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Killing TurboTax

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Re: Killing TurboTax

#261

Post by ghaff »

motbob wrote: post #80
sgwealti wrote: post #6

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

The IRS can simplify the process, sure. And if you are living alone, have no children, and don't care about taking advantage of any special credits or deductions, then a "file for me" button would be fine. (Though the process for those taxpayers is already in a good place--I filed my taxes for free in about 30 minutes this year.) But if you, say, have children, the IRS will not be able to "file for you" in any meanin…

>Most people qualify for free filing

For that matter, everyone qualifies for free filing--although in practice it gets too complicated for most past some point. I know it sounds like something savages would do but it's actually possible to just fill out the forms by hand if your taxes are fairly simple.

I use an accountant who I've been using for years but if you just have a W-2, a 1099 or two, and just use the standard deduction, it'ls likely pretty simple to just fill out a 1040 form and a state tax form.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#262

Post by alteria »

totaldude87 wrote: post #222

Ok am curious. Why people hate TurboTax so much ? Is it because its a monopoly (or) does it uses any predatory practices (or) kill other companies that tries to compete. Disclosure: I used TurboTax to file this year's taxes and kind of like their UI and ease of use (for top $ of course):|

The other comments provided a great overview, but I would really recommend read ProPublica's reporting about them [1]

Some very brief highlights:

- They use dark patterns and other trickery to prevent people from filing for free (the vast majority of Americans can file for free via IRS free-file), instead directing them to the "free" up-sell laden product

- Lobbying against literally anything that would make filing taxes easier or cheaper. It doesn't have to be this way (and it's not in many countries), but it's how they make their money.

[1] https://www.propublica.org/series/the-turbotax-trap

Re: Killing TurboTax

#263

Post by RankingMember »

motbob wrote: post #126
kleer001 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Right now, the system we have is pretty good. Not compared to other countries it isn't. Not by a long shot. Video with transcript below: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/dreading-taxes-countries-s... Get the heck out of here with your bull pucky

Maybe it's "bull pucky" to you, but I have vivid memories of my parents agonizing over taxes as a child. The agony they went through is much ameliorated now due to advances in technology. And thank you for the link, but this news segment basically is big on opinion, low on specifics. Feel free to link me to a detailed article on how non-U.S. countries handle self-employment or dependent tax issues and whether/how tho…

A task being easier than it used to be doesn't mean that task's process shouldn't be improved or that its existence shouldn't be questioned altogether as a matter of course.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#264

Post by JustSomeNobody »

dastx wrote: post #81
ISL wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it possible to FOIA the IRS tax-computation code itself?

Feels like this should be in the public domain. Any reason for it not to be?

They have publications:

https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/modernized-e-file-mef-u...

Re: Killing TurboTax

#265

Post by lupire »

carabiner wrote: post #207
mattwad wrote: post #27

Try freetaxusa.com if you're looking for a free alternative that has an equally friendly user interface!

I just tried it. It has a good interface, but a massive downside in that it doesn't have any automated importing/parsing of W-2's, 1099's, and other forms, unlike TurboTax. You have to type in every single number, leaving room for fat finger errors that TurboTax largely eliminates. This removes much of the advantage of doing your taxes online in the first place. TurboTax will smoothly import these, sometimes directly…

You don't have to type; you can copy&paste. Still annoying though

Re: Killing TurboTax

#266

Post by kleer001 »

motbob wrote: post #126
kleer001 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Right now, the system we have is pretty good. Not compared to other countries it isn't. Not by a long shot. Video with transcript below: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/dreading-taxes-countries-s... Get the heck out of here with your bull pucky

Maybe it's "bull pucky" to you, but I have vivid memories of my parents agonizing over taxes as a child. The agony they went through is much ameliorated now due to advances in technology. And thank you for the link, but this news segment basically is big on opinion, low on specifics. Feel free to link me to a detailed article on how non-U.S. countries handle self-employment or dependent tax issues and whether/how tho…

> Maybe it's "bull pucky" to you

and a lot of other people too

> big on opinion

&

> Right now, the system we have is pretty good. > I have vivid memories...

Sounds like the whole discussion is rife with opinion.

BTW, you have my sympathy, but your story doesn't shore up your argument. It only sounds like tax filing in the States has gotten better. And better locally is not best globally, by a long shot.

In general the States has been shot through for so long with so much corruption (aka special interests and campaign contributions and lobbying) that the citizenry has a perversely skewed idea of what is normal. /rant

Re: Killing TurboTax

#267

Post by lupire »

crowf wrote: post #259
mattwad wrote: post #27

Try freetaxusa.com if you're looking for a free alternative that has an equally friendly user interface!

I don't mind paying for a service, but with a URL that includes the word "free" I was surprised to see at the top of the page "State Returns $14.99 $12.95 — 12 more days to save on state filing"

It's FreeTaxUSA, not FreeTaxYourState.

Or it's "Free as in freedom from Intuit."

Re: Killing TurboTax

#268

Post by nikon »

JanSolo wrote: post #29

This has already been done successfully in Canada. A small team from Vancouver built a pay-what-you-want web-based tax-filing system from scratch. It's called SimpleTax and it's already a major competitor to the Canadian version of TurboTax. In fact, it was so successful that it was recently acquired by Canadian investment group WealthSimple.

Can't find the source, but the CRA will be bringing out their own free software too soon

Re: Killing TurboTax

#269

Post by JoshTriplett »

glial wrote: post #235
bluGill wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using TaxAct for years, but I'm not sure they are better. They have every incentive to lobby with TurboTax to make sure it is hard to file taxes without help. I'm tempted to go back to paper forms. It wasn't hard, just annoying the one time I forgot to copy line 13 of form 1234 to line 43d of form 5678 and then had to amend my state filings.

Yeah, truthfully I would rather not have to use TaxAct either. Since the IRS already knows what I owe, what's the point of filling out forms by hand? Every year when I manually copy information from my W2 onto an online form, I think that tax season must be the biggest data entry clusterfuck in the world.

> Since the IRS already knows what I owe, what's the point of filling out forms by hand?

Complete agreement, though there will in some cases be a need to file forms to supply information that they don't already have. Additional deductions, for instance: charitable contributions, deductible expenses, etc. But those forms should be "here's the information", not "here's the information and a pile of careful calculations implementing an algorithm".

Re: Killing TurboTax

#270

Post by jrochkind1 »

ed25519FUUU wrote: post #18
breck wrote: post #3

I started building my own open source US tax engine, but then found https://github.com/ustaxes/UsTaxes here on HN ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26138446 ) and decided to throw my efforts with them instead. Check it out!

I was just thinking that an open-source tax engine is the way to go in the future. I would like to see it maintained by the USGOV.

And TurboTax's lobbying is why you will never see that.

The ProPublica report linked in the OP:

https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-f...

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