Credit Karma does a good job providing free federal and state tax filing. Disclaimer: I work there but not on tax
If there was a way to sign up with a VoIP number I would definitely try it.
TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes
191–200 of 283 posts
Re: TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nah, you're missing the forest when looking at the trees. Go bigger. Why the hell is the tax code so damn complicated that it requires certified experts and special software to perform personal tax filings? I can see the case for a complex code for business taxes since there are many different industries that have different rules. But personal returns should never, ever have such complicated rules. And that doesn't m…
What complicated rules? The basic 1040 is perfectly straightforward, even if you have a few sources of income or special deductions/credits.
The notion of deductions (Schedule A) is complicated enough. I did not know, for example, that state income tax was deductible (pre-tax reforms). If I hadn't just happened to use a tax software (I almost never use one), I would have been overpaying in taxes.
Now of course, once I learned this, Schedule A was a breeze. But it's not something I expect a common person to know, and it's unfair that some of them may be overpaying in taxes due to a (nontrivial) piece of knowledge.
And then I'm always wondering if there are any other deductions I should be aware of.
Re: TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
I want to try CreditKarma's free filing, but since its free, I'm the product, and i'm not sure what that means, when handing them all my tax info yet..
This statement, "If it's free, I'm the product" is becoming less and less relevant because, "Even if it's not free, I'm usually the product anyway" Think Comcast, Verizon, various Android phones, various modern TVs, etc.
Okay, granted many companies do it, but you're still dodging the parent comment's issue about this specifically. WHY is it free, WHAT are they doing?
Re: TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just curious: how much do you pay your accountant? A single federal/state personal return done by a pro goes for anywhere between $400 and $800 around here, compared to $80 or so with TurboTax. I can’t imagine the difference between an accountant and me doing my taxes to be more than that, especially with a “not terribly complicated” return. Are your taxes really hundreds of dollars less just from hiring a sorcerer t…
I used to use TurboTax and painstakingly enter everything imaginable and read everything to make sure I wasn't missing anything and would consistently get back around $4,500 to $5,000 in total between Federal and state. Using him, we got back $6,500 total. Also, with the Trump tax changes taking effect, a bunch of coworkers of mine said they got screwed and got back like half of what they used to get back. A few said…
Wow, does he provide any explanation of the delta between the two returns? Side by side comparison of what’s being filed?
I ask because I once did go to a CPA, after first filling out the forms myself. The tax bill he computed was identical to what I came up with, so I concluded he provided no value over doing it myself!
Re: TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes
#195The real dark pattern is their ability to bribe the Congress into preventing IRS from implementing free filing.
Nah, you're missing the forest when looking at the trees. Go bigger. Why the hell is the tax code so damn complicated that it requires certified experts and special software to perform personal tax filings? I can see the case for a complex code for business taxes since there are many different industries that have different rules. But personal returns should never, ever have such complicated rules. And that doesn't m…
The complexity grew over time. Democrats want to add more taxes or tweak the distribution in favor of progressive policies, not remove old taxes. Republicans want people to hate taxes so they can slash them (mostly for the rich, i.e. regressive taxes).
Thus, no one is simplifying, for their own reasons.
Re: TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why the hell is the tax code so damn complicated that it requires certified experts and special software to perform personal tax filings? My response is: >Nah, you're missing the forest when looking at the trees. Go bigger. Why are we even having to file our own taxes? The IRS already checks everything. They have all the information that you enter into these systems (in fact, turbo tax has frequently had my W2 befo…
Stolen from Twitter [1]: "Government: You owe us money. It’s called taxes. Me: How much do I owe? Gov’t: You have to figure that out. Me: I just pay what I want? Gov’t: Oh, no we know exactly how much you owe. But you have to guess that number too. Me: What if I get it wrong? Gov’t: You go to prison" [1] https://twitter.com/jordan_stratton/status/11181414550616719...
You realize that only a portion of people get audited right?
Sure, your government could calculate everyone's taxes but I'm guessing those taxes would need to go up...
Re: TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes
#197They're not perfect, but I've had success filing with FreeTaxUSA - federal is free, state is $15: https://www.freetaxusa.com/ Obviously too late for people this year, and my tax situation is relatively straightforward so I can't speak to how well it handles edge cases, but the first year I used it I went through the process with both TurboTax and FreeTaxUSA and got the exact same estimated refund. The last straw with…
CreditKarma is 100% free for everything. I've used them the last two years without issue, although they dramatically improved the service this last year. It was a little rough year 1.
I'm staying away from these free services after data scandals. My tax return is highly sensitive data. I don't want it to get in the hands of advertisers in lieu of saving a few bucks.
Re: TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's something to be said for making sure the government is doing it accurately. I bet there's a lot of people for whom the IRS is wrong about. Also, if you have other income with no W2 it needs to be reported.
> There's something to be said for making sure the government is doing it accurately. >> Let the IRS do it, they send you a copy and you send it back either as is or with modifications. That's why you check it. And to respond to a possible next question, do we trust TurboTax (or others) more? > Also, if you have other income with no W2 it needs to be reported. All those other forms that are handed to you are ALSO alr…
It's a bit more complicated than that. For example, rental income and capital gains on sales of property or owned items don't typically have reported forms associated with them. But for probably 90% of tax filers, the IRS should already have everything it needs and know the exact amount owed.
Re: TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
Stolen from Twitter [1]: "Government: You owe us money. It’s called taxes. Me: How much do I owe? Gov’t: You have to figure that out. Me: I just pay what I want? Gov’t: Oh, no we know exactly how much you owe. But you have to guess that number too. Me: What if I get it wrong? Gov’t: You go to prison" [1] https://twitter.com/jordan_stratton/status/11181414550616719...
You realize that only a portion of people get audited right? Sure, your government could calculate everyone's taxes but I'm guessing those taxes would need to go up...
The IRS does in fact compare the data you send them to the data they have. Presumably the IRS, famous for it's computer system, isn't hand-checking every return.
Re: TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes
#200They're not perfect, but I've had success filing with FreeTaxUSA - federal is free, state is $15: https://www.freetaxusa.com/ Obviously too late for people this year, and my tax situation is relatively straightforward so I can't speak to how well it handles edge cases, but the first year I used it I went through the process with both TurboTax and FreeTaxUSA and got the exact same estimated refund. The last straw with…
I've also been using FreeTaxUSA for the past couple years and have been pretty happy, but this year, for the first time, they went down for several hours on April 15[0] (I know, I know, my fault for procrastinating). I ended up filing via CreditKarma about 45 minutes before midnight, thankfully FreeTaxUSA came online long enough for me to pull up last year's return to get my AGI for the necessary IRS identity verification.
I'll probably try them again next year, but CreditKarma worked out pretty well (they've come a long way since the first version a couple years ago) and doesn't charge for state filing. The big downside is that you have to agree to let them use whatever data they pull in as part of your profile for better marketing etc.
[0] https://twitter.com/FreeTaxUSA/status/1117953907550855168