Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

TurboTax and H&R Block Saw Free Tax Filing as a Threat

propublica.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 148 posts

Re: TurboTax and H&R Block Saw Free Tax Filing as a Threat

#21

Post by rhizome »

jms703 wrote: post #4
jontaydev wrote: post #2

Can anybody suggest an alternative program that will help me file? I know I could probably do this myself, but I prefer having software validate my returns. It seems like this is something an indie developer could create, but maybe its too complicated and too risky?

I don't see how anyone can produce tax software, resolve bugs and issues, and keep it up to date with current tax code without charging money for it. It's too bad that paying taxes is this difficult.

That's why it's a good idea to pay the IRS with tax dollars to create their own free efile facility.

Re: TurboTax and H&R Block Saw Free Tax Filing as a Threat

#22

Post by notTyler »

arachnids wrote: post #11
jontaydev wrote: post #2

Can anybody suggest an alternative program that will help me file? I know I could probably do this myself, but I prefer having software validate my returns. It seems like this is something an indie developer could create, but maybe its too complicated and too risky?

Credit karma lets you file both federal and state for free . CreditKarma's filing service is pretty new, so there are lots of edge cases they don't handle well or at all (for example the UI to enter stock trades is awful). I put my numbers into TurboTax and CreditKarma to make sure they match for validation, then filed with CreditKarma. You give them a lot of data about you that they then use to sell you insurance an…

I used CK the past two years and started getting a ton of robocalls and credit card offers. Not to mention my college that never had my phone number previously started calling me on a weekly basis hounding me for donations.

Re: TurboTax and H&R Block Saw Free Tax Filing as a Threat

#23

Post by _jal »

neya wrote: post #9

Just curious, is there any value to making a clone of H&R Block / Intuit and making it open source (with also hosted somewhere)? It probably takes only a weekend for me to do this and I'll be happy to do it if there is significant interest from my fellow HNers. Besides, fuck Intuit, never been a fan of them for the exact reasons mentioned in the article.

Solving this problem is much, much deeper than writing software.

For absolute starters, think about what happens when someone gets audited after using your software. ( For the purposes of this exercise it doesn't matter at all "who's right".) Look in to laws related to offering tax advice, and then call a lawyer. Actually, call several...

Re: TurboTax and H&R Block Saw Free Tax Filing as a Threat

#24

Post by neya »

nostromo wrote: post #19
neya wrote: post #9

Just curious, is there any value to making a clone of H&R Block / Intuit and making it open source (with also hosted somewhere)? It probably takes only a weekend for me to do this and I'll be happy to do it if there is significant interest from my fellow HNers. Besides, fuck Intuit, never been a fan of them for the exact reasons mentioned in the article.

> It probably takes only a weekend for me to do this The tax code is very complex, and nobody could replicate these systems in a weekend. And even if you did, it would be out of date in a year.

Can you give me a specific example of something that you think would be very complex? Just to make sure I'm not missing out on something obvious.

Re: TurboTax and H&R Block Saw Free Tax Filing as a Threat

#25

Post by jwiley »

I've heard anecdotally from people working in non-profit agencies assisting with tax preparation that there was extensive lobbying to prevent changes that would make it easier to file for the earned income tax credit.

The average return for those applicable is ~$2,500, which is a huge amount for people who qualify, lost so Intuit and H&R block can better market their product.

https://www.eitc.irs.gov/partner-toolkit/basic-marketing-com...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2019/04/30/research...

Re: TurboTax and H&R Block Saw Free Tax Filing as a Threat

#26

Post by neya »

rhizome wrote: post #18
neya wrote: post #9

Just curious, is there any value to making a clone of H&R Block / Intuit and making it open source (with also hosted somewhere)? It probably takes only a weekend for me to do this and I'll be happy to do it if there is significant interest from my fellow HNers. Besides, fuck Intuit, never been a fan of them for the exact reasons mentioned in the article.

I imagine that establishing the technical relationship with the IRS is one of the bigger challenges, particularly for open source. Gotta love the "HN Weekender" moxie, though!

Do I really need to deal with IRS? I know several softwares hand you over a filled out form that you submit online to IRS. Won't that be good enough for a alpha or v0.1?

Re: TurboTax and H&R Block Saw Free Tax Filing as a Threat

#28

Post by TimTheTinker »

neya wrote: post #9

Just curious, is there any value to making a clone of H&R Block / Intuit and making it open source (with also hosted somewhere)? It probably takes only a weekend for me to do this and I'll be happy to do it if there is significant interest from my fellow HNers. Besides, fuck Intuit, never been a fan of them for the exact reasons mentioned in the article.

> It probably takes only a weekend for me to do this

Seriously? I know there are "10x" developers out there (I actually have worked alongside one extensively) but the PDF export of all the forms and IRS eFile integration alone seems like it would take a little longer than a weekend, even for an extremely prolific developer.

Re: TurboTax and H&R Block Saw Free Tax Filing as a Threat

#29

Post by Animats »

A similar trick exists for credit reports.

The real site for Government-mandated free credit reports:

https://www.annualcreditreport.com

(See "https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/how-do-i-get-a-copy...)

The highly publicized deceptive site designed to get you to sign up for a service you don't need:

https://www.freecreditreport.com/

Re: TurboTax and H&R Block Saw Free Tax Filing as a Threat

#30

Post by cdolan »

neya wrote: post #24
nostromo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It probably takes only a weekend for me to do this The tax code is very complex, and nobody could replicate these systems in a weekend. And even if you did, it would be out of date in a year.

Can you give me a specific example of something that you think would be very complex? Just to make sure I'm not missing out on something obvious.

What country are you in that you think tax software can be written in a weekend?

Sorry if the tone of that sounds rude, I don’t know how to better word it, but from a US perspective, our taxes are way too broken for a 48-hour sprint to solve

Post reply on HN