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

propublica.org

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

#371

Post by Spooky23 »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #292
toomuchtodo wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am tired of for-profit companies hamstringing government using bribes to representatives and funding lobbyists from delivering inexpensive or free services to citizens. If someone wants to pay TurboTax, that is fine. If someone wants to continue to support their efforts to stymie government from delivering said services for free, they should be tarred and feathered. Intuit's tax products are regulatory capture, pla…

Hm that's been a big issue for maybe 200 years. Should the government start its own companies? What happened to the free market? How does a 'free' government company respond to competition (since they have no pressure to be profitable)?

I worked for a self-sustaining government entity for a few years. There was no direct appropriation, all funds re recovered via fees. We were able to compete successfully with commercial entities in a variety of ways.

A big advantage is overhead. If the work scales out, government employees get paid less, especially executives. The disadvantage was that you couldn’t make money to re-invest, and capitalizing new services was difficult.

.gov orgs get a lot of grief, but if you compare them to an average large company, they aren’t as awful as most people think.

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

#372

Post by LynxInLA »

musicale wrote: post #351
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…

> 1. Last time they tried to do what all of you ask, a ready return. TurboTax and others hired bunch of lobbyist and put so much pressure on people here and killed the project. People are still afraid and don't want to do too much to grab the attention of their lobbyist! This is insane. Where are the actual citizens at the negotiating table?

Here's a great podcast that goes over what happened. There is a transcript too.

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/03/22/521132960/epis...

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

#373

Post by SolaceQuantum »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #361
toomuchtodo wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USPS requires Congressional approval to set rates (as well as pension funding requirements). Your complaint is with your representatives, not USPS itself.

My complaint is with 'government-run businesses', which will always have such issues. It stems from not being responsible for efficiency or profitability.

I mean, honestly, yeah? I'd rather not my roads focus on being profitable. I'd really prefer the opposite of my police force focusing on being profitable. I'd really start freaking out if my voting system(the actual counting of votes) focused on turning a profit, and probably take to streets if my public schools were trying to profit off my children.

Efficiency, sure, what's inefficient about the USPS? I sent a package over my lunch break today, and my package delivery is 10x better delivered by a USPS mailperson than someone hired by amazon. (A USPS mailperson leaves a package at my door, but I've had packages from amazon thrown into my bushes, or dropped beside the street)

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

#374

Post by Spooky23 »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #310
toomuchtodo wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to say probably not. I've been pretty disappointed by the attempts of private industry to deliver what should be government infra (tax prep, healthcare, prisons, etc), while I'm super happy with my roads, police, fire, water, sewer, muni fiber, and the USPS (all government provided or backed).

I have 'volunteer' fire service out here in the country. And installed my own sewer. Police are essentially non-existent out here - I see a patrol car maybe once a year go by. And the USPS has been going broke for decades now. Not a good example of a well-run service.

USPS is a really well run service. They need to provide universal service, even to country folk at a loss, handle foreign parcels, etc. Most of their woes are created by a republican congress setting out a path for privatization. (Weather is next)

In terms of the self-reliant rural communities, you’re not factoring the very significant cost that the entire population pays to support your rural lifestyle. As agriculture continues to decline and consolidate, those externalities costs will continue to grow.

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

#375

Post by sokoloff »

jimmydddd wrote: post #105
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 sort of agree with the pain guys. I'm currently self employed (US) and have to separately pay estimated taxes quarterly. Since I've been doing this, I'm a lot more sensitive to politicians who want to raise my taxes. Similarly, there is a group in the US whose main goal is to change the law so that employers can't pay your taxes on your behalf. Instead, you would get your full salary, and then have to write a check…

I've often heard (and like) the suggestion that this annual payment be due the week before Election Day.

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

#376

Post by nkurz »

musicale wrote: post #355
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have 'volunteer' fire service out here in the country. And installed my own sewer. Police are essentially non-existent out here - I see a patrol car maybe once a year go by. And the USPS has been going broke for decades now. Not a good example of a well-run service.

USPS has also lost a massive amount of money due to being required to accept shipments from China at extremely low rates.

This is misleading. The USPS has an operating budget of about $70 Billion dollars per year, and loses about $150 million per year as a result of lopsided "terminal dues" under the UPU. So about .2%, and not all of this is due to China. While there is legitimate fear that this loss will continue to increase, relative to their budget it is not "a massive amount of money". This link has more complete numbers: https://www.lawfareblog.com/withdrawal-universal-postal-unio....

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

#377

Post by justaguyhere »

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…

I wonder how many laws/rules there are, that made sense long time ago but not anymore, or those that never made sense to begin with.

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

#378

Post by sjy »

jandrese wrote: post #279
athenot wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Honestly, the IRS makes these kind of questions pretty much impossible. For example, I've been considering installing solar panels on my house. There is a federal tax credit for installing solar, and it includes associated costs like repairing your roof to support the panels. But as a normal person the entirety of the guidance is this: "No costs relating to a solar panel or other property installed as a roof (or port…

Do you think that Al Capone was imprisoned for making an honest mistake on his tax return after receiving conflicting advice from two accountants?

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

#379

Post by GCA10 »

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…

I had no idea CalFile existed, and I've been filing taxes in California since 1997. Thanks for weighing in!

The Pro Publica reporting about TurboTax's efforts to suppress the free option is eye-opening.

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

#380

Post by thrwn_frthr_awy »

vonmoltke wrote: post #335
thrwn_frthr_awy wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is correct. The problem is the lobbying has stopped making forms easier or non-existent. They are complex because of private corporate influence, not the constituents of the I.R.S..

What does that have to do with the ability to e-file for free? I didn't say it was a good option, just that it existed. There's plenty to complain about without making things up ("You CAN, if... [...] 1) you are under a certain income threshold"). > The problem is the lobbying has stopped making forms easier or non-existent. They are complex because of private corporate influence, not the constituents of the I.R.S..…

Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply anything you wrote was incorrect. I was agreeing with you and this my opinion on the top level comment. Sorry for the confusion.
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