Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Killing TurboTax

kunle.app

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

331–340 of 692 posts

Re: Killing TurboTax

#331

Post by trymas »

lolsal wrote: post #304
trymas wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a racket. Government already knows how much you owe them. So how about US government, like most modern countries, send you a form which says: "we think you owe us xxx$ (because of this and that), if not - provide extra information"?

> It's a racket. Yea, possibly (I agree with you). It is as much a racket as lots of other things. Doesn't excuse it being a racket, but TurboTax is not an anomaly. > Government already knows how much you owe them. This is false. If you aren't taking advantage of deductions, sophisticated tax-deferred vehicles for retirement or tax-advantaged accounts for other investments, you're giving the IRS more than you have to…

> If you aren't taking advantage of deductions, sophisticated tax-deferred vehicles for retirement or tax-advantaged accounts for other investment, you're giving the IRS more than you have to.

I do take advantage and do not lift a finger to achieve it, because the tax man knows about this already.

> However, you're over-simplifying things and ignoring the complicated parts.

IMHO, you are overcomplicating things. If tax laws are as complex as you wish them to be, if the tax-man cannot know what you owe to it - then it's just a very good environment for the wealthy not to pay anything, while screwing over other 99% with over complicating things.

I do not pay taxes in the US and unless you have a company, I guess 99% of individuals do not need to do any taxes at all, i.e. just confirm what the tax agency already knows about them.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#332

Post by goatcode »

matz1 wrote: post #315
lolsal wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's a racket. Yea, possibly (I agree with you). It is as much a racket as lots of other things. Doesn't excuse it being a racket, but TurboTax is not an anomaly. > Government already knows how much you owe them. This is false. If you aren't taking advantage of deductions, sophisticated tax-deferred vehicles for retirement or tax-advantaged accounts for other investments, you're giving the IRS more than you have to…

Then how do IRS know that the duduction is correct?

They probably don't, but when something looks suspicious enough, in comes the audit.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#334

Post by namdnay »

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…

I don’t understand the argument. You go from stating that in some cases, the ziRS can’t prefill your taxes correctly - sure, we all agree here, that’s the same in every other country. And then you go on to say that’s why you need TurboTax. Huh? Why not just have the same input boxes as TurboTax, but on irs.gov? That’s what pretty much every other developed country has

Re: Killing TurboTax

#335

Post by civilized »

bob1029 wrote: post #312
astura wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The IRS themselves need to provide this "auto tax" service.

As noted in other comments here, an "auto tax" service only really works on the happy path. There are parts of the tax code which are highly subjective in more complex situations and require explicit elections on part of the filing party. These elections can have consequences far beyond the immediate tax filing transaction.

There is a big gap between what tax software companies charge $$$ for and what is actually complex and subjective. Like, if you have an HSA, that instantly boots you into the Deluxe Edition of H&R Block (about $100 federal+state), even if your HSA situation is very straightforward.

Tax prep software is worth every penny IMO, but they do nickel-and-dime you for many pretty simple situations.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#336

Post by namdnay »

Biganon wrote: post #40
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.

From what I remember in Switzerland, the forms were prefilled, just like neighboring countries. Your salary was automatically takes from your employer, any declared children are carried over year to year etc. Then all you have to do is correct and add any complex stuff

Re: Killing TurboTax

#337

Post by philjohn »

kmkemp wrote: post #276
ed25519FUUU wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If the government wanted to help people do taxes more easily, they would just simplify taxes. Lobbies (from TurbTax and competitors) are standing in the way.

This.

In the UK you can file electronically with the HMRC using their website. It guides you through several forms, tells you what numbers to input from your P60 (end of year notice from employer of salary and tax paid) P11D (end of year notice of taxable benefits) and a few other sources then produces a downloadable PDF copy, and submits them electronically.

It's not for everyone, e.g. Lloyds Names can't use it, but for 99% of people it's fine.

Why is it better in the UK? I don't think we have quite the level of regulatory capture, and still somewhat believe in public services, and spending money to make things better for everyone.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#338

Post by astura »

matz1 wrote: post #315
lolsal wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's a racket. Yea, possibly (I agree with you). It is as much a racket as lots of other things. Doesn't excuse it being a racket, but TurboTax is not an anomaly. > Government already knows how much you owe them. This is false. If you aren't taking advantage of deductions, sophisticated tax-deferred vehicles for retirement or tax-advantaged accounts for other investments, you're giving the IRS more than you have to…

Then how do IRS know that the duduction is correct?

The companies that you have these accounts with, and your employer have reporting requirements.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#339

Post by ghaff »

snikeris wrote: post #299
chrisseaton wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Each year, I look around for alternatives so I can avoid giving them money Why not pay an accountant? Why is everyone trying to do their own taxes? By the time you've spent a couple of hours looking for alternatives... you might as well have just paid a professional to do it!

The last time I tried to use a professional, he asked me so many questions that I haven’t used one since.

Mine sends me a tax planner every year. Yes, there are a bunch of questions up front but that's mostly to discover if I've had a change of status, some large transaction, a deduction I'm due, etc. Yes, I still have to round up my info but I don't need to figure out the right schedules, where to put the various data, etc. I get a pretty big sheaf of paper back.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#340

Post by philjohn »

mumblemumble wrote: post #310
colejohnson66 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct. Companies like Intuit lobby the government to keep complex tax codes so they can provide services that make it easy.

It's not quite that simple. There's a lot of popular political support for things that make a simpler tax season impossible, too. For example, the existence of tax-advantaged savings vehicles such as IRAs and HSAs mean that the taxable portion of your income isn't settled until the deadline for making contributions for that tax year. Which is April 15. But I imagine there would be a lot of popular political backlash…

The UK has ISA's which are tax efficient savings vehicles and manage just fine. You only file a tax return if you earn over £100k

That's partly because banks send all of their information to HMRC.

Post reply on HN