons better than giving money to TurboTax, but I figured at least it wouldn’t just keep solidifying a market leader who was capturing a significant market based mostly around actively lobbying to keep it that way. In the last two years I took a leap to CreditKarma’s tax offering. It is a b…

We often pick up a bunch of disgruntled Intuit users at https://usebx.com

Re: TurboTax Freemium Funnel: Critical Analysis and UX Teardown

#24

Post by emmarose »

Lendal wrote: post #21

I was with this article until the last paragraph, "Millennials rightly demand more from their products and services than any generation before, and are increasingly skeptical toward disingenuous brands like Walmart and McDonalds. They abhor deceit and trickery, and increasingly gravitate toward brands that align with their values." Really? Only millenials (whatever that means) are characterized by these values? How d…

I don't think calling out the standard values of one generation necessarily means he's taking shots at other generations. I just think that millennials have been hit with more advertising over the course of their lives than the generations before them, and are therefore more distrustful in general. I think that's all he's trying to say here.

Re: TurboTax Freemium Funnel: Critical Analysis and UX Teardown

#25

Post by goatherders »

maxerickson wrote: post #17
goatherders wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoever told you that is a moron. The new tax changes go into effect for 2018. Fewer itemizers for 2017 taxes has nothing to do with the changes to the tax code.

I guess my statement as made is ambiguous, but I wouldn't have said "this year" if I meant 2017 taxes.

Ok. Granted fewer people will itemize in 2018. And so what? I don't think TT has a stranglehold on the industry because people worry about their itemizations. In other words, I don't expect TT to have fewer users and less revenue for 2018 returns. No one is going to say "the standard deduction makes sense for me...I no longer need turbo tax"

Re: TurboTax Freemium Funnel: Critical Analysis and UX Teardown

#26

Post by cortesoft »

I do hate that they lobby for keeping taxes hard to file, but I have no issue paying them $60 to do my taxes. The website is such a great user experience, and they earned that money in my estimation. Why should it be free? They clearly put a lot of work into their site.

My only other issue with them is that they keep emailing me telling me to get started with my filing, but I already completed my tax return weeks ago.

Re: TurboTax Freemium Funnel: Critical Analysis and UX Teardown

#27

Post by [deleted] »

splitrocket wrote: post #12

America, one of the few developed nations where doing your taxes involves paying a third party to help you tell the government what it already knows. TurboTax and HR block lobby considerably to prevent the government from making the process of paying taxes free, fast, and painless for the overwhelming majority of taxpayers. https://www.propublica.org/article/filing-taxes-could-be-fre...

[deleted]

Re: TurboTax Freemium Funnel: Critical Analysis and UX Teardown

#28

Post by mgkimsal »

nsxwolf wrote: post #14
cproctor wrote: post #7

It's not that hard to do your taxes on your own, especially if you have last year's as a model to check yourself. For computationally-oriented folks, I imagine you probably want to have a mental model of how you're presenting yourself tax-wise (instead of just blindly trusting Turbo Tax). In that case, most of what you're getting with Turbo Tax is UI.

There’s a lot of deductions I qualify for that I didn’t know about until I hired a real accountant. I also didn’t know about depreciation recapture on the sale of a rental property. I didn’t know about depreciation at all. If I hadn’t hired an accountant I never would have known to take the depreciation, and wouldn’t have learned that your depreciation gets recaptured even if you don’t claim it. If your tax situation…

Many folks here are web/software people. Many of us would actively argue against a business owner building their own website precisely because "you don't know what you don't know", and your time has a certain value. Focus on your business, leave the tech/web/software/marketing to professionals, etc.

At some point it makes sense to DIY; at another point, switching to a professional makes more sense. Figuring out where that line is can be years of "penny-wise, pound-foolish" behaviour of DIY with respect to tax prep.

Re: TurboTax Freemium Funnel: Critical Analysis and UX Teardown

#29

Post by Retric »

maxerickson wrote: post #13
goatherders wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know the new tax law simplifies filing since it didn't apply to 2017?

It's pretty much guaranteed that fewer people will itemize this year.

You generally need to do the itemized calculations to see which one saves you more money. Thus, the result is kind of meaningless as you do the same work either way.

The only way to simplify taxes is to actually remove deductions.

Re: TurboTax Freemium Funnel: Critical Analysis and UX Teardown

#30

Post by geomark »

rdl wrote: post #18

I'm selfishly happy that tax year 2017 is the last year I'll probably be filing a personal US tax return (at least a substantial one) for a long time. Maybe in 2036 they will have solved this.

Did you renounce US citizenship? I think that's the only way to remove the requirement to file a US tax return.
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