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TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

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Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#261

Post by mlindner »

cabaalis wrote: post #232
mlindner wrote: post #194

The IRS already provides a free-file option, you just need to spend more time reading instructions. https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/before-starting-free-fi... Not sure what all the hate is here. If you're not completely uneducated, you can figure this out yourself.

> In exchange for the IRS promising not to create its own free, online filing tool, Intuit, H&R Block and other companies signed a deal to offer Free File options to lower-income Americans. Hence the hate when they attempt to hide such an option. Signed a deal.

There's no income limitations for what I linked.

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#262

Post by Faark »

spaginal wrote: post #184
cr0sh wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why, but all of this "privatization" bugs the hell out of me. Maybe it has something to with wanting to see my taxes being used properly, rather than going to a private company's profits. Maybe it's the abstraction; that'd I like to know that the workers I see doing the work for the government are government employees, and that I am, in some small way, helping them? I mean, sure, with a private company t…

It’s done because private industry in most circumstances, does it better than government can, and at the end of the day it can be significantly cheaper and less of a boondoggle than if government did it all themselves as government likes to do. Think of the professional experience, supply chain, and logistics for each industry where you could theoretically involve government to control or produce on it’s own. The err…

> It’s done because private industry in most circumstances, does it better than government can, and at the end of the day it can be significantly cheaper and less of a boondoggle than if government did it all themselves as government likes to do.

But we have to keep in mind the only way to have citizens reap the benefits from this efficiency is by competition of the services offered. If for any reason competition cannot arise, outsourcing the task away from gov makes little difference while giving away a lot of the control/accountability we had.

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#263

Post by nnain »

Damn, one thing I definitely don't envy about US is the lobbying. This definitely shouldn't have been left to a private company!

Indian govt websites aren't great and most look dated, and still income tax site run by govt is just about fine. No reason that the IRS/US gov should have locked themselves out of doing this.

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#264

Post by TeMPOraL »

bunderbunder wrote: post #159
ummonk wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USPS is not free.

Come to think of it, I had to pay for the paper and toner, too.

And electricity your computer and printer used. And so would you if you'd fill electronically.

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#265

Post by TeMPOraL »

Gene_Parmesan wrote: post #240
kristopolous wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many are convinced that paying the workers, the lobbyists, shareholders, board of directors, and contract overhead is cheaper than just paying the workers directly. I've been investigating why people think this for years. I've read a number of books, listened to lectures, went to proseminars in economics at UC schools, took some classes ... Recently, I've become increasingly convinced it's actually just a giant hustl…

> Just like 500 years ago how religious people controlled the narrative and set up the rules of society and "laws of nature" to basically be giant money trees for them, there's a new class of people who have done the same thing. It's still religion, in terms of the psychology behind it. It's just a religion devoted to money. Every middle-income person has been fooled into thinking that they're a CEO for a company of…

> But where does this corruption stem from?

Honestly, I don't think there's a point in asking whether corruption is more a government thing or a private thing.

Corruptions stems from the same things trade does - more than one people, each having desires and something someone else needs. It happens when a person, through temptation or duress, decides to enrich themselves at the expense of the organization they're working for. It's a fact of life, and I think the only relevant question is, for any given organization, how is it structured to combat this quite natural phenomenon.

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#266

Post by JohnFen »

spaginal wrote: post #184
cr0sh wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why, but all of this "privatization" bugs the hell out of me. Maybe it has something to with wanting to see my taxes being used properly, rather than going to a private company's profits. Maybe it's the abstraction; that'd I like to know that the workers I see doing the work for the government are government employees, and that I am, in some small way, helping them? I mean, sure, with a private company t…

It’s done because private industry in most circumstances, does it better than government can, and at the end of the day it can be significantly cheaper and less of a boondoggle than if government did it all themselves as government likes to do. Think of the professional experience, supply chain, and logistics for each industry where you could theoretically involve government to control or produce on it’s own. The err…

> It’s done because private industry in most circumstances, does it better than government can

I hear this often, but I haven't seen very many examples of it in practice. But it depends on what, exactly is being privatized.

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#267

Post by JohnFen »

jimrhods23 wrote: post #192
metalliqaz wrote: post #4

Yeah they do, of course they do. They are in business to make money, after all. The real story is the absolute travesty of government corruption that TurboTax and HR Block have perpetrated by making it illegal for the government to make tax filing as easy as it should be. It's one of the things I would immediately correct if I was king for a day.

If the government made it easy, the default tax form would give no benefit to the taxpayer. Many uneducated people would just hand it in and not have any write offs/deductions anyway. By making it require a small amount of effort, people are forced to take a look at what they are paying. People with money/educated about taxes would actually take the time to fill out the forms and benefit from deductions. It wouldn't…

I don't understand your argument at all. You seem to be arguing that making taxes difficult is a good thing because it's educational? I disagree. All it does is increase the time and expense of doing taxes.

> People with money/educated about taxes would actually take the time to fill out the forms and benefit from deductions.

I don't think this is universally true. People will do a cost/benefit on this stuff. For some people, it will be worth the tradeoff required to maximally reduce taxes. For others, it absolutely is not. Why penalize the latter group?

> I really don't think we benefit society by catering to an uneducated/indifferent populace.

It's not catering to a specific group, it's avoiding penalizing that group. From my point of view, intentionally making taxes complex really amounts to an additional unwarranted tax on people.

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#268

Post by Demiurge »

JohnFen wrote: post #255
Demiurge wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

> I'm sure you've always quit every company in such a situation? I have absolutely quit jobs because I had serious issues with the way my employer did business. I would again. It makes sleeping at night a lot easier.

Congratulations, very few people can say the same.

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#269

Post by JohnFen »

Demiurge wrote: post #268
JohnFen wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm sure you've always quit every company in such a situation? I have absolutely quit jobs because I had serious issues with the way my employer did business. I would again. It makes sleeping at night a lot easier.

Congratulations, very few people can say the same.

Maybe, maybe not. A not insignificant percentage of my colleagues can say the same.

My point is that everyone can, and does, decide this sort of thing for themselves. Very few people are actually, no matter how much they may think they are, trapped -- particularly at this point in time in our industry. At worst, it's a matter of how much disruption and discomfort they're willing to put up with to adhere to their principles.

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#270

Post by astura »

ryandrake wrote: post #170
astura wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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. This really depends on how good your 401(k) is and what kind of investments you want to make. If you just want the standard (and very good) low-cost three-fund portfolio, all 401(k) programs I’ve seen offer these kinds of index…

>This really depends on how good your 401(k) is and what kind of investments you want to make.

I disagree because 401(k)s can change on a whim though... My company decided to change literally all of our fund options overnight, and we couldn't keep what we already invested in the old funds, we just had to buy into the new funds. So even if your 401k is awesome today, it might not be awesome tomorrow. If your IRA provider decides to change their fund offerings, you can just move to a different one.

Luckily our new funds had perfectly fine choices, but that might not have been the case.

>If you just want the standard (and very good) low-cost three-fund portfolio, all 401(k) programs I’ve seen offer these kinds of index funds.

Honestly, both our original and current 401(k) options didn't/don't have a good international fund, the ones they had had very high expenses (over 1%)

There's also no low cost REIT index on my 401(k) (however, REIT isn't part of the 3-fund profolio)

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