I'm surprised the article and comments haven't mentioned CreditKarma's tax solution yet, which is (actually) free. [1] Presumably their strategy is to take the users and data they get from offering free tax filing and use them to advertise lending products. I think that's a sustainable and politically feasible way to get free tax filing, actually; I expect that in ~5 years Credit Karma will have eaten a big part of TurboTax and H&R Block's lunch.
H&R Block and Intuit Are Lobbying Against Making Tax Filling Free and Easy
121–130 of 240 posts
Re: H&R Block and Intuit Are Lobbying Against Making Tax Filling Free and Easy
#122Because of the complexity of tax regulations, I don't think coming up with a competing free/open-source/nonprofit tax preparation service is the right answer to this problem. Let's consider the positions of all sides: * The professional tax preparers are worried that they're going to lose business if the government assumes the bulk of the tax preparation work. * We as taxpayers would prefer that the government pre-fi…
> 1) You go to a Free File partner.
I think this is already going a bit in the wrong direction. How about:
1) You download the info from the IRS in a publicly documented unencumbered format. JSON with a well-specified schema, for example.
2) You import it into your favorite tax program.
3) When you're all done, you upload the forms in a publicly documented unencumbered format back to the IRS, thus saving them lots of money compared to scanning a mailed copy.
Another major improvement would be for the IRS to publish all of the formulas backing all of the tax forms in machine-readable format. I suspect that a large fraction of the work involved in maintaining programs like TurboTax is manually importing all the forms.
Re: H&R Block and Intuit Are Lobbying Against Making Tax Filling Free and Easy
#123The government would actually love this. Most people are ignorant of tax laws and would just sign a piece of paper to get all of their taxes done. It would be an instant pay raise because most people would never even know if they could write something off. It would also allow them to easily remove the ability to write anything off, without too many people complaining. What many people don't like to talk about is that…
With pre filled forms the IRS just tells you what they already know anyway. You are still free to file a return with your own data if you don't agree.
Re: H&R Block and Intuit Are Lobbying Against Making Tax Filling Free and Easy
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
I never said we can't condemn the behavior of businesses. The prime objective for a business is to make money. All the ethics, right/wrongs, etc are things that we expect from the people who run those businesses. But the business is there to make money. It is up to the people in charge of making choices for society to make the right choices. It's not the responsibility of the business. They have every right to lobby…
Why is it incumbent on politicians to be moral, "do the right things", but not businesses? That's a laughably arbitrary choice you're making.
Business aren't actually people, they are fictions. Your judgement doesn't appeal to their consciences or affect their senses of self-worth. They don't have hearts. Strategies appealing to their better natures are doomed to fail.
Re: H&R Block and Intuit Are Lobbying Against Making Tax Filling Free and Easy
#125I'm surprised the article and comments haven't mentioned CreditKarma's tax solution yet, which is (actually) free. [1] Presumably their strategy is to take the users and data they get from offering free tax filing and use them to advertise lending products. I think that's a sustainable and politically feasible way to get free tax filing, actually; I expect that in ~5 years Credit Karma will have eaten a big part of T…
Damn. And I already filed my taxes. Maybe I'll use this next year.
Re: H&R Block and Intuit Are Lobbying Against Making Tax Filling Free and Easy
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
We have written our laws to allow corporations to exist because this system is supposed to be better for the public at large. I'll yell at H&R Block and Intuit because they are subverting the public interest. (I'll yell at politicians too)
You have every right to express dissatisfaction with their actions. I agree with you that their actions are scummy, but they have a right to lobby for their interests. Express enough dissatisfaction at your politicians so that they aren't bending to business.
Sure but your answer seems to be excusing their action. You said that it was never wrong for them to lobby. I'd say that this case is a perfect example of when lobbying is "wrong."
Re: H&R Block and Intuit Are Lobbying Against Making Tax Filling Free and Easy
#127Is lobbying just a cute alternative word for "corruption"?
Re: H&R Block and Intuit Are Lobbying Against Making Tax Filling Free and Easy
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well that may be a good possible solution, but currently we don't/can't do that.
Didn't "what are you going to do" indicate a potential hypothetical?
It was, because you can't put a business in actual jail... You gave an alternative punishment that you could actually levy on a business and I agree that that could work.
Re: H&R Block and Intuit Are Lobbying Against Making Tax Filling Free and Easy
#129I feel like this comes up every March :)
Re: H&R Block and Intuit Are Lobbying Against Making Tax Filling Free and Easy
#130They've been doing this for years. When I grumble about capitalism this is the sort of thing that annoys me. People say government is bad because it doesn't have competition and is a van intrinsically violent monopoly, but here we see an example of private actors spending money to make government unresponsive or outright antagonistic to people's needs so as to profit by serving those needs. The argument goes on that it's government's fault for allowing itself to be influenced, but that rests on an increasingly common fallacy of composition as if government were a monolithic entity, which (especially in the United States) is so far from being the truth as to be a lie. The fact is that many actors in government have been corrupted by campaign donations, and that the mechanistic application of an unlimited first-amendment concept of political speech Does Not Work.
A basic problem particular to the United States, in my view, if that while the Constitution treats of both law and equity, law has gained primacy and some parties are heavily invested in keeping it that way, arguing that the courts should be no more than mechanistic deciders rather than moral agents in their own right, most often summarized as 'we're a nation of laws!' - a curious statement from people who pledge allegiance to the idea of a Republic with liberty and justice for all, as if there could never be any such thing as unjust laws.
It would be interesting to see which members of Congress are most heavily influenced by lobbyists, and examine their public statements to see whether this correlates with hostility towards the judicial branch that checks their 'work.'