Hopefully we get a Robin Hood version of tax filing software soon. :)
TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines
101–110 of 277 posts
Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines
#102Fuck 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?
(software) Engineers in todays economy are privileged with the ability to choose their jobs.
I think people with power should help fix wrongs inflicted on other people and not silently comply for a share of the pie.
I turned down a few jobs I found immoral even though the compensation was substantially higher than the alternatives.
Not everyone have this privilege, but when you do, I believe there's a moral obligation to use it.
Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
Intuit is actively involved in making the process as convoluted as possible.
Right, and they are only successful because a certain government allows them to be disproportionately influential... So my comment is still very much valid.
Shame is not zero-sum; surely there's enough for all parties here.
Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Funding an IRA is "incredibly uncommon"?
If you’ve got only W2 income then a 401k would be much more common. A normal IRA is “common” as well, but not nearly as much so I’d argue. As another comment pointed out it could have been a Roth IRA, which has different rules. It could also have simply been some other oddity or quirk of the tax software at the time. None of the specifics negate anything related to complexity vs cost.
You can have both an IRA and a 401(k) and contribute to both in any given tax year (up to limits set by the IRS for each individual account).
In fact, you SHOULD have both since 401(k)s are hugely inflexible compared to IRAs so it makes sense to fund an IRA before a 401(k) unless you're getting a match on the 401(k) contributions. So if you want to save 10% for retirement and you get a 5% match on your 401(k) then it usually makes most sense to put 5% in the 401(k) to get the match and 5% in the IRA for control and flexibly.
If you then want to bump up your your retirement contribution to 15% then 5% should go in the 401(k) and 10% into the IRA, staying within the legal IRA contribution limits. Once your IRA is maxed out, then the remaining should go into the 401(k) (until your 401(k) is maxed out, of course).
401(k) can also be rolled over to IRAs when you leave your employer, so even someone who only contributes to a 401(k) will usually end up with an IRA.
Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines
#105Govt: "We need some money from you to buy things." Me: "How much?" Govt: "You figure it out." Me: "Oh, I get to pay whatever I want?" Govt: "LOL, no, we have a figure that we want you to pay." Me: "What happens if I guess that number wrong?" Govt: "You get to go to prison."
You only go to prison if you willfully and purposely try to defraud the government. It’s more of a, “Pay what you believe you owe based on your best guess and the laws as you best understand them, and if we disagree we may ask you to pay more.”
"ask"
Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Saw that on every page they have, not scrutinised the sanity of their code, but looks like it is part of their site template. Also the site code - egads, 200+_ blank lines as a header, then clearly some extra padding blank lines here and there.
It is not part of their site template. The Turbotax home page has "yes, do index" meta tags. So does their deceptive "free edition" page at https://turbotax.intuit.com/personal-taxes/online/free-editi... : You've been tricked. Imagine how easily people who can't read source code get sucked into the wrong version.
Yes, I see the issue more clearly now. So many aspects about American TAX I never understood, the one were citizens who are living in another country and paying tax there also have to pay American income TAX always seemed brutal.
Most people in the UK are PAYE and the employer does tax fillings and as such the need for a individual to file any form of tax return is lower than the American system that from my understanding - mandates it and the onus for any tax information is placed solely upon the individual. Which I would of thought opens up a larger can of worms for fraud potential from the payer and payee as well as opening up less skilled people into realms they will make mistakes to their own detrement.
Yet if you're a corporation - tax seems to offer more freedom in expression compared to individuals. Which is the norm in many a country.
Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
I may have mispoke. In addition to a Roth IRA, I also had a traditional brokerage account. It's my understanding even if you invest in index funds/ETFs, some of the stocks in the funds generate dividends and those can be taxable even if there's no capital gains tax on the growth in value of the index fund/ETF. Anyways, whether it was from the brokerage I opened or the IRA, I had a class of income that would have made…
That's a rather big misstatement: most lower income people (most people in general actually) won't be investing post-tax, a 1099-DIV really is quite uncommon It's still a shitty and stupid situation... but that doesn't mean it's relevant for most free filers. You should be able to skip the foreign tax credit if you manually enter the 1099-DIV: simply enter foreign taxes paid field on the 1099-DIV as 0, and your tax s…
Many people's companies don't offer 401ks.
The limit for IRAs is lower than that for 401ks. It is very common to open a brokerage account if you had more than 5500 you wanted to put away.
(Ex: grad student who interns in the summer, contractor with boom and bust pay cycle, or any worker in a company that doesn't offer a 401k)
>You should be able to skip the foreign tax credit if you manually enter the 1099-DIV: simply enter foreign taxes paid field on the 1099-DIV as 0, and your tax software won't offer to credit it.
I'm not sure it's legal to lie about the contents of the 1099-DIV, even if the lie is to the government's benefit :)
Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines
#108[deleted]
Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
You only go to prison if you willfully and purposely try to defraud the government. It’s more of a, “Pay what you believe you owe based on your best guess and the laws as you best understand them, and if we disagree we may ask you to pay more.”
"ask"
It definitely is an ask. If you can’t pay it you can often negotiate an amount you can pay. And they even let you pay over time.
Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Correction: 100% of taxpayers are eligible for free filing, and 70% of them are eligible for free electronic filing. The options out there for free e-filing are hardly any better than the paper option, though. They're typically just the paper forms translated very directly into an electronic fill-in form. You're still left to your own to make sense of all the byzantine rules and instructions, and to grind through it…
USPS is not free.
It may as well be. It costs less than a dollar to send a letter through the post.