411–420 of 589 posts
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How? Was it Form-1099K mis-ingestion from turbotax? Or is it some other hole?
Our taxes are complicated. We employed a nanny this past year which somehow made our tax due jump up by over 3K. I assume this was a mistake in TurboTax?
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They’re not mutually exclusive. A W-2 employee has very few ways to reduce taxes and no amount of energy or effort will change that.
If you are on w2 and owe big taxes, then you are intentionally under withholding. Unless you won IPO or buyout jackpot, then spend your time planning your retirement, not credit card churn (unless that’s your plan all along).
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They’re not mutually exclusive. A W-2 employee has very few ways to reduce taxes and no amount of energy or effort will change that.
If you are on w2 and owe big taxes, then you are intentionally under withholding. Unless you won IPO or buyout jackpot, then spend your time planning your retirement, not credit card churn (unless that’s your plan all along).
No, many W2 people also have investments and capital gains, and it's very easy to owe big taxes without under-withholding.
Also, if your W2 income is, say, $500K, it's not out of the ordinary to owe another $10K or $15K even if you don't intentionally under-withhold. It's not within penalty territory but more than enough to get a sign-up bonus or two and get a couple thousand of it back in cashback, air tickets or hotel stays and things you'll use anyway.
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In most countries that have implemented such a system, the government prepares your taxes for you, and then you ok them or ask for adjustments. The vast majority that use standard deductions would just approve it, while those that know their deductions would exceed that can itemize it. Why wouldn't such a system work here? It's not like the act of doing your taxes is what makes your realize you're over the standard d…
> It's not like the act of doing your taxes is what makes your realize you're over the standard deduction. That is exactly how I figured out I should itemize my taxes this year.
That's pretty much the extent most Americans think about itemization as it stands, and whether it comes from a tax software or the government, the result is going to be the same.
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The last time we were given "tax reform" it was mainly about cutting rates for the wealthy rather than streamline and modernize how taxes are handled (the IRS budget has been constrained and prevents them doing anything other than barely function, which is a not an accident). https://www.policygenius.com/taxes/who-benefited-most-from-t...
"Middle-class Americans saw mixed results as most of the benefits accrued to the highest earners." I mean, yeah? 42% of Americans pay no federal income tax, how could tax reform benefit them unless it's handing out cash? Which we already do with EITC. And the complexities and burden of the tax system go way, way back before Trump's tax reform. Think more like anything passed since the 1950's.
You went out of your way to make this about partisan finger-pointing and I merely countered that there's plenty of blame to share. Way to deflect and spin!
Partisan politics is why the subject is so rancorous. I have no party affiliation and am happy to acknowledge and criticize the one that I am most sympathetic too. This is why we can't have nice things -- because we can't talk about policy and and government reform without it becoming a pissing match.
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It's not hard if you have simple incomes and deduction, it's just a bloated process that you have to pay to complete (if you make enough money) and you are at risk of penalty if you accidentally fat finger manually copying printed text into a computer since the IRS already knows all the values and will know if you submitted something wrong. What would be better is if the IRS just sent you the stuff they know and you…
> eliminates the need for middle income Americans to pay a yearly fee in order to be law abiding. Yearly fee? I had to pay for turbotax but I was under the impression that it was because my income is very high. I don't know, it makes sense to me the way the IRS does it. If I get a massive windfall and the IRS didn't send me information about it, then I would be able to just not file it because I would know they don't…
Ideally the IRS would tell you what they think is accurate and you'd submit amendments for anything that's not accurate. That's no different than the current arrangement since you already need to report all income, it just eliminates the extra cost and effort for the majority of Americans that don't receive windfalls.
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"Middle-class Americans saw mixed results as most of the benefits accrued to the highest earners." I mean, yeah? 42% of Americans pay no federal income tax, how could tax reform benefit them unless it's handing out cash? Which we already do with EITC. And the complexities and burden of the tax system go way, way back before Trump's tax reform. Think more like anything passed since the 1950's.
> You don't need Grover to make US taxes overly complex and burdensome. Just look at some of the tax bills Democrats have sponsored You went out of your way to make this about partisan finger-pointing and I merely countered that there's plenty of blame to share. Way to deflect and spin! Partisan politics is why the subject is so rancorous. I have no party affiliation and am happy to acknowledge and criticize the one…
You said "The last time we were given "tax reform"", which implies this is a recent issue. I countered with "look at some of the tax bills Democrats have sponsored", clearly showing it's NOT a partisan issue, both parties are doing it, and have been doing it for decades.
The original comment blamed Grover, so in fact you're replying to a chain of comments that were already partisan, so I reply with a comment about politics and you somehow blame me for making it partisan. Fun!
Call on the IRS to provide libre tax-filing software - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35705469 - April 2023 (129 comments)
60M Americans have taxes so simple the IRS could do them automatically - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35476709 - April 2023 (277 comments)
Lobbyists begin chipping away at Biden’s $80B IRS overhaul - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35381701 - March 2023 (214 comments)
Intuit pouring money into lobbying amid push for free government-run tax filing - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34840039 - Feb 2023 (178 comments)
IRS builds task force to explore running its own free e-file system - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34764952 - Feb 2023 (199 comments)
IRS Free File: Do Your Taxes for Free - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34462122 - Jan 2023 (247 comments)
IRS will look into setting up a free e-filing system - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32753099 - Sept 2022 (408 comments)
The IRS could be on the verge of changing the way Americans file their taxes - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32550841 - Aug 2022 (17 comments)
IRS will study free tax filing options - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32502321 - Aug 2022 (25 comments)
TurboTax’s fight against free tax filing - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31072202 - April 2022 (394 comments)
Filing taxes could be free & simple. H&R Block & Intuit lobby against it (2017) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30856968 - March 2022 (114 comments)
FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30846071 - March 2022 (587 comments)
Ask HN: How does TurboTax get away with dark patterns? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30409523 - Feb 2022 (122 comments)
Why do Americans have to pay much to file their tax returns when the IRS knows? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30267361 - Feb 2022 (22 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)
California tried to save the nation from tax filing, then Intuit stepped in - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28944200 - Oct 2021 (283 comments)
The IRS has a big opportunity to fix the way Americans file taxes - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28177289 - Aug 2021 (12 comments)
UsTaxes – open-source tax filing web application - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27998452 - July 2021 (53 comments)
Good Riddance, TurboTax. Americans Need a Real ‘Free File’ Program - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27902380 - July 2021 (248 comments)
Intuit will no longer be a part of IRS Free File program - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27865625 - July 2021 (140 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 stops firms like TurboTax from hiding free tax-filing products in searches - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21948935 - Jan 2020 (25 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)
Filing Your Taxes Is an Expensive Time Sink. That’s Not an Accident - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19572917 - April 2019 (155 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)
IRS electronic filing system breaks down hours before midnight deadline - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16860086 - April 2018 (97 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)
Stanford Professor Loses Political Battle To Simplify Tax Filing Process - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13990391 - March 2017 (386 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)
US Senator Warren Introduces Bill to Simplify Tax Filing - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11492025 - April 2016 (155 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)
TurboTax Maker Intuit Funnels Millions to Lobby Against Easier Tax Returns - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7595440 - April 2014 (182 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)
Intuit lobbies against California's free tax filing service - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1569169 - Aug 2010 (29 comments)
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Please don't do this here.
Hi dang, just checked your reply. Can you add more context? My response was paraphrased using chat-gpt. Is that not allowed ? Let me know, thanks!