The real dark pattern is their ability to bribe the Congress into preventing IRS from implementing free filing.
The real dark pattern is the ability of the state to put you in jail unless you fork over money.
TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes
151–160 of 283 posts
Re: TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Back when it existed, less than 20% of people filed a 1040-EZ (the simplest tax form). That means you need something beyond just "plug in the numbers from the W-2" for the vast majority of tax filers. Or it means that lots of people who qualified to use the 1040-EZ didn't know about it. Or it means that lots of people who qualified to use the 1040-EZ kept on filing 1040s because that's what they were used to doing.…
The IRS releases aggregated information on what % of people take various deductions or use various aspects of the different tax forms. This information does not support your various alternative hypotheses. For the record any of the following disallowed someone from using the 1040-EZ - being over the age of 65 - having any dependents/children - making over 100k in income - claiming any deductions at all It was a very…
Adding one more
- claiming EITCRe: TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes
#153The real dark pattern is their ability to bribe the Congress into preventing IRS from implementing free filing.
The real dark pattern is the ability of the state to put you in jail unless you fork over money.
The real dark pattern is the propagation of antisocial behavior that spreads the idea that you don't owe society anything.
Re: TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes
#154The real dark pattern is their ability to bribe the Congress into preventing IRS from implementing free filing.
The real dark pattern is the ability of the state to put you in jail unless you fork over money.
... to pay for public services you're using? Roads, schools, firefighters? Of course, I'm not happy with plenty of other things my taxes pay for (Predator drones, e.g.), but I'd like to think that can be fixed via legislation, eventually.
Re: TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes
#155In my experience this year, TurboTax prompted me that I could save money by upgrading to a paid plan via taking advantage of some extra deduction. I thought, "if it's going to save me more than I pay for it, why not?" I clicked through and found that this deduction wouldn't actually save me any money. I then couldn't find a way to get back to the free plan (they only charge you after you file, so this should be possi…
They lost me as a customer this year because of this exact reason.
I started doing my taxes in turbo tax this year. After a few screens I got the upgrade option for extra deductions and saving money. I clicked ok and got upgraded. I followed through the entire taxes and my return didn’t change. NO WAY to downgrade. Clearly, they got theirs.
I opened up Taxact and filled up their forms and my returns were the same without upgrading (to their equivalent option). I filed with TaxAct and removed my info from TurboTax. I will definitely use them to compare my taxes if I ever have to but I will not file using TurboTax. POS.
Re: TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes
#156The real dark pattern is their ability to bribe the Congress into preventing IRS from implementing free filing.
I can't imagine how horrible a single captive solution from the IRS would be compared to one spawned by the competitive marketplace. Now why our tax code needs to be so complex that it requires software like Turbo Tax is certainly a fair question.
And it'd probably cost a billion dollars. Government contracting is way more corrupted than the shenanigans alleged by this article.
Re: TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes
#157The state to which the US tax system is an absolute hellscape becomes crystal clear when/if you move abroad. I currently live in one of those small european countries touted (often accurately, sometimes not) as a utopia, and sure enough filing taxes is basically 99% automated. The more complex your income the more work is involved - of course - but for the vast majority of users who own 1 piece of property and derive most of their income from an employer, it's basically ready out of the box.
The hardest part for me - by far - of filing income tax is and remains filing my US taxes, which unsurprisingly becomes extra complicated and burdensome as an overseas citizen.
We can only dream of the day when the bizarro hydra that forms the anti-tax-reform lobby is somehow defeated, but that realistically feels like a not-in-my-lifetime kind of deal.
Re: TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
CreditKarma is 100% free for everything. I've used them the last two years without issue, although they dramatically improved the service this last year. It was a little rough year 1.
I want to try CreditKarma's free filing, but since its free, I'm the product, and i'm not sure what that means, when handing them all my tax info yet..
This statement, "If it's free, I'm the product" is becoming less and less relevant because, "Even if it's not free, I'm usually the product anyway"
Think Comcast, Verizon, various Android phones, various modern TVs, etc.
Re: TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes
#159The real dark pattern is their ability to bribe the Congress into preventing IRS from implementing free filing.
But will the UX/UI actually be good and how will we hold them accountable? My city's site for filing is absolutely terrible and I'm surprised I can even make it through to the end and submit payment. I'm actually surprised they have online filing to begin with. I'd rather pay for good UI/X than a crappy experience that wastes even more of my time.
Re: TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes
#160I want to take this opportunity to mention that the IRS Free Fillable Forms service is completely free for anyone. It might not be the best choice for everyone, but I found that despite all these tax services' low cognitive load, they ask so many questions with so many steps that the actual time that it takes to file with TurboTax wasn't actually any faster than just biting the bullet and reading some instructions. A…
I've looked at that section on the IRS site every other year for twenty, still can't make heads or tails of it. I end up opening another tab and downloading 1040.
It's not much different than logging into any other tax website provider, except that it's less slick and nice, and you have to actually fill out the forms rather than answering questions.
This is the actual direct link to the site in case you actually haven't been able to find what you're supposed to use: