TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans from Filing Taxes for Free • Hacker News Board

Re: TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans from Filing Taxes for Free

#211

Post by 0xffff2 » Thu, Oct 17, 2019, 3:34 PM UTC

r0m4n0 wrote: post #158

A few weeks ago I started an LLC in New York. I followed all the simple instructions online and the process was actually very straightforward and easy. I had an official digital copy of proof my LLC existed within an hour. I went to sleep with and thought that there is hope for our government. Within a few days I received a letter from a private company informing me that unless I pay them $1000 to publish the name of…

Maybe I'm missing something obvious, but why can't you just call up the newspapers directly and list whatever it is that the law requires?

Re: TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans from Filing Taxes for Free

#212

Post by germanier » Thu, Oct 17, 2019, 3:34 PM UTC

robert_foss wrote: post #197

lqet wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun fact: the official tax filing application in Germany which has been around for a few decades is called "ELSTER" (apronym for El ektronische St euer er klärung, "Electronic Tax Return") which literally translates to "MAGPIE", as in "thieving magpie" ("Diebische Elster"). This is a form of self-irony which is quite unusual for the German tax offices. OS portability has greatly improved with their online app [0], wh…

Having moved from Sweden to Germany I appreciate Elster existing (and not being solely paper based unlike the other many many German beaurocratic exercises one has to Wade through). However it misses the most important part. In Sweden your tax declaration comes pre-populated with data they already have, like salary/pension/savings/stock sales/etc., and you can either just accept it as it is or make changes to the alr…

It takes many clicks and requires to wait for a letter once but Elster offers that too (under the term "Belegabruf"). It then prepopulates the tax return with the data they have.

Re: TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans from Filing Taxes for Free

#213

Post by xivzgrev » Thu, Oct 17, 2019, 3:34 PM UTC

mars4rp wrote: post #193

I am the developer in charge of CalFile, the free filing software that everyone asks for here for state of California. https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/ways-to-file/online/calfile/inde... I am pushing so hard to make it better and more useful to more people, like being able to add capital gain that is not currently supported. these are the push backs that I am getting: 1. Last time they tried to do what all of you ask, a…

Dude I salute you. There are so many edge cases to support.

For number 2 can you import fed return with calfile?

IRS free returns going down too so you are not alone: https://taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/Free_File_Program_Is_Failin...

This is a large reason why Prorepublica keeps digging at this - it’s fucking crazy actual free filing is going down while these paid shenanigan products are holding strong with their ginormous marketing budgets.

Re: TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans from Filing Taxes for Free

#214

Post by dentemple » Thu, Oct 17, 2019, 3:35 PM UTC

xivzgrev wrote: post #203

Credit karma tax is (actually) free. I’ve used for past 3 years. Why is it free? Because credit karma uses your financial data (including tax returns) to make better credit card / loan recommendations to you. So it ultimately benefits me as well, that’s why I share my return with them. BUT you don’t have to share your tax return with CK to file. There’s a box you can uncheck when starting each year.

I gave Credit Karma a shot last year, and it worked out pretty great.

It's definitely a good alternative to Turbo Tax

Re: TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans from Filing Taxes for Free

#215

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Oct 17, 2019, 3:37 PM UTC

wolco wrote: post #151

samsari wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until you're selected for a random audit and quickly get charged with tax fraud.

They only know what they sent you. So an audit wouldn't turn up new information just force you to prove existing information.

[deleted]

Re: TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans from Filing Taxes for Free

#216

Post by komali2 » Thu, Oct 17, 2019, 3:37 PM UTC

mars4rp wrote: post #193

I am the developer in charge of CalFile, the free filing software that everyone asks for here for state of California. https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/ways-to-file/online/calfile/inde... I am pushing so hard to make it better and more useful to more people, like being able to add capital gain that is not currently supported. these are the push backs that I am getting: 1. Last time they tried to do what all of you ask, a…

Can you expand on why people are "afraid" of lobbyists? The way you write that makes it sound like the elected officials the lobbyists are trying to convince, are afraid of those same lobbyists. What I assume you meant is that ground troops like you are afraid lobbyists will notice your work and pay more attention to your given team of elected politicians.

Can you help me understand?

Re: TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans from Filing Taxes for Free

#217

Post by evsasse » Thu, Oct 17, 2019, 3:37 PM UTC

gjvnq wrote: post #9

Just for comparison: in Brazil the _Receita Federal_ (IRS equivalent) provides a free multi-platform* Java desktop app for filing your taxes. The UI isn't great* and if you do complex stock trading it can be a pain to add the necessary information, but for the vast majority of people it works just fine. It also shows if it is better to use the standard deduction or the itemized deductions for your particular case and…

I've used the mobile app on Android, it wasn't a joy (it still lacks some polishing), but it was certainly VERY straightforward.

Personally I don't have lots of stuff to file, but I did everything under 1 hour, while still discovering how to use the app and learning a bunch of taxes nomenclature.

Re: TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans from Filing Taxes for Free

#218

Post by tapland » Thu, Oct 17, 2019, 3:38 PM UTC

robert_foss wrote: post #197

lqet wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun fact: the official tax filing application in Germany which has been around for a few decades is called "ELSTER" (apronym for El ektronische St euer er klärung, "Electronic Tax Return") which literally translates to "MAGPIE", as in "thieving magpie" ("Diebische Elster"). This is a form of self-irony which is quite unusual for the German tax offices. OS portability has greatly improved with their online app [0], wh…

Having moved from Sweden to Germany I appreciate Elster existing (and not being solely paper based unlike the other many many German beaurocratic exercises one has to Wade through). However it misses the most important part. In Sweden your tax declaration comes pre-populated with data they already have, like salary/pension/savings/stock sales/etc., and you can either just accept it as it is or make changes to the alr…

Banks send you letter the weeks before with capital gains, interest payments and employers send you letters with totals of taxes paid. They note if anything needs to be done manually.

The total time spend combined for me filing taxes for the last 10 years is less than 15 minutes. And the reason it isn't less than 3 is because I've logged in (using biometrics and password on my phone that is a hardware token to my bank wich is used for instant secure identification) to check that everything looks OK and to add the commuting at least 10 km/day on bike deduction.

Re: TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans from Filing Taxes for Free

#219

Post by moftz » Thu, Oct 17, 2019, 3:40 PM UTC

SkyBelow wrote: post #157

mywittyname wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. But if we remove the annual pain of dealing with taxes, then Americans will get complacent and may stop being bothered by having to pay taxes. - The serious ideology of a major American political party vis-a-vis taxes.

I suggest we stop taking taxes out of paychecks and have people pay their full taxes once a year. It would help them see the total amount of taxes they pay. It would have a positive effect on government policy.

You can set your withholding to nothing and end up with a fat bill every year. Financially, this makes sense. You could be making interest on the money you owe in taxes. However, not everyone is really able to be that disciplined or just financially need every dollar coming in. I think having both options, withholding and no withholding, is the best way.