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

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

#221

Post by khuey »

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…

Is CalFile an open source project that anyone can contribute to (and if so where do I go?) or is the FTB paying you to develop it as a closed-source product?

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

#223

Post by danmg »

vonmoltke wrote: post #63
danmg wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the other people gaming the system are doing it to benefit themselves personally. Intuit is gaming the system so it can continue its rent-seeking behavior against the American tax payer at large. There is an element of direct unjust enrichment against the tax payer at large which is absent from other forms of tax code manipulation.

I agree. The article just doesn't seem to acknowledge that these other manipulations exist, or reference any of their other work on the subject. It's written as a standalone piece, and when taken as such seems to blame all the ills of the US tax code on the tax preparation industry.

Payday loans and financial derivative products both exist at opposite ends of 'creative finance' that can come back to bite you.

Payday loans, like what Intuit is doing, seeks to directly profit off of those who have the least. While they're both bad when they go wrong, it would muddy the waters to say 'but also there are other areas that are just as bad or worse depending on how you look at it.'

I'd go further to say what Intuit is doing is worse than the payday loan industry because it does it through regulatory capture instead of just desperation for capital.

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

#224

Post by _9vzr »

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…

In VA, if you want an alcohol license for your restaurant, you are required to print an ad in a local newspaper stating that you intend to get a license. I'm guessing it's so some prohibitionist can call up the ABC and complain? It's completely ridiculous. I wondering what will happen when print newspaper ceases to exist.

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

#225

Post by cpwright »

athenot wrote: post #115
cpwright wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Filing taxes does not actually require a separate company to help with. You can download the PDFs (or go to the post office), read the directions and fill them out yourself. I have never actually done that; but my parents did well after I was using software, which sure is more convenient.

I used to do that. Because I'm a proud software engineer and why should this stuff be complicated? It's just numbers you add or subtract... wait, does the Transmogrifier Deduction for Frobnubilors apply when you claim to be Single-and-Only Highlander? pauses and takes 1 hour to read up on the IRS rules for this and compares with the advice of $random_internet_guy And after the personal satisfaction of having complete…

One of the problems I have with the software is you need to mostly understand a lot of this arcana anyway. It's just that it makes entering things into the form slightly easier.

The only time I didn't do my own taxes and paid a CPA, he messed up even though I told him that I withheld more than required (and gave him last year's return so he could see what last year's taxes were and that I had more than 110% withheld).

He still filled the form out wrong so that I would have had to pay a penalty. Then when I told him he filled it out wrong, he just took the penalty off, without properly updating the 1040. When I ended up getting the inevitable "you owe us a penalty letter", I just ended up dealing with it myself rather than use his boneheaded explanation basically "pretty please" as opposed to the actual "I made more money, and withheld enough more money, so penalties are waived."

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

#226

Post by tasty_freeze »

chrismeller wrote: post #199
andykellr wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can't levy huge penalties and interest on you 10 years later. Generally they have 3 years or maybe 6 [0]. [0] https://www.americanbar.org/groups/business_law/publications...

Thanks, I know it’s not 10, I just picked a round number because nothing was supposed to be that specific. Don’t be so literal...

There is a word for what you did: exaggeration. But your exaggeration was small enough that it was believable and thus misleading.

Now you are criticizing someone for giving a factual response. Time for some reflection.

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

#227

Post by kmonsen »

kzrdude wrote: post #143
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…

The danish tax authority is called skat. It has a double meaning of taxes and loved one, it's as if the German one was called Schatz/Schätzle, I think it's cute.

Isn't skat more like treasure that's also used for people? At least that's how it is in Norwegian. No idea why taxes use the same word, it sure so in Norwegian too.

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

#228

Post by tedsanders »

moftz wrote: post #219
SkyBelow wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

FYI, if you do this you will incur penalties. The United States requires payment quarterly. You cannot pay it all at the end of the year unless you want to pay penalties.

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

#229

Post by nyczomg »

moftz wrote: post #219
SkyBelow wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is bad advice for many people. Depending on your income you might be subject to penalties if you don't withhold or pay estimated taxes: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employe...

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

#230

Post by hannasanarion »

untog wrote: post #144
hannasanarion wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obama held almost all those positions during the primary in '08. Why do you trust Warren to follow through when Obama didn't?

He didn't, though. He advocated improving healthcare, but not to the extent that Warren does. And he castigated the banking industry but never proposed anything at the level Warren is proposing. Besides, this isn't even the question. The OP said that Warren is a middle of the road Democrat. Compared to the positions held by the average Democrat Senator/Congressperson she isn't at all. Whether she'd follow through on…

To what extent does Warren advocate improving healthcare? She went from "medicarefor all" to "actually medicare is just a framework" in just a month. On her platform page she seems to have abandoned single-payer entirely.

How can you trust a candidate who changes platform from progressive to milquetoast centrist so quickly? How can you trust a candidate who said several months ago that she wants to eliminate billionaires, and yet who continues to get major contributions from at least twenty billionaires?

I find it very hard to believe that Warren is genuinely left-leaning. Based on her behavior, it seems to me much more like she is a centrist candidate wrapping centrist ideas in left rhetoric.

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