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California tried to save the nation from tax filing, then Intuit stepped in

latimes.com

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Re: California tried to save the nation from tax filing, then Intuit stepped in

#21

Post by halgir »

spywaregorilla wrote: post #16
dpweb wrote: post #8

At the risk of being a non-popular opinion, I don't find tax filing to be particularly difficult. Maybe its because my job is to solve pretty hard problems all day. But the average person/family who doesn't itemize have a Sched C, it's quite easy. The thing to understand about filing is that (particularly for W2 wage earners) you're not telling the Government how much you made and how much you owe. They know that alr…

Filing taxes isn't especially difficult. Knowing that filing taxes isn't especially difficult is not so easy. If you have absolutely no clue how it works, you're probably going to have to pay someone to do it for you.

There is considerable overlap between people who have no clue how taxes work and people who cannot afford to pay professionals to do it for them.

Re: California tried to save the nation from tax filing, then Intuit stepped in

#23

Post by ols »

dmos62 wrote: post #11

Not a great comment, but I misread the title and was really interested in what the Inuit people had against easier taxes. Edit: I love how this is getting downvoted really fast. I feel like everyone is skimming and misunderstanding what I said :D

I made the same mistake reading the title and felt a rare emotional mix of being enraged and puzzled at the same time.

Re: California tried to save the nation from tax filing, then Intuit stepped in

#24

Post by elmerfud »

California tried to save the country from gasoline cars, then Ford and Chrysler stepped in and ended up bankrupting General Motors.

This is a common theme with big businesses. Instead of complying with "make people's life easier" initiatives they just pay off the politicians.

Re: California tried to save the nation from tax filing, then Intuit stepped in

#25

Post by matheusmoreira »

dpweb wrote: post #8

At the risk of being a non-popular opinion, I don't find tax filing to be particularly difficult. Maybe its because my job is to solve pretty hard problems all day. But the average person/family who doesn't itemize have a Sched C, it's quite easy. The thing to understand about filing is that (particularly for W2 wage earners) you're not telling the Government how much you made and how much you owe. They know that alr…

> They know that already and calculate it.

Why waste people's time with this stuff then?

Re: California tried to save the nation from tax filing, then Intuit stepped in

#26

Post by yisonPylkita »

progx wrote: post #7
junon wrote: post #3

Intuit is such an evil company. Now that I've moved to Germany, I know what it feels like not to have to file every year (I still have to for the US but it's trivial now due to FIEC). There's nobody hounding you here, no stress regarding your taxes unless you're filing for a return or have extenuating circumstances, and even then there's a government-provided online portal for direct communication with the Finanzamt…

But only für employees! As an independent or small company owner you have todo it every year.

I recommend hiring an accountant. For as low as 50€/month I don’t have to worry about filling taxes (I’m programmer on a contract)

Re: California tried to save the nation from tax filing, then Intuit stepped in

#27

Post by nightski »

bogota wrote: post #10

I hate wasting at least a day if not more of my life every year filing. As time goes on and i have more assets the time to file goes up as well and gathering all the required documents with every bank having different timelines is a nightmare. But what can I do about it? I would imagine if it went to a vote overwhelmingly people would say no I don’t want to file like this every year. But here we are and honestly I do…

If you have all these assets and your time is valuable I imagine you can cough up a few $ to pay a local tax accountant. I do this for my single member company, it costs $150 each year. Very worth it and a small price to pay. They even do a quick review of my books.

At this point I am familiar enough with all the forms that I could probably do it myself in less than an hour. But I don't mind supporting the accountant, it's fun to chat with him each year.

Re: California tried to save the nation from tax filing, then Intuit stepped in

#28

Post by ghaff »

dpweb wrote: post #8

At the risk of being a non-popular opinion, I don't find tax filing to be particularly difficult. Maybe its because my job is to solve pretty hard problems all day. But the average person/family who doesn't itemize have a Sched C, it's quite easy. The thing to understand about filing is that (particularly for W2 wage earners) you're not telling the Government how much you made and how much you owe. They know that alr…

Yes. For people with super simple tax returns, e.g. a few W2/1099s/standard deductions/no cost basis issues/etc., I suppose it would be convenient to have taxes auto-filed but it really isn't a big deal and doesn't require software. Once you get into the complexities that make tax filing a big deal and may involve accountants or multiple evenings with tax software, auto-filing isn't going to work.

Re: California tried to save the nation from tax filing, then Intuit stepped in

#29

Post by barkerja »

dpweb wrote: post #8

At the risk of being a non-popular opinion, I don't find tax filing to be particularly difficult. Maybe its because my job is to solve pretty hard problems all day. But the average person/family who doesn't itemize have a Sched C, it's quite easy. The thing to understand about filing is that (particularly for W2 wage earners) you're not telling the Government how much you made and how much you owe. They know that alr…

You vastly underestimate the number of people that:

1. Don't even know they have to file taxes.

2. Don't even know where to begin.

Re: California tried to save the nation from tax filing, then Intuit stepped in

#30

Post by epistasis »

mettamage wrote: post #14

Dutchie here, never had an issue with tax returns in my country. You just go to the website, fill it in, done. I don't get the context at all. Is the ELI5: CA wanted to create their own tax return software. Intuit said no, and now they use Intuit or something? Normally I understand context and such, but in this case: isn't it the obvious thing to do? Does the USA not have the back of their citizens? I'm sorry to say…

> Does the USA not have the back of their citizens?

In the US, at least one party requires its members to have the party's back, but not the other way. Which is why we have mass delusions about vaccines being bad, or COVID-19 not being a big deal. The party has decided its members need to provide blood sacrifices and the party members obliged. This is the same party that says that government can do no good, then asks for your vote.

For a less partisan example, for the past ~3 years, people with US phone numbers have been bombarded by spam phone calls, making the phone system nearly useless, and congressional action has been nonexistent.

When I see what is going on with national media and with federal inaction, I feel that the US is far past its peak years. We have chosen bad governance, and if we can't get a majority of people to even want to advocate for themselves, there's no way to get that back.

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