Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit
pluralistic.net
Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit
1–10 of 332 posts
Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit
#2Intuit is consistently one of the least ethical actors in tech. They have a monopoly position in many of their products and take advantage of some of the poorest people through misinformation and lobbying.
Facebook & Uber have received most of the heat over the past few years. Intuit has strangely avoided the same level of scrutiny.
Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit
#3Intuit is consistently one of the least ethical actors in tech. They have a monopoly position in many of their products and take advantage of some of the poorest people through misinformation and lobbying. Facebook & Uber have received most of the heat over the past few years. Intuit has strangely avoided the same level of scrutiny.
Around 2009 my taxes grew complicated enough that I could no longer do them by hand and had to start using tax software for them. I've consistently refused to use TurboTax because the company is so evil. H&R Block is not necessarily a more ethical company, but at the very least, there's not more unethical. (And I'm vaguely aware of there being some open-source tax software of some sort out there, but when I looked it was kind of janky and didn't seem to give me much of an improvement over filling out the forms myself. I'd love to learn that things have changed.)
Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit
#4Intuit is consistently one of the least ethical actors in tech. They have a monopoly position in many of their products and take advantage of some of the poorest people through misinformation and lobbying. Facebook & Uber have received most of the heat over the past few years. Intuit has strangely avoided the same level of scrutiny.
Around 2009 my taxes grew complicated enough that I could no longer do them by hand and had to start using tax software for them. I've consistently refused to use TurboTax because the company is so evil. H&R Block is not necessarily a more ethical company, but at the very least, there's not more unethical. (And I'm vaguely aware of there being some open-source tax software of some sort out there, but when I looked it…
Last I checked state governments have links for the free tax software that taxpayers are already paying for but the companies so desperately hide.
Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit
#5Intuit is consistently one of the least ethical actors in tech. They have a monopoly position in many of their products and take advantage of some of the poorest people through misinformation and lobbying. Facebook & Uber have received most of the heat over the past few years. Intuit has strangely avoided the same level of scrutiny.
For sure. The IRS needs to offer a tax preparation platform, the grift in this industry is astounding. I've always had decent experiences with TurboTax, but they've gotten extremely good at making your taxes hell if you want to avoid giving them $89.99.
Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
Around 2009 my taxes grew complicated enough that I could no longer do them by hand and had to start using tax software for them. I've consistently refused to use TurboTax because the company is so evil. H&R Block is not necessarily a more ethical company, but at the very least, there's not more unethical. (And I'm vaguely aware of there being some open-source tax software of some sort out there, but when I looked it…
Last I checked state governments have links for the free tax software that taxpayers are already paying for but the companies so desperately hide.
[deleted]
Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit
#7Intuit is consistently one of the least ethical actors in tech. They have a monopoly position in many of their products and take advantage of some of the poorest people through misinformation and lobbying. Facebook & Uber have received most of the heat over the past few years. Intuit has strangely avoided the same level of scrutiny.
For sure. The IRS needs to offer a tax preparation platform, the grift in this industry is astounding. I've always had decent experiences with TurboTax, but they've gotten extremely good at making your taxes hell if you want to avoid giving them $89.99.
https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-f...
https://www.propublica.org/series/the-turbotax-trap
“ProPublica has long detailed how Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, and other companies have worked against making tax preparation easier and less costly. They have lobbied to ban the IRS from offering free, simple tax filing. And they have deceived customers who should qualify for the Free File product.”
Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit
#8Intuit is consistently one of the least ethical actors in tech. They have a monopoly position in many of their products and take advantage of some of the poorest people through misinformation and lobbying. Facebook & Uber have received most of the heat over the past few years. Intuit has strangely avoided the same level of scrutiny.
Around 2009 my taxes grew complicated enough that I could no longer do them by hand and had to start using tax software for them. I've consistently refused to use TurboTax because the company is so evil. H&R Block is not necessarily a more ethical company, but at the very least, there's not more unethical. (And I'm vaguely aware of there being some open-source tax software of some sort out there, but when I looked it…
I still do my taxes manually. I've looked for open-source software to assist. I've tried OpenTaxSolver, it is OK for what it does (basic 1040 and a few schedules like SE income and Schedule C). It does not come close to handling all possible scenarios.
It's possible that you could write your own modules to handle any mising forms, in fact I tweaked one calculation that wasn't handling some edge case properly. But that's more than most people would want to do, and would certainly be more work than just doing those forms manually with pen and calculator. But like any open-source project, it relies on individual efforts like that to build something that's useful to more people.
The UI itself is extremely minimalist and would not be regarded as "user friendly" by a user from the general public.
Edit: it also only attempts a few state returns. Mine is not one of them, but fortunately in my state the tax forms are pretty easy assuming the Federal return is done.
Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit
#9Add this to the reasons I would never consider working for Intuit. This and making taxes harder to do for everyone in the US.
Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit
#10I wish people in the US would stop blaming specific bad actors in a system for acting in their own best interest and start blaming the system that empowers them. ExxonMobil and Intuit lobby the government in their own best interest just like FAANG companies and basically everyone else that has the size to do it. That is how our system is designed. It isn't Intuit's fault this works, but since it does work, they would be stupid not to do it. Blame the legal and political system for allowing what they do to work and/or go unpunished. Don't blame individual actors for responding to systemic incentives.