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Killing TurboTax

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Re: Killing TurboTax

#251

Post by d1zzy »

siliconc0w wrote: post #35
api wrote: post #2

I gotta say I have a love-hate thing with Turbotax. I hate the company and its influence peddling, lobbying, and near monopoly status, but Turbotax itself is a very well designed product with a great intuitive experience that has done a great job filing taxes. So it's a rare case of a sleazy state-sanctioned (via refusal to simplify the tax code) monopoly with a decent product. Usually such monopolies have complete s…

Hard disagree, I've had numerous problems with their app and they constantly try to upsell you even after extracting their egregious yearly fees. There has been no innovation or even noticeable change to their product in years.

I've been using TurboTax desktop version (the Premium edition) for 10+ years and never ran into any issues (and I have relatively complex income situation) except for one bug they have always had about incorrectly summing up the mortgage loan amounts of the same loan that you refinance or transfer in the same year (so it ends up looking as if you had 2 loans that year and consequently can miss out on large deductions). But this is relatively easy to observe and workaround. Compared to spending weeks doing my own taxes (I did them for 3 years) it's a total bliss.

I feel that a lot of people complaining about TurboTax upselling or anything like that are attempting to use the online version. I am very much opposed to giving some online site all my tax information so I will always keep using the desktop version for as long as I can. It includes 5 free federal e-filins and have to pay extra (about $30) for state filing (but can always just print out the filled forms and mail them in if you don't want to). And when I did the taxes on my own I had to print and mail them anyways.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#252

Post by d1zzy »

lancesells wrote: post #89
numbsafari wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TurboTax is so full of dark patterns to get you upsold into needless add-ons, I don't think you can say it really "works great". It's intentionally obtuse and confusing for something that should be simple and straightforward for 80% of the population.

I pay for a stand-alone and the only upsell I can recall seeing over and over again is "audit protection" for ~$59 or so. Is the free version filled with add-ons?

And the state efile (but since there's the "free" alternative to print out forms and mail in that's not a big deal, and it's relatively cheap anyway). I've also always used the desktop/standalone version, great time saving compared to doing it on my own.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#253

Post by ed25519FUUU »

edoceo wrote: post #141
numpad0 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if someone could FOIA their audit software stack and put that up on GitHub and Docker Hub

Generally no. Data you get from FOIA requests is generally limited with what you can do with it. State specific laws, your use-case not withstanding

FOIA results can definitely go into public domain. That's sort of the point.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#254

Post by godelski »

leshow wrote: post #227

This discussion feels incomplete without mentioning "return-free filing". A lot of countries you don't even need to send a return because the government already has all the info you need. https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/what-other-cou...

The fact that this isn't in the conversation has always surprised me. Both Regan and Obama supported it. The Republicans did that whole "taxes on a postcard" skit, but we don't even need a postcard. We're talking about TurboTax, well how many of you also log in and all the information is already there? I don't see why we can't replace the 1040 with return free filing, or at least the 1040Ez

Re: Killing TurboTax

#255

Post by d1zzy »

coherentpony wrote: post #61
aphextron wrote: post #5

What exactly does everyone have against Turbotax? I use it every year and I love it. Sure I could save a hundred bucks and spend hours filling out IRS worksheets, but I don't want to. They have excellent UX, and serve as a reliable secure cloud repository for all of my financial information. What's the big deal?

I'll actually give a response that is not Turbotax specific. The forms I get every year from the ~10 banks I have accounts with and the ~2 companies I earned a salary from are essentially just copies of forms that they also had to send to the IRS. So in principle the IRS already has the same information I do when it comes to how much tax I paid and on what income. It is not clear to me why I have to share: - My name…

Don't share any of that, use the desktop/standalone version.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#257

Post by jcranmer »

BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #206
wheybags wrote: post #167

Something I never understood about us taxes - from reading discussions online, it seems like everyone needs to file taxes at the end of every year? Here it's only self employed, or people with rental or investment income. In a normal employer-employee relationship, the employer has to take care of it for you, they deduct taxes before sending the money to your account. This seems to be the way it works in most places,…

The US's system of tax deductions makes it impossible for your employer to know how much to remove from your paycheck except in the simplest of scenarios. They may not know how many children you have or how much money your spouse makes if you file jointly or how much you pay in rent or whether you're a first-time home buyer or what your deductible medical expenses were for the year or whether you had education expens…

There is literally a form you fill out for your employer to tell them this information so they how to much withhold from your paycheck: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf

Re: Killing TurboTax

#258

Post by [deleted] »

BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #206
wheybags wrote: post #167

Something I never understood about us taxes - from reading discussions online, it seems like everyone needs to file taxes at the end of every year? Here it's only self employed, or people with rental or investment income. In a normal employer-employee relationship, the employer has to take care of it for you, they deduct taxes before sending the money to your account. This seems to be the way it works in most places,…

The US's system of tax deductions makes it impossible for your employer to know how much to remove from your paycheck except in the simplest of scenarios. They may not know how many children you have or how much money your spouse makes if you file jointly or how much you pay in rent or whether you're a first-time home buyer or what your deductible medical expenses were for the year or whether you had education expens…

[deleted]

Re: Killing TurboTax

#259

Post by crowf »

mattwad wrote: post #27

Try freetaxusa.com if you're looking for a free alternative that has an equally friendly user interface!

I don't mind paying for a service, but with a URL that includes the word "free" I was surprised to see at the top of the page "State Returns $14.99 $12.95 — 12 more days to save on state filing"

Re: Killing TurboTax

#260

Post by htek »

chrisseaton wrote: post #157
lotsofpulp wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s pretty simple to do your own taxes unless you have your own business and partnerships and whatnot. Spend a couple hours reading the instructions, use the IRS free fillable forms website, and you do it once and every year after it’s quick and easy. Things don’t change much year to year. If you don’t understand, post a question a personal finance forum and someone will pipe in with an answer.

> It’s pretty simple to do your own taxes So why do people complain about it so much? To the point where they're writing their own custom software (?!) to do it?

Because everyone (for certain values of everyone) has a niche issue that current software doesn't address or addresses poorly, or they just don't want to pay for something that the government should provide. It's their damn tax code, the least they could do is make it as simple as possible to PAY THEM MONEY.
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