Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

ftc.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 610 posts

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

#231

Post by ajsnigrutin »

notch656a wrote: post #45

The fact that our government doesn't have the collective intelligence to just mail the tax bill using the information it already knows, with the option for the recipient to submit corrections/deductions, is a testament to the utter failure of governance in the US. Fortunately having an ineffective government can often be a feature instead of a bug.

In slovenia, this is done for "normal people" (people who are employed by companies (LLC, etc.), because companies have to fill out paycheck reports to the government). If you win something (eg lottery), the prize-giver has to report that too. You have to only fill out the form if you have any younger kids (tax benefit, can be done online on a governments website), and you're done. Then you just get the yearly report and a bill in the mail.

If you're an eg. independent contractor, you have to fill out a full report (income, expenses, income tax already prepaid, benefits paid, etc.), but you also do it on a governments website and sign it using a digital certificate (that is free for citizens).

No 3rd party software, no paying anything (unless you have an accountant do that for you, but it's relatively simple to do it by yourself), and the most time-consuming task is calculating all the yearly earnings and expenses.

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

#232

Post by savanaly »

wnevets wrote: post #29
jeffwask wrote: post #27

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

Every time I see this issue brought up I think about how if you sum up all the money spent every year on US politics, including personal donations, industry lobbying, and the budgets of think tanks, you get a noticeably smaller number than the amount of money spent every year on almonds. [0] It always makes me question if the lobbying is really the cause of the tax system being the way it is. Or is the money just to grease the wheels and slightly alter the course of whatever was going to happen anyways due to a multitude of complicated factors?

[0] https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/09/18/too-much-dark-money-in...

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

#234

Post by TimSchumann »

aidangrimshaw wrote: post #151

I'm working with other contributors on https://ustaxes.org , an open source tax filing webapp https://github.com/ustaxes/UsTaxes . Currently, many Federal tax forms are supported, as well as tax filing for the state of Illinois. Filing for Oregon and California is under development!

I volunteer to handle all the forms, compliance, and upkeep for Washington State income tax filings.

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

#235

Post by sagarun »

Jxl180 wrote: post #92
ensignavenger wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For most folks, CashApp Tax works fine. Its 100% Free. I have used it since it came out (originally Credit Karma Tax).

I own an LLC, traded stocks and crypto and CashApp handled it all flawlessly.

Just be a little careful with the state returns on CashApp. It has a bug on handling mortgage interest deductions if your mortgage is over $750000 and the state allows deduction up to $1000000. Double check by filing with other tax software and verify the refund amount is the same. I used freetaxusa.com to get this right.

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

#236

Post by deathanatos »

washadjeffmad wrote: post #112
sillysaurusx wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Realistically, how would you do your tax return for free? Keep in mind that every service worker is terrified of an audit. The cost is much higher when you don’t have resources. EDIT: I think I didn't phrase this very well. My point was that the average service worker is trained to be terrified of the IRS. These people are already usually paying hefty fines because they missed their returns in prior years. That's why…

1090ez, or any of a dozen free-file options? State returns are cheap if not free almost everywhere. The vast majority of the people who qualify for free tax filing have nothing to audit. The government makes enough money off their deductions, not to mention what they generate having to spend >50% of their income to stay afloat, to overlook a few unreported tips or sneaker sales.

Do you mean the 1040ez, which was discontinued, & no longer a form?

(I agree with the rest of your comment. While I disagree with the parent's perspective, I think the FTC's here is that Intuit's advertising leads people towards their not-free products, instead of the actually free stuff that does exist. I don't think most people have the self-confidence to do the 1040 by hand.)

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

#237

Post by tomc1985 »

pvarangot wrote: post #85
tomc1985 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FreeTaxUsa forced me to manually enter my stock last year, I had to provide a supplemental PDF form outlining each transaction. Obnoxiously, this year TurboTax's integration with Binance is broken. I haven't checked in a few weeks but it won't accept Binance CSV's either. This needs to be fixed soon.

TuboTax web or the desktop application? Last year their Schwab integration was broken on the web version but not on the desktop version.

The web version

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

#238

Post by lozenge »

jackson1442 wrote: post #222
perardi wrote: post #183

I know, I know, there’s so many dark patterns in TurboTax that it’s cliche to point them out… …but man, this was a particularly egregious example I came across this year. https://imgur.com/ojpLvRW You can pay for TurboTax using your refund…with an additional $39 processing fee . That is just wild.

I think that's actually somewhat standard- even FreeTaxUSA (my personal choice) does this because they're essentially letting you use their product on credit.

It's not a good way to present the option. Should be a radio button "Pay with refund (fee: $39)"

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

#239

Post by ghaff »

caymanjim wrote: post #196
sitharus wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a non-American who's not self-employed or a business owner I get a monthly payslip with my gross pay and the tax deduction. I see that every month, I know exactly how much I pay the government. All my investments also have tax deducted by the provider as well, when applicable. I never have to think about calculating or filing tax, but I always see it and know exactly how much it is.

This is also the case for most Americans, but we're still expected to file every year. For most people, it's verifying what the government already knows. Filing a 1040-EZ with no itemization should be unnecessary.

Nit. But the 1040-EZ form was discontinued. I don’t disagree with the basic point that simple taxes could be more automatic—though the reality is that simple taxes are pretty simple.

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

#240

Post by wolverine876 »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #218
wolverine876 wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not talking about my family discussions. Just turn on the local news and you'll see them discuss it, including the annual segment about the lines at the post office.

Ah. For what it's worth -- and it's possible I'm living in a bubble, but -- the only family member I know that watches the news is my dad. Everyone else quietly switched to netflix long ago. The news mostly comes from the drama of the day; things that show up on facebook. (The recent Chris Rock drama, and other nonsense like that.) I recently followed CBS on TikTok though, to my surprise. They had some of the best co…

FWIW, I don't watch local news; I read it online. But I've seen studies showing that it's still the most popular primary source of news.
Post reply on HN