11–20 of 466 posts
Free fillable forms[1] has been around for a number of years and van be used by anyone regardless of income level. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_File#Free_File_Fillable...
Free fillable forms[1] has been around for a number of years and van be used by anyone regardless of income level. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_File#Free_File_Fillable...
The article focuses on many issues, and the existence of such forms doesn't diminish from its importance.
ProPublica seems to be singularly focused on Intuit to the exclusion of all the other powerful interests who benefit from a complex and opaque tax code. They may be fighting efforts to make filing easier under the current rules, but they aren't really doing anything to keep those rules a clusterfuck.
https://www.propublica.org/article/irs-political-dark-money-...
https://www.propublica.org/article/irs-now-audits-poor-ameri...
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/
The reporting on Intuit has been going on for years, but the recent onslaught is likely because their recent initial report on Turbotax obfuscating Google search results led to federal and state investigations, and possibly attracted whistleblowers who passed along the inside documents that make up this newer report (i.e. the snowball effect)
Disclosure: I used to work at ProPublica years ago. My tenure overlapped the authors', but I never worked on these stories.
The crux of this article is a PowerPoint slide from 12 years ago? Really?
The crux of this article is a PowerPoint slide from 12 years ago? Really?
The article definitely focuses on more than a single Powerpoint slide. In fact, in the same sentence you cite, there's a reference to a 2014 slide.
ProPublica seems to be singularly focused on Intuit to the exclusion of all the other powerful interests who benefit from a complex and opaque tax code. They may be fighting efforts to make filing easier under the current rules, but they aren't really doing anything to keep those rules a clusterfuck.
ProPublica is trusting the reader to understand that responsibility for the current state of US tax laws lies with the US government.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who else lobbies like Intuit? Who else spends millions of dollars on defeating measures intended to make paying taxes simpler and easier?
> Who else lobbies like Intuit? Google spent $21 million in 2018. Facebook spent $12 million. Amazon spent $14 million. Microsoft spent $9 million. https://www.engadget.com/2019/01/23/tech-companies-lobbying-...
Yes, companies like the ones you cited spend significant amounts of money to educate and persuade lawmakers. Academically I’d like to see what a world without lobbying looks like, but honestly, I’m not confident it would be significantly better for citizens (and may be significantly worse in some ways).
But that’s a tangential topic for a different discussion.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who else lobbies like Intuit? Who else spends millions of dollars on defeating measures intended to make paying taxes simpler and easier?
> Who else lobbies like Intuit? Google spent $21 million in 2018. Facebook spent $12 million. Amazon spent $14 million. Microsoft spent $9 million. https://www.engadget.com/2019/01/23/tech-companies-lobbying-...
Can the government please make something that's easy to use? Filing taxes isn't something that requires a separate company to help with, and I see no reason why these products have a right to exist (and especially not be canonized), especially with how exploitive they are or can be.