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Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

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Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#111

Post by macspoofing »

whoisjuan wrote: post #39

Already said in this thread, but I think it's ridiculous that when people think about abusive big tech, they never think about Intuit. Their business is literally the idea of creating friction in federal and local tax systems so they can extort people in exchange of removing some of those synthetic frictions (emphasis on "some"). A sinister business model in every possible way.

>Already said in this thread, but I think it's ridiculous that when people think about abusive big tech, they never think about Intuit.

Because it isn't that big of a deal.

> Their business is literally the idea of creating friction in federal and local tax systems so they can extort people in exchange of removing some of those synthetic frictions (emphasis on "some").

That's a hyperbolic characterization. It's not that big of deal.

Lobbying is a fact of life in a democracy. There are always interest groups on every side of any issue that lobby for their selfish benefit, frequently to the detriment of the public (e.g. public sector union contracts). That tends to make most government programs less efficient and more expensive then they could be because politicians will balance needs of all kinds of interest groups. That will never change. Intuit has a right to lobby for their interests. Characterizing this as somehow nefarious, or even as an outlier is hyperbolic. Welcome to Democracy.

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#112

Post by pesfandiar »

MarkusWandel wrote: post #99

We had the completely free "click here for a default tax return" situation here in Canada, at least in Ontario. As of last year (in my case) finally the tax authority had all the information slips you need to file already in their database. The freely usable tax software (Studio Tax) was able to download and autofill them to generate a valid (as far as the government knows) tax return that could then be e-filed. The…

You still need to do the cost basis calculation yourself, because a single financial institution can't calculate that for you (you may have the same securities with another institution).

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#113

Post by dnautics »

I'd love to see a turbotax alternative that

1. imports your previous turbotax years

2. charges $10 less than turbotax

3. offers a free version gated by income

4. squirrels away some percentage of profits each year to a big "F U" fund, half of which goes to lobbying for permanent income tax simplification, half of which goes to directly paying out the shareholders in the company on dissolution.

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#114

Post by slg »

burnished wrote: post #91
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…

So just.. leave the bad actors out of the narrative? It feels like if one does that, then you come back and say "but who is doing [bad thing]? where is the evidence?". You can't just leave the people causing the problem out, as if it were some how rude to name the people pissing in the pool.

I never said we need to leave the bad actors out of the narrative. I am simply talking about not placing the blame on them.

It is the equivalent of a blameless postmortem. We are in a constant cycle of firing interns for pushing costly bugs into production without ever wondering why we are allowing interns to push to production without supervision. We just fire the intern and think the problem is fixed. We have learned that isn't a good way to run a company, but we haven't learned that isn't a good way to run a society.

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#115

Post by trhway »

macspoofing wrote: post #111
whoisjuan wrote: post #39

Already said in this thread, but I think it's ridiculous that when people think about abusive big tech, they never think about Intuit. Their business is literally the idea of creating friction in federal and local tax systems so they can extort people in exchange of removing some of those synthetic frictions (emphasis on "some"). A sinister business model in every possible way.

>Already said in this thread, but I think it's ridiculous that when people think about abusive big tech, they never think about Intuit. Because it isn't that big of a deal. > Their business is literally the idea of creating friction in federal and local tax systems so they can extort people in exchange of removing some of those synthetic frictions (emphasis on "some"). That's a hyperbolic characterization. It's not t…

Marlon Brando look alikes have the right to lobby too. It doesn't make them any less evil.

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#116

Post by Retric »

macspoofing wrote: post #111
whoisjuan wrote: post #39

Already said in this thread, but I think it's ridiculous that when people think about abusive big tech, they never think about Intuit. Their business is literally the idea of creating friction in federal and local tax systems so they can extort people in exchange of removing some of those synthetic frictions (emphasis on "some"). A sinister business model in every possible way.

>Already said in this thread, but I think it's ridiculous that when people think about abusive big tech, they never think about Intuit. Because it isn't that big of a deal. > Their business is literally the idea of creating friction in federal and local tax systems so they can extort people in exchange of removing some of those synthetic frictions (emphasis on "some"). That's a hyperbolic characterization. It's not t…

It’s fine to lobby for a group say fisherman or “the rich.” However, when you’re getting special laws written to hand your company money at the expense of everyone else in the country that’s corruption not lobbying.

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#117

Post by xboxnolifes »

macspoofing wrote: post #108
whoisjuan wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have your heard about a little thing called lobbying. https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-f...

Lobbying is a fact of life in a democracy. For any government regulation, law, program, etc. there are multitudes of lobby groups on all sides of each issue. Why in this case is this such a big unethical crime? Lots of government programs are inefficient and expensive due to interest groups - that will never ever change. Welcome to Democracy.

Lobbying is bad when it creates outcomes I don't like.

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#118

Post by beambot »

dnautics wrote: post #113

I'd love to see a turbotax alternative that 1. imports your previous turbotax years 2. charges $10 less than turbotax 3. offers a free version gated by income 4. squirrels away some percentage of profits each year to a big "F U" fund, half of which goes to lobbying for permanent income tax simplification, half of which goes to directly paying out the shareholders in the company on dissolution.

Sounds like a good project for Intuit. Create a new competitor to TurboTax for the low-end market. Upsell into TurboTax. And for #4, they could become the defacto IRS tool with perfect regulatory capture funded by government subsidies.

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#119

Post by Robotbeat »

acomjean wrote: post #38
cmckn wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

the IRS has actually partnered with the "Free File Alliance" which is a group of companies that partner with the IRS (Free tax filing for incomes Intuit is one of the members: https://freefilealliance.org/free-file-alliance-members/ https://freefilealliance.org/about/ Its a little weird. One would hope they would just send you the bill.. I filed my taxes late with an extension. I could go to the IRS site and get all…

This is literally because Intuit lobbied to ban the IRS from being able to do it for you.

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#120

Post by macspoofing »

trhway wrote: post #115
macspoofing wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Already said in this thread, but I think it's ridiculous that when people think about abusive big tech, they never think about Intuit. Because it isn't that big of a deal. > Their business is literally the idea of creating friction in federal and local tax systems so they can extort people in exchange of removing some of those synthetic frictions (emphasis on "some"). That's a hyperbolic characterization. It's not t…

Marlon Brando look alikes have the right to lobby too. It doesn't make them any less evil.

We are talking about inexpensive tax software as an alternative to free filing methods. It's not a big deal. Of course it could be more efficient and cheaper ... but so can many government programs. Are public sector unions evil when they negotiate outrageous contracts that the public has to pick up the tab for? This is what democracy looks like.
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