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

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

#291

Post by usefulcat »

paxys wrote: post #255
mywittyname wrote: post #77

I found out from a friend that she paid $600 to have her taxes done because (presumably) she falls for the dark patterns that TurboTax uses. She's a low paid service worker whose tax return can probably be done for free. And it is a sizable portion of her income because of things like Earned income tax credits, child tax credits, etc. Fuck these companies.

TurboTax's dark patterns charge people $50, not $600. How exactly did she end up paying that much?

Agreed, I’ve used turbotax in the past and never paid anywhere near that much. You could get a real accountant to do your taxes for less than that, maybe depending on the state. I know because I’ve done so.

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

#292

Post by thebigman433 »

calsy wrote: post #252
ratsmack wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only people that your representative listens to is the ones that fill their political war chest with a lot of money.

So how does someone remain elected if they don't listen to their constituents?

Generally by massively outspending opponents in the primary.

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

#293

Post by singron »

nathancahill wrote: post #287
zw123456 wrote: post #271

A few years back I got audited, and it was called an "electronic audit" by the IRS. Which basically meant that they had their computer systems scour a bunch of the bank records and discovered that I had forgotten to claim a 1099 for some contract work I had. OK, so they sent me a computer print out and they had cross checked everything on my return electronically, my property tax deductions, my stock dividends so on…

Government: You owe us money. It’s called taxes. Me: How much do I owe? Gov’t: You have to figure that out. Me: I just pay what I want? Gov’t: Oh, no we know exactly how much you owe. But you have to guess that number too. Me: What if I get it wrong? Gov’t: You go to prison Source: https://twitter.com/jordan_stratton/status/11181414550616719... I dig this one up every April.

Obviously it's a joke, but if you get it wrong, they send you the right amount and then you pay it (or they pay you). As long as you are close with your on-time payment, the interest is very reasonable on small differences. It's probably cheaper than paying for turbotax if you would have to pay for that.

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

#294

Post by mh- »

tombert wrote: post #261
rootusrootus wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's the first time you've screwed up the return, you might try calling them and ask to have the penalty waived or reduced. That works pretty often on first-time penalties.

You know, it didn't even occur to me to try that. I'll give it a go tomorrow.

Prepare to wait on hold for hours, probably trying for multiple days. They are woefully behind.

I believe your best chance is dialing in right when they open, before the call queues build up. Also the folks answering the calls are in a better mood then, and you're more likely to get the outcome you're looking for.

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

#295

Post by linuxhansl »

Finally!

First Intuit lobbies to prevent free tax returns by claiming that can provide their own (very sketchy) free service for that. Then they have the gall to opt out that very program which they used to prevent free tax returns in the first place.

I wish they would just go away.

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

#296

Post by zw123456 »

nathancahill wrote: post #287
zw123456 wrote: post #271

A few years back I got audited, and it was called an "electronic audit" by the IRS. Which basically meant that they had their computer systems scour a bunch of the bank records and discovered that I had forgotten to claim a 1099 for some contract work I had. OK, so they sent me a computer print out and they had cross checked everything on my return electronically, my property tax deductions, my stock dividends so on…

Government: You owe us money. It’s called taxes. Me: How much do I owe? Gov’t: You have to figure that out. Me: I just pay what I want? Gov’t: Oh, no we know exactly how much you owe. But you have to guess that number too. Me: What if I get it wrong? Gov’t: You go to prison Source: https://twitter.com/jordan_stratton/status/11181414550616719... I dig this one up every April.

ya, so why not just send me a statement once a month, the power company does that, the cell phone company does that, the city I live in does that, etc.

Just send me a statement, you made this, you get this much deduction for the other crap or whatever.

No stupid W2, W4 1040, bunch of mumbo jumbo from the 1950's that a few companies are ripping us off over IMO.

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

#297

Post by pilom »

sagarun wrote: post #84
tzs wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used Cash App Taxes. I sold some mutual fund shares in 2021 and it handled it fine. Here's a page describing forms and situations it does not handle [1]. One thing that might annoy some people is that to login to the Cash App Taxes website you must use their mobile app. The website shows a QR code which you scan from the mobile app. It uses the approach of asking you various questions in order to figure out what fo…

Cash App taxes has a bug where mortgage interest deduction is not handled properly with state vs federal. If your mortgage is more than 750000$ and your state is California or a state allows deduction up to a million $ in mortgage interest then you will end up getting a lower refund. I'd double check by filing with another software just to make sure (i.e https://www.freetaxusa.com/ )

Cash app also couldn't file my ev credit correctly. Support was significantly worse than useless. Ended up going with Free Tax USA this year but I've also seen bugs with them.

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

#298

Post by Johnny555 »

zw123456 wrote: post #271

A few years back I got audited, and it was called an "electronic audit" by the IRS. Which basically meant that they had their computer systems scour a bunch of the bank records and discovered that I had forgotten to claim a 1099 for some contract work I had. OK, so they sent me a computer print out and they had cross checked everything on my return electronically, my property tax deductions, my stock dividends so on…

they had their computer systems scour a bunch of the bank records and discovered that I had forgotten to claim a 1099

I assumed they did that automatically for everyone -- does that mean that if I "forget" to attach a 1099 then they IRS won't know unless they do this special "electronic audit"?

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

#299

Post by dang »

The saga continues:

Ask HN: How does TurboTax get away with dark patterns? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30409523 - Feb 2022 (122 comments)

Filing Taxes Could Be Free and Simple. But H&R Block and Intuit Lobby Against It (2017) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30185484 - Feb 2022 (18 comments)

Killing TurboTax - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26330584 - March 2021 (662 comments)

Show HN: ustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26138446 - Feb 2021 (219 comments)

TurboTax Tricked You into Paying to File Your Taxes (2019) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26102695 - Feb 2021 (306 comments)

TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans from Filing Taxes for Free (2019) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26060414 - Feb 2021 (199 comments)

FTC Is Investigating Intuit over TurboTax Practices - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24409093 - Sept 2020 (194 comments)

IRS Reforms Free File Program, Drops Agreement Not to Compete with TurboTax - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21923220 - Dec 2019 (448 comments)

IRS Tried to Hide Emails That Show Tax Industry Influence over Free File Program - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21393758 - Oct 2019 (188 comments)

TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans from Filing Taxes for Free - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21281411 - Oct 2019 (447 comments)

TurboTax to charge more lower-income customers - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20461169 - July 2019 (81 comments)

Congress Scraps Provision to Restrict IRS from Competing with TurboTax - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20119916 - June 2019 (18 comments)

TurboTax Uses a “Military Discount” to Trick Troops into Paying to File Taxes - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19994118 - May 2019 (42 comments)

Listen to TurboTax Lie to Get Out of Refunding Overcharged Customers - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19870242 - May 2019 (44 comments)

TurboTax and H&R Block Saw Free Tax Filing as a Threat - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19810981 - May 2019 (143 comments)

TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19758126 - April 2019 (262 comments)

TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19718284 - April 2019 (274 comments)

Congress Is About to Ban the US Government from Offering Free Online Tax Filing - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19613725 - April 2019 (696 comments)

How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19392673 - March 2019 (253 comments)

H&R Block and Intuit Lobby Against Free and Simple Tax Filing (2017) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18956883 - Jan 2019 (190 comments)

Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17751383 - Aug 2018 (424 comments)

Why I'm boycotting TurboTax this year - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16844458 - April 2018 (23 comments)

H&R Block and Intuit Lobbying Against Simpler Tax Filing (2017) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16841449 - April 2018 (232 comments)

H&R Block and Intuit Are Lobbying Against Making Tax Filling Free and Easy - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13922482 - March 2017 (234 comments)

How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13853150 - March 2017 (439 comments)

TurboTax Takes Aim at Smaller Rival in Fight for Filers - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11150694 - Feb 2016 (87 comments)

Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9381437 - April 2015 (150 comments)

Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9380232 - April 2015 (124 comments)

Filing taxes: It shouldn't be so hard - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5488084 - April 2013 (56 comments)

How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5443203 - March 2013 (330 comments)

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

#300

Post by eropple »

UncleMeat wrote: post #141
junar wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1098-T forms are notoriously unreliable. Schools will often misclassify or omit scholarships and payments. And you might have additional educational expenses like books that aren't listed in the first place. It doesn't excuse your experience, though; that tax preparer should have made a better effort to understand the figures. Out of curiosity, was the tax preparer actually a licensed CPA, or just someone with no pro…

> 1098-T forms are notoriously unreliable. Schools will often misclassify or omit scholarships and payments. And you might have additional educational expenses like books that aren't listed in the first place. Worse, virtually all of the 1098-T guidance exists for undergrads. The problems with the form are entirely different for graduate students and basically nobody can help. > Out of curiosity, was the tax preparer…

In my experience, somebody who has tax preparation as a primary job is often not a CPA. A CPA usually offers a suite of services, and is also usually a lot more useful.

My CPA is great, and I save money through using his services.

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