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Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

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Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#61

Post by ryandrake »

throwawayboise wrote: post #27
lvspiff wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

does H&R Block handle investments and cost basis year over year information? That's the only tripping point im finding with whatever product I look to in comparison to Turbotax. Once your tax situation starts down that path I'm noticing getting a product that can pull from multiple investment accounts and keep track of cost basis correctly really narrows it down to Turbotax so far for me.

At that point why not engage an accounting firm? Yes it would probably cost more, but you're supporting your local economy and have a human being to discuss any questions with (as well as be responsible for any mistakes).

There's still a big jump in cost between, for example TurboTax Premier tier ($90 federal + $50 state = $140) and a CPA (where I've been quoted $400-$600). I don't think the level of service justifies the cost. I tried a professional once in my life, and he basically just asked me all the same questions the software would have asked me, and typed them in to his system for me. 3X-4X the cost for the services of a typist doesn't seem like a good deal.

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#63

Post by kaiju0 »

macspoofing wrote: post #59

>Many of the people eligible for CTC don't file tax returns There is a level of pragmatism that calls for better communication of programs and help with tax filings ... but ... as a citizen, you do have a responsibility to file tax returns. Why is it always hard to make the argument from both sides, namely: we should make tax filing as easy as possible AND the citizen has a responsibility to file their taxes regardle…

Most every other country has the government send a tax sheet to you. If you disagree you go to appeal. If you do nothing your done.

So much easier.

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#64

Post by slg »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #20
slg wrote: post #10

I 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…

How do you propose to garner support to fix the system without drawing attention to the bad actors? "A multi-billion dollar company has been lobbying the IRS so it can steal money from the most vulnerable taxpayers" is far more compelling than "poor people pay more taxes than they have to".

>How do you propose to garner support to fix the system without drawing attention to the bad actors?

Is there any evidence that drawing attention to bad actors actually garners political support to fix this? Look at the comments here, almost everyone is talking about the problems with Intuit and not how to fix this systemically.

What we need is grassroots political change. This specific issue regarding tax prep is a symptom of larger systemic problems caused by two main issues. First-past-the-post voting means that people generally only have two viable choices when voting. Anyone who is a single issue voter and their single issue is the tax prep industry is extremely rare and frankly in my opinion crazy. This means that no one has any incentive to change the status quo. The second problem is how US's free speech laws (or perhaps more accurately the current interpretation of these laws) basically create a near free-for-all in terms of campaign financing. Since there is almost no strong motivation for change, the only people involved in the discussion about tax prep are the people who are already invested in the industry. They obvious have a huge incentive to lobby against the death of their industry. So you have an issue in which we have little public motivation for change versus an entire industry that would be willing to dedicate all their profit to fighting change. It isn't surprising we see the results we see.

>A multi-billion dollar company has been lobbying the IRS so it can steal money from the most vulnerable taxpayers" is far more compelling than "poor people pay more taxes than they have to".

I am not making the second argument. I am generalizing the first argument to "multi-billion dollar companies have been lobbying the government to steal money from everyone, let's adjust our system to stop that".

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#65

Post by x86_64Ubuntu »

akira2501 wrote: post #41
toomuchtodo wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citizens voted these people in, the blames lies with the electorate.

The citizens without the ability to directly recall the elected are to blame? There is a serious power and attention imbalance here, and the laws to do not leave the power in the hands of the citizens outside of a single day every few years. It's hard for me to believe they are the source of the problem, particularly with such a shabby fourth estate.

The citizenry elects the people who could overturn the laws preventing a recall. It's just not that important to the citizenry.

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#67

Post by UncleMeat »

throwawayboise wrote: post #27
lvspiff wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

does H&R Block handle investments and cost basis year over year information? That's the only tripping point im finding with whatever product I look to in comparison to Turbotax. Once your tax situation starts down that path I'm noticing getting a product that can pull from multiple investment accounts and keep track of cost basis correctly really narrows it down to Turbotax so far for me.

At that point why not engage an accounting firm? Yes it would probably cost more, but you're supporting your local economy and have a human being to discuss any questions with (as well as be responsible for any mistakes).

The last time I got a quote from a local accounting firm it was for $3,000. My tax situation is more complex than most but the difference between $150 for some paid software and an accounting firm is a lot. And the people working at the budget firms are basically just using TurboTax-equivalent software anyway.

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#68

Post by thatguy0900 »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #31
SaltyBackendGuy wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish that our government (the people who allowed them to be the middle man) would take some accountability. But I guess that would be uncharacteristic.

Citizens voted these people in, the blames lies with the electorate.

The citizens cannot police the federal electorate. At best, they can police local politicians and maybe a few big ticket federal items. They have too much going on in their own lives to police federal politicians passing hundred page bills every week.

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#69

Post by hairofadog »

runawaybottle wrote: post #22
krferriter wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're a corrupt, profiteering company that does everything it legally can to stop people from filing taxes for free. https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-f...

But listen to my argument, I’m willing to pay to have an easier time filing my taxes. I’m not going to use IRS’s tool if it doesn’t make it a painless process like TurboTax. So I ask again, will the IRS make a painless tool? If the answer is yes, but Intuit is lobbying them not to, then I understand your point. If it’s just about free vs non-free, I could care less. Filing taxes or filling out anything for the govern…

> So I ask again, will the IRS make a painless tool? If the answer is yes, but Intuit is lobbying them not to, then I understand your point.

Exactly this, yes. It's well documented all over the place, but here are a couple of examples:

https://www.propublica.org/article/filing-taxes-could-be-fre...

https://www.economist.com/democracy-in-america/2013/04/02/it...

In any case, thanks to the folks in this thread suggesting alternatives. I was going to switch to Credit Karma last year, but literally the day after I created an account I woke up to the news that Intuit had bought them.

Edit: I see down-thread someone says they had to spin out the tax-filing portion of the business?

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#70

Post by TFortunato »

macspoofing wrote: post #59

>Many of the people eligible for CTC don't file tax returns There is a level of pragmatism that calls for better communication of programs and help with tax filings ... but ... as a citizen, you do have a responsibility to file tax returns. Why is it always hard to make the argument from both sides, namely: we should make tax filing as easy as possible AND the citizen has a responsibility to file their taxes regardle…

In this case, no, many of those in question are not required to file a tax return.
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