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TurboTax Tricked You into Paying to File Your Taxes (2019)

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Re: TurboTax Tricked You into Paying to File Your Taxes (2019)

#151

Post by ptrklly »

klmadfejno wrote: post #21

I used to say turbo tax wasn't that bad, and that free filing was easy if you just ignored their promises to save you money if you upgraded. Last year however I got all the way to the end of the process where they revealed I made too much and had to pay. That felt extremely unethical, as the information required to come to that conclusion was available far earlier in the process. And yet what am I going to do but use…

I had this same experience, and switched to Credit Karma out of spite toward Turbo Tax. It was fine: https://www.creditkarma.com/tax

Re: TurboTax Tricked You into Paying to File Your Taxes (2019)

#152

Post by dcolkitt »

steverb wrote: post #94
vmception wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And yet what am I going to do but use turbo tax again. The perceived risk and effort That’s so cute how everyone is afraid of the IRS boogeyman Everyone believes whichever way they first became comfortable with is saving them money and their freedom I know people that would say the exact same thing except they are referring to their table full of printed out forms Literally everyone with a super wrong and very huma…

Having lived through my parents being audited multiple times I am definitely afraid of the IRS boogey man. Merely dealing with an audit (even if everything you id was correct and above board) can be extremely stressful and time consuming. My parents also thought their CPA was really good an knew what they were doing. Turns out that even CPAs screw up sometimes. :-)

I don't know how long ago this was, but in the past couple decades the likelihood of a regular Joe getting audited has plummeted.

IRS enforcement has pretty much been gutted by Congress. For everyone but high earners, it all comes down to automated checks that run at file time. If you don't have any obvious flags (e.g. not reporting income that was on a W2), then the IRS doesn't have time for you.

Re: TurboTax Tricked You into Paying to File Your Taxes (2019)

#153

Post by chrisfinazzo »

THE_PUN_STOPS wrote: post #131
indymike wrote: post #90

1. You can file your taxes for free in the US. You only have to pay if you want to do so through a tax preparation service or software. 2. It's actually pretty easy to use the electronic forms or just use paper. 3. Tax software is good, and a competent tax preparer is even better. Why we have a tax system which creates so much work there is an entire set of industries (tech, tax preparers, etc) built around it just t…

You can thank Grover Norquist[1] for that. The Taxpayer Protection Pledge [2] that he promulgates to US republican lawmakers is the primary mechanism though which those legislators justify blocking simplification and streamlining of tax filing. If it's easier for people to pay taxes the government will probably ask for more cash if we implement those systems, right? Therefore it must be blocked according to the pledg…

Theoretically, the ideas he's talking about make sense. If say, you're a single person w/ no dependents who doesn't itemize making the process much simpler is attractive.

However - as Ted Cruz showed everyone - being able to do your taxes on something the size of a postcard is only possible if just about every specific deduction is cut out.

Once people saw that, it was DoA.

Also, while I'm here, can someone explain what was supposed to replace the IRS in Cruz's plan? (State Governments?) I mean, somebody has to administer and manage this process, however simple it might be.

Re: TurboTax Tricked You into Paying to File Your Taxes (2019)

#154

Post by ddingus »

qnk wrote: post #9
grayhatter wrote: post #2

We're sorry the answer to "why can't we have nice things" wasn't [political party], it was lobbyists . Lobbyists is the answer to, "why can't we have nice things"!

Honest question, how is lobbying different from bribery? Lobbyists go to Washington, spend fortunes on taking lawmakers to fancy dinners and then get away with what they want. Maybe I don't understand the process and am oversimplifying it, but that's how I see it.

In many parts of the world, it is bribery.

The US is currently permissive. Legalized corruption.

Re: TurboTax Tricked You into Paying to File Your Taxes (2019)

#155

Post by htrp »

alistairSH wrote: post #32
qnk wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question, how is lobbying different from bribery? Lobbyists go to Washington, spend fortunes on taking lawmakers to fancy dinners and then get away with what they want. Maybe I don't understand the process and am oversimplifying it, but that's how I see it.

I'll flip the question around... How is lobbying different than random voter talking to their representative in person? It isn't really - a lobbyist is just exercising the free speech available to all individuals - they just happen to be doing it on behalf of a group of individuals. I'm purposefully ignoring the whole "corporations are people" aspect because that's a different discussion. But, what you seem to be arg…

Do you have your senator's personal cell phone number? Does your senator recognize you by face? Will he remember whatever question you're talking about even if you secure a f2f meeting?

The lobbyist, who used to be that senator's chief of staff definitely does......

Re: TurboTax Tricked You into Paying to File Your Taxes (2019)

#156

Post by pbuzbee »

timr wrote: post #122
mywittyname wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Credit Karma is free. Works great, and has no discernable dark patterns. They even have import features from major payroll companies like ADP. I had to quit turbotax because one year I was a 1099 worker and every year since, it pushes me to go with their "small business edition." Each year it got harder to avoid "upgrading." Seriously, just do it. Quitting TT is so much easier than quitting anything else.

Having used Credit Karma in the past, you should know that it can be...dangerously confusing...for anything other than the happy path. Things like backdoor Roth contributions (which aren't that exotic, tbh) were very confusing in credit karma, to the point where I actually did my taxes with another service just to verify that the calculations were correct, then submitted with CK. I found several mistakes in the CK re…

I do this too: I prep my taxes in both TurboTax and in CK, make sure they agree, then submit in CK for free.

Re: TurboTax Tricked You into Paying to File Your Taxes (2019)

#157

Post by lotsofpulp »

JadeNB wrote: post #147
lotsofpulp wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not use the official IRS free file forms?

Does the IRS allow direct e-filing? At least as of last year, it seemed that you still had to go through someone else to file electronically (although the forms are freely available).

Yes, I’ve been using IRS free fillable forms for over 10 years, I think, with no middleman between me and the IRS. Similar with my state taxes on my state’s revenue website.

Re: TurboTax Tricked You into Paying to File Your Taxes (2019)

#158

Post by jonshariat »

mdon wrote: post #57

This should be tagged (2019). The irs has added more rules around the marketing of the free tax filing service

Came here to say this. They got in big trouble when this came out last year and they had to make it at least findable.

I'm sure its still terrible but this info is a little out of date.

Re: TurboTax Tricked You into Paying to File Your Taxes (2019)

#160

Post by diob »

stefap2 wrote: post #69

This is a link to actual free turbotax and hr block: https://www.turbotaxsucksass.com/ It was on Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj

I wish this show hadn't been cancelled.

Given the popularity of it, I can't help but wonder if this is one of the many reasons why (aka, they pissed off too many of the big powerful folks).

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