How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing

Post by hkuo » Tue, Mar 26, 2013, 6:05 PM UTC

theorique wrote: post #41

clarkevans wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet, Government programs have excellent customer service as compared to corporate equivalents. I use one example: student loan servicing. My loans were serviced by the largest company in the business for years, it was pure torture. When the department of education offered to assume the loans, I was happy to have the pain gone. They have been absolutely lovely to work with, clear, transparent and... helpful.

some government programs have excellent customer service as compared to some corporate equivalents I am sure we could find counterexamples here.

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Mar 26, 2013, 6:16 PM UTC

guelo wrote: post #202

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #118

Couple of notes. 1) The IRS itself gets most of the tax advice wrong that it gives out to taxpayers 2) Paying taxes is one of the few transactional relationships you have with your government. If you ask me, a government representative should come to your office and you should pay him in cash, not hide and automate taxes so that they disappear. 3) There is a difference between a simple tax system and a tax system tha…

1) Source? 2-3) The idea that it should be painful to pay your taxes so that people won't want to pay their taxes is a political idea, not a technocratic idea. But I don't give a shit about your politics. Keep your politics out of my government services. Political meddling by ideologues is what makes government services so awful. Whatever the government is required to do after the law is passed should be done in as f…

Post by flagnog » Tue, Mar 26, 2013, 6:17 PM UTC

ajross wrote: post #205

Domenic_S wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You apparently paid almost three years late Well that's the thing, the IRS can wait 3 years (or 6 if the error was bad enough), then look at your taxes, and pound you with 4%/year, instead of setting up a job to look at everything right away.

Is that what happened in this case? Again, this is turning into an anti-government diatribe. The original assertion was that the IRS would apply heavy penalties for getting math wrong on the return. No, that's incorrect. Then it was that they'll assess a 12% penalty. No, that's wrong too, it's just a 4% APR. Now your claim is that they're... what, lying in wait ? Deliberately maximizing penalties? That's not my exper…

Post by FireBeyond » Tue, Mar 26, 2013, 6:20 PM UTC

brk wrote: post #147

ajross wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one pays penalties for simple mistakes. That's what FOX news tells you, but it's not true. We've made five-figure goofs on taxes in the past and a simple letter explaining the mistake (assuming it's an explainable mistake and you didn't get caught in actual attempted fraud) is enough to get the penalty waved.

Seconded. Mine was a 6 figure mistake. I fact, it COST the IRS money to contact me. Once they sent info I realized the error, and that I did not in fact owe 6 figures. Paid it anyway so my wife wouldn't stress about penalities, restated ( took a year) and then received a refund with hefty interest paid by the IRS. Along the way their support line was helpful in getting some questions answered.

Post by Retric » Tue, Mar 26, 2013, 6:24 PM UTC

hkuo wrote: post #211

theorique wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

some government programs have excellent customer service as compared to some corporate equivalents I am sure we could find counterexamples here.

In my experience, I would tend to agree that customer service from the government is generally better than corporations, from the DMV (though states my vary), County Clerk Recorders, Passport offices and even the IRS, and they generally seem happier than customer service folk at corporations who read verbatim from support guide trees and are incentivized to do what's in the best interests of the company rather than y…