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FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign

ftc.gov

21–30 of 610 posts

Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign

#21
post #16
post #7

Did my taxes this year using TurboTax like always. Sold some stocks this year and all of a sudden I am paying $90 for TurboTax "Premium" to put a couple additional entries in the 1040. What a racket. Next year I'm going to file using something else. This has gone on too long.

Let me know if you find anyone that is better. I'm sick of TaxAct premium for the same reason. I'm ready to go back to doing my taxes by hand and mailing them in. (I'm old enough to remember doing that - it is faster than doing it on the computer except for the one year I forgot to copy line 13 of form 1234A to line 56b of form 9876B) So many dark patters where the software is pretending to take time doing a complex…

FreeTaxUsa is great for most usecases, including stock sales. It is free for federal filing, state is a bit extra ($10)

Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign

#22

Is there a way to do your taxes without paying any money?

In theory, yes. But few people actually do because it is a painful experience. The IRS' documentation isn't actually bad, it is just that the tax system itself is incredibly (and needlessly) complicated. For example, you'd need to hand-enter every stock trade (even automated re-investments) even though your broker likely already electronically sent this information to the IRS. Using a digital solution they can often…

Also, one might ask "why doesn't the IRS just send you a pre-filled copy of the forms, and you only correct them if they're wrong?".

The answer is "because Congress passed a law saying they can't".

Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign

#23
post #3

I was 80% done with my taxes this year when TT suddenly demanded an additional $119 to list deductible expenses on income. That’s on top of $140 to file Federal plus 1 state. I’ve been using TT for 20 years. Never again.

I'm not confident in my ability to get my taxes right (mostly due to my wife and I having owned small businesses plus my day job's stock awards and ESPP), so I've paid a local CPA to do our taxes for years now. He always did an incredible job, was happy to answer my questions for me (tax-related or not), helped us refi our house at an amazing price, and so on. His fees were something on the order of $400 or maybe eve…

Hiring a CPA was one of the best decisions I have made in my entire adult life.

Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign

#24
post #21
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me know if you find anyone that is better. I'm sick of TaxAct premium for the same reason. I'm ready to go back to doing my taxes by hand and mailing them in. (I'm old enough to remember doing that - it is faster than doing it on the computer except for the one year I forgot to copy line 13 of form 1234A to line 56b of form 9876B) So many dark patters where the software is pretending to take time doing a complex…

FreeTaxUsa is great for most usecases, including stock sales. It is free for federal filing, state is a bit extra ($10)

Plus until now they always have 10% off with code FTUSA10

Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign

#26
post #13

I know that ship has sailed, but I really wish politicians would go back to making promises that have an impact on everyone like abolishing tax fillings. It might be different in the US, but in Canada I file my taxes using the CRA's data directly. TurboTax even fetches it directly from their website. What's the point? They have my T4, my T2202 (studies) and everything else. Just send me a letter telling me how much m…

In the US, the Republican Party has a history of intentionally pushing for cumbersome tax filing as part of encouraging people to hate the idea of taxes in general.

Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign

#27
post #13

I know that ship has sailed, but I really wish politicians would go back to making promises that have an impact on everyone like abolishing tax fillings. It might be different in the US, but in Canada I file my taxes using the CRA's data directly. TurboTax even fetches it directly from their website. What's the point? They have my T4, my T2202 (studies) and everything else. Just send me a letter telling me how much m…

Intuit and HR Block spend way too much on US lobbying for that to change. The first step has to be repealing Citizen's United.

https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-f...

Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign

#28
Not just TurboTax, H&R Block does this shit as well.

"File your taxes free! Oh, you have to file an HSA contribution? Sorry, you'll have to buy H&R Block DELUXE ($79.99) to do that!"

Kinda feels like blackmail, really. If I don't file my HSA contribution I'm technically committing fraud, right?

Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign

#29
post #13

I know that ship has sailed, but I really wish politicians would go back to making promises that have an impact on everyone like abolishing tax fillings. It might be different in the US, but in Canada I file my taxes using the CRA's data directly. TurboTax even fetches it directly from their website. What's the point? They have my T4, my T2202 (studies) and everything else. Just send me a letter telling me how much m…

Intuit and HR Block spend way too much on US lobbying for that to change. The first step has to be repealing Citizen's United. https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-f...

The sad thing is its not even a lot of money if you consider how much profit they make. Politicians are surprisingly cheap

Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign

#30
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intuit and HR Block spend way too much on US lobbying for that to change. The first step has to be repealing Citizen's United. https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-f...

The sad thing is its not even a lot of money if you consider how much profit they make. Politicians are surprisingly cheap

True. Large on people scale not corporation scale which is why treating corporations like people is a terrible idea.
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