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

41–50 of 148 posts

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

#41

Post by pnutjam »

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.

I use these guys: https://www.freetax.com/#about

There storefronts always looked a bit skeevy to me, but they've never charged me a dime for this product and I've used it for 3 years.

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

#42

Post by jsnider3 »

1121redblackgo wrote: post #10
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 swooped into the game this year and offered free tax return filing. The software worked well for me and my simple return, and expect it could work well for medium complexity problems as well. I have no doubt that they will try to monitize in the future, but until they do, this seems like a good deal for consumers

It seems obvious that Credit Karma would try to monetize it by using your tax data to advertise credit cards and loans to you.

Just a little bit of surveillance capitalism to help you save money.

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

#43

Post by bluGill »

chadash wrote: post #37
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 and I'll be happy to do it if there is significant interest from my fellow HNers. I think you are underestimating by a long shot. Let's say that you forgo any UI and just make a command line tool that only developers use. And let's assume that you don't have tests, don't have any bugs, no any significant things that trip you up. To get something useful, you would n…

Don't forget that just because you can doesn't mean you should. You can deduct your home office, but then you depreciate the room: when you sell you need to figure capital gains differently on that room. The above might or might not apply depending on exact details and how the tax laws change over time.

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

#44

Post by raverbashing »

rhizome wrote: post #21
jms703 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's exactly the answer

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

#45

Post by danso »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #38
danso wrote: post #14

FWIW, Turbotax/H&R's hiding of their Free File site pages was discussed here about a week ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19758126 They have since made their pages discoverable by search engines and have denied that it was intentional obfuscation. But the news in TFA is that apparently someone at (or formerly at) H&R leaked internal documents with explicit guidance: > “Do not send clients to this Web Site u…

There is nothing in the law that would permanently prohibit the IRS from creating its own Free File program. Your first article even suggests that one modification would be to simply add that a sentence saying that the IRS is allowed to do that, and the change is that simple because that sentence would not contradict anything else in the bill, as Wyden initially explained. The concern is that putting the Free File pr…

Yes you're right, I meant to write "block" and remove "permanently", because Sen. Wyden said he was told that the law would allow the IRS to make a proposal:

https://www.vox.com/2019/4/9/18301943/last-minute-tax-prepar...

> (UPDATE: After this post was published, Senate finance ranking member Ron Wyden’s office pushed back on Elliott’s report, saying they’d received confirmation from the IRS chief tax counsel that the bill as written does not bar the IRS from designing their own direct filing product, if they give 12 months’ notice. It’s likely the tax prep industry would challenge the IRS if it tried to do that.)

According to Bloomberg, rewriting the law might require sending it back to the House for a new vote:

https://news.bloombergtax.com/daily-tax-report/senate-may-no...

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

#46

Post by Rebelgecko »

mandeepj wrote: post #16
untog wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had great experiences with FreeTaxUSA, though they still charge for state returns. I have wondered before now why a non-profit couldn't set up an entirely free site and ask for donations.

Not sure about other States but IL has a free State tax filing site - https://mytax.illinois.gov

As does California, although you can't use it if you have capital gains or a few other specific things to put on your return.

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

#47

Post by neya »

tstrimple wrote: post #31
neya wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Here's the spec. It's only 289 pages and changes almost every year. Good luck! https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p17.pdf

Thanks, so I did over-estimate my ability here. Where I live, taxation works differently, so I never assumed it would be this complex.

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

#48

Post by spiznnx »

neya wrote: post #26
rhizome wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

>that you submit online to IRS

Do you have pointers on how you do this? I cannot find any self e-file on the IRS website. I thought it was either use eFile enabled software, or print and mail.

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

#49

Post by Thrymr »

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 and I'll be happy to do it if there is significant interest from my fellow HNers.

Yes, please do this. I look forward to your Show HN post on Monday!

(I can't even get my taxes calculated right the first time in a weekend...)

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

#50

Post by ineedasername »

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.

I think someone has already mentioned just how long the tax code actually is. But there's also state taxes. That's another 50 systems to implement.
Post reply on HN