TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines • Hacker News Board

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#41

Post by untog » Fri, Apr 26, 2019, 3:43 PM UTC

Demiurge wrote: post #39

jahabrewer wrote: post #30

Fuck Intuit. Shame on engineers who work there.

Really? This is a greedy policy, not an engineering decision. How many engineers have managers they disagree with? I'm sure you've always quit every company in such a situation?

No-one is saying engineers chose the company policy, they're saying that engineers are complicit by working on it. Someone had to but that no-index instruction on the page, and they knew what they were doing.

We're lucky (at least at this moment in time) that engineers are in huge demand. If you're an engineer at an ethically compromised company you could change jobs within a few months, tops. If you haven't then, yes, it's going to affect my opinion of you.

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#42

Post by craftyguy » Fri, Apr 26, 2019, 3:43 PM UTC

jahabrewer wrote: post #30

Fuck Intuit. Shame on engineers who work there.

I'd rather shame the government that allows Intuit to have their way with taxpayers. Intuit exists primarily because of the convoluted tax filing process in the US afterall..

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#43

Post by cmurf » Fri, Apr 26, 2019, 3:43 PM UTC

mruts wrote: post #24

Why do low income people need any software to file taxes in the first place? If you just make a wage taxes are trivial.

Withholding overtaxes. They're entitled to a refund.

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#44

Post by quantumwoke » Fri, Apr 26, 2019, 3:44 PM UTC

As someone who lives outside of the US, can someone please explain how the US government has not implemented its own free tax filing system? In my home country this hasn't been a thing for over 10 years.

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#45

Post by DangerousPie » Fri, Apr 26, 2019, 3:47 PM UTC

Planet Money had a great episode a while ago about how much more complicated tax returns in the US are than in any other country, and how TurboTax has been fighting to keep it that way: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/03/22/521132960/epis...

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#46

Post by vernie » Fri, Apr 26, 2019, 3:48 PM UTC

craftyguy wrote: post #42

jahabrewer wrote: post #30

Fuck Intuit. Shame on engineers who work there.

I'd rather shame the government that allows Intuit to have their way with taxpayers. Intuit exists primarily because of the convoluted tax filing process in the US afterall..

Intuit is actively involved in making the process as convoluted as possible.

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#47

Post by ppseafield » Fri, Apr 26, 2019, 3:48 PM UTC

craftyguy wrote: post #42

jahabrewer wrote: post #30

Fuck Intuit. Shame on engineers who work there.

I'd rather shame the government that allows Intuit to have their way with taxpayers. Intuit exists primarily because of the convoluted tax filing process in the US afterall..

Intuit lobbies to keep taxes complicated so they can continue to have a business model.

https://www.propublica.org/article/filing-taxes-could-be-fre...

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#48

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Apr 26, 2019, 3:48 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#49

Post by thanatos_dem » Fri, Apr 26, 2019, 3:50 PM UTC

It’s a bit on the nose to see their robots.txt file state:

> Disallow: taxfreedom

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#50

Post by noer » Fri, Apr 26, 2019, 3:50 PM UTC

This goes way beyond dark patterns and ux strategies to push people towards paid options. This is manipulating search engines to hide their services when searching for "free tax filing". If they're going to offer free services, but hide them from potential customers, they might as well not be offering them. if they're not offering them, then they're not holding up their end of the bargain with the IRS.