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Killing TurboTax

kunle.app

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Re: Killing TurboTax

#31

Post by Nextgrid »

aphextron wrote: post #17
toomuchtodo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're paying for a service that should be provided for free by the IRS, as happens in many other developed countries. It's unnecessary financial drag on the economy.

>You're paying for a service that should be provided for free by the IRS, as happens in many other developed countries. But Turbotax is free for 1040EZ filers. It's only in an instance where you would otherwise just hire a tax accountant that they charge you. In terms of SAAS pricing, it comes out to like $15/month annualized. It's a bargain IMO.

I believe they also use dark patterns to direct people towards the paid version even if the free one would be fine for your needs.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#33

Post by Finnucane »

sgwealti wrote: post #6

Or the IRS could file our taxes for us for free.

Turbotax et al. lobby heavily to prevent this. Given that much of the relevant information--W2s, 1099s, etc., are already reported, you'd think that this would be easier for a very large percentage of taxpayers. But it would effectively kill TurboTax's business.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#34

Post by cratermoon »

nucleogenesis wrote: post #20
savanaly wrote: post #4

I'm not sure I understand how monopolies acquiring their competitors early on in order to be able to maintain their monopoly price works in practice. Wouldn't the eager gaze of startup founders looking to strike their first big score turn like the Eye of Sauron on any such industry? And all the monopoly profits that the monopolist stands to extract would in the medium run hit an equilibrium of zero when balanced agai…

How would an eager startup person get funded to build something that competes with TurboTax? How will you bring novel value to the industry at this point? A monopolized industry is also intentionally difficult to enter. It’s not just about buying existing competitors it’s about also making it as hard as possible to enter. So even when some startup manages to get funding and deploy a viable product, they’re immediatel…

It's an OK product. The interesting thing about TurboTax lobbying is that they oppose most attempts to simplify the law because the value of their product is for people who have tax situations that are too complex for an individual but not complex enough to make hiring a full-time tax accountant worthwhile.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#35

Post by siliconc0w »

api wrote: post #2

I gotta say I have a love-hate thing with Turbotax. I hate the company and its influence peddling, lobbying, and near monopoly status, but Turbotax itself is a very well designed product with a great intuitive experience that has done a great job filing taxes. So it's a rare case of a sleazy state-sanctioned (via refusal to simplify the tax code) monopoly with a decent product. Usually such monopolies have complete s…

Hard disagree, I've had numerous problems with their app and they constantly try to upsell you even after extracting their egregious yearly fees. There has been no innovation or even noticeable change to their product in years.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#36

Post by lotsofpulp »

aphextron wrote: post #17
toomuchtodo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're paying for a service that should be provided for free by the IRS, as happens in many other developed countries. It's unnecessary financial drag on the economy.

>You're paying for a service that should be provided for free by the IRS, as happens in many other developed countries. But Turbotax is free for 1040EZ filers. It's only in an instance where you would otherwise just hire a tax accountant that they charge you. In terms of SAAS pricing, it comes out to like $15/month annualized. It's a bargain IMO.

>It's only in an instance where you would otherwise just hire a tax accountant that they charge you.

This is false. There's no need for 90% of people to hire an accountant to file their state tax return, for which Intuit charges.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#37

Post by Kalium »

aphextron wrote: post #17
toomuchtodo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're paying for a service that should be provided for free by the IRS, as happens in many other developed countries. It's unnecessary financial drag on the economy.

>You're paying for a service that should be provided for free by the IRS, as happens in many other developed countries. But Turbotax is free for 1040EZ filers. It's only in an instance where you would otherwise just hire a tax accountant that they charge you. In terms of SAAS pricing, it comes out to like $15/month annualized. It's a bargain IMO.

> It's only in an instance where you would otherwise just hire a tax accountant that they charge you.

This is false. It's plenty possible to be in neither scenario, and every year millions of Americans are.

Further, the 1040EZ system no longer exists. Tax filers often charge for "tax accountant" services like having a moderate income or filing state taxes.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#38

Post by cratermoon »

aphextron wrote: post #30
germinalphrase wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The big deal is that all the functionality of TurboTax could/should be available for free (as is done - in some form - in other countries).

And we all know how wonderful and easy to use government built software is.

> government built software

You mean like the Internet?

Re: Killing TurboTax

#39

Post by savanaly »

nucleogenesis wrote: post #20
savanaly wrote: post #4

I'm not sure I understand how monopolies acquiring their competitors early on in order to be able to maintain their monopoly price works in practice. Wouldn't the eager gaze of startup founders looking to strike their first big score turn like the Eye of Sauron on any such industry? And all the monopoly profits that the monopolist stands to extract would in the medium run hit an equilibrium of zero when balanced agai…

How would an eager startup person get funded to build something that competes with TurboTax? How will you bring novel value to the industry at this point? A monopolized industry is also intentionally difficult to enter. It’s not just about buying existing competitors it’s about also making it as hard as possible to enter. So even when some startup manages to get funding and deploy a viable product, they’re immediatel…

I just don't understand why a guaranteed payday if you're even modestly successful doesn't draw competition like flies. I would think that once you're known to be willing to pay a bribe to someone who threatens you even a little you would be bankrupted in short time.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#40

Post by Biganon »

sgwealti wrote: post #6

Or the IRS could file our taxes for us for free.

I don't know where this idea came from (I've seen it on reddit a LOT), but it's the same here in Switzerland: you do it yourself because the tax department has no idea how much you made precisely, what you can deduce from it (expenses you had to do in order to acquire your income), etc. It just makes more sense to have everyone manage their own taxes.
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