FTC bans TurboTax from advertising 'free' services, calls deceptive advertising

Post by throwawaymaths » Tue, Jan 23, 2024, 5:29 AM UTC

SoftTalker wrote: post #161

It's 2024. It's beyond time for the IRS to offer free tax filing online. You've been able to file for free on paper since forever. But again, it's 2024. Paper is not a reasonable solution for either filers or the IRS in 2024. It's difficult to handle, error-prone, and all the software they use to validate paper forms could be repurposed to accept online forms. And the online forms should be pre-filled with all the in…

Post by ckw » Tue, Jan 23, 2024, 5:35 AM UTC

MBCook wrote: post #58

cityofdelusion wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This story has to be apocryphal, as fractions aren't _that_ rare, especially in the U.S. with its imperial system and third of a cup measurements or quarter inches or half miles and so on.

Reportedly that’s the answer they got in focus groups when they tried to figure out why it failed. 4 > 3.

Post by Antrikshy » Tue, Jan 23, 2024, 5:47 AM UTC

throwawaymaths wrote: post #171

SoftTalker wrote: post #161

It's 2024. It's beyond time for the IRS to offer free tax filing online. You've been able to file for free on paper since forever. But again, it's 2024. Paper is not a reasonable solution for either filers or the IRS in 2024. It's difficult to handle, error-prone, and all the software they use to validate paper forms could be repurposed to accept online forms. And the online forms should be pre-filled with all the in…

Uh, you know that it's a thing starting this year? https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/17/politics/irs-free-tax-filing-...

Post by mjevans » Tue, Jan 23, 2024, 6:24 AM UTC

ants_everywhere wrote: post #98

cityofdelusion wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This story has to be apocryphal, as fractions aren't _that_ rare, especially in the U.S. with its imperial system and third of a cup measurements or quarter inches or half miles and so on.

It's not that they're rare, it's that it legitimately is an easy error to make even if you understand it to be an error. Even people who work with equations every day will occasionally make careless mistakes like this. That's why mathematicians joke about how it's important to make an even number of sign errors. To not make this mistake, you have to be able to call to mind that the map x -> 1/x reverses the inequalit…

Post by EnigmaFlare » Tue, Jan 23, 2024, 6:33 AM UTC

wharvle wrote: post #144

bcrosby95 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fractions are just division. When kids learn division, it's about splitting into equal groups. Fractions are a bit different though - you're splitting a single thing into equal chunks. Hence, slices of pie. Multiplying by 1/5 is really dividing by 5. Introduce that first. We already know how to do this. You split your 1/3 slice into 5 equal slices. Do the same to the other 2/3 slices, count all the slices, and you ha…

IDK, I did fine with them and find thinking in them natural (I think of fractional division as division, in fact, though I certainly understand the multiplication analogy); I’ve just known enough people who lost track of math at fractions that I doubt it’s coincidence. I’m not saying I don’t get it, I’m saying others have told me that they found the explanations and instructions they were given nonsensical.