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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)

#251

Post by ilyagr »

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

The most official site is https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-f....

For some reason, the TurboTax version of FreeFile is now limited to below $33000 AGI. It wasn't last year. The FreeFile from other companies has the limit of $72000, which is what I thought the law said it has to be. I am not sure how that is possible, but I'm sure it took some extensive lawyering and lobbying by Intuit.

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

#252

Post by s1artibartfast »

kristopolous wrote: post #224
spullara wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your taxes are easy in Sweden / Australia they would be easy in the US.

What makes you say that? You know they are intentionally difficult in the US? For instance, there's been legislation where the IRS would simply tell you how much you owe and you pay it or dispute it. The IRS already know this amount, because this is what eventually happens. Turbotax successfully lobbied for its defeat. It explicitly spends large amounts of money to complicate and convolute the system and structure it…

One of the major challenges with the US system is that the central authorities do not have much of the individual tax information all submitted and processed in advance of the individual taxes. The individual then has to to incorporate this information and file it. Sometimes individuals get amended taxTax information from their income sources and then have to re-file. The central authorities cross check on the backend (in theory).

It is incredibly arcane, and in some cases individuals holding publicly traded assets are legally required to file income tax in all 50 states.

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

#253

Post by astura »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #46
DavidPeiffer wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>And yet what am I going to do but use turbo tax again. The perceived risk and effort of using a non-automated system to fill them out doesn't seem worth the cost. I'd suggest FreeTaxUSA.com as an alternative. Federal is always free, and state taxes are ~12/state. I don't have anything obscure about my taxes, and their forms indicate they can handle much more complicated situations than I have. I've used them for 3 y…

Why not use the official IRS free file forms?

When my tax situation was very simple I was happy to do my taxes on paper, often using form 1040-EZ, which only took about 10 minutes. Now that they are complicated (lots of different 1099s and business income) I very much prefer to use software to guide me questions and answers style.

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

#254

Post by jonfw »

minikites wrote: post #79
swebs wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are you getting this bizarre assumption that the average Republican commentator would side with Intuit here?

It's not a bizarre assumption, it's an easily verified fact: https://slate.com/business/2012/04/grover-norquist-and-h-r-b...

There isn't anything that verifies your argument in that link, FYI

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

#255

Post by astura »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #98
DavidPeiffer wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it more approachable to use the question/answer format compared to reading all of the instructions on detail, determining if that particular section applies to me, and wondering if I found every form to cover every situation from the last year. An example is figuring out whether I would owe taxes on the gain from the sale of a primary residence I owned for less than 2 years. Figuring that out manually took som…

If your tax situation doesn't change from year to year you don't need to scour the instructions. Just work through the forms using last year's return as a guide.

They changed form 1040 drastically a year or two ago. Plus tax law changes from year to year.

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

#257

Post by nineplay »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #146
nineplay wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a counter-argument, though I'll leave it's plausibility up to the reader. There are a lot of deductions a taxpayer can use that the IRS doesn't know about. Charity donations are probably the most common, but also business expenses and medical expenses. Teachers who spend their own money to buy class supplies could and should be able to submit those receipts and get a deduction. That can't be easily simplifie…

> Teachers who spend their own money to buy class supplies could and should be able to submit those receipts and get a deduction. No, they shouldn’t. The class supplies should be paid for by the government, not the teacher. Deductions need to be completely removed, and replaced with cash. Government should have to account for whatever it wants to incentivize. Also, I think few teachers probably get past the standard…

I think you are right, my point more that until we have revamped our school systems so that teachers do not have to purchase extra expenses, the tax code remains unfortunately complicated.

A lot of the blame goes ( justifiably ) at private companies and their lobbyists, but even without these vested interests there's a lot of complexity that cannot be easily removed

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

#259

Post by lotsofpulp »

nineplay wrote: post #257
lotsofpulp wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Teachers who spend their own money to buy class supplies could and should be able to submit those receipts and get a deduction. No, they shouldn’t. The class supplies should be paid for by the government, not the teacher. Deductions need to be completely removed, and replaced with cash. Government should have to account for whatever it wants to incentivize. Also, I think few teachers probably get past the standard…

I think you are right, my point more that until we have revamped our school systems so that teachers do not have to purchase extra expenses, the tax code remains unfortunately complicated. A lot of the blame goes ( justifiably ) at private companies and their lobbyists, but even without these vested interests there's a lot of complexity that cannot be easily removed

>A lot of the blame goes ( justifiably ) at private companies and their lobbyists, but even without these vested interests there's a lot of complexity that cannot be easily removed

There's nothing logistically difficult about removing the complexity of deductions/exemptions/credits, it's a few sentences typed into a law voted in by the legislature.

The difficult is all in the politics since costs of various subsidies and incentives granted via deductions/exemptions/credits become transparent and part of the government budget.

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

#260

Post by foepys »

cycomanic wrote: post #145
DavidPeiffer wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>And yet what am I going to do but use turbo tax again. The perceived risk and effort of using a non-automated system to fill them out doesn't seem worth the cost. I'd suggest FreeTaxUSA.com as an alternative. Federal is always free, and state taxes are ~12/state. I don't have anything obscure about my taxes, and their forms indicate they can handle much more complicated situations than I have. I've used them for 3 y…

Here in Sweden I go to the tax office website, log in, have a brief look at that all my salary has been correctly entered (I have yet to encounter that it hasn't) add if I possibly want to deduct some extra things (also very uncomplicated), go to file and click send (the whole thing can even be done on mobile) . The process typically takes 20min max, Australia was quite similar. I'm always amazed by tax systems which…

You don't have to file taxes in Germany except if you and your spouse are filing together or if you are self employed. Everything else is being handled by your employer.

If you want to get some of your pre-paid taxes back, you will have to file but the tax office doesn't care if you don't.

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