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FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign
541–550 of 610 posts
Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign
#542Government: You must provide a free way for those that qualify. Intuit: OK. Intuits exec to its employees: Make this free system, but hide it from the public. Provide links that are broken, make sure it doesn't show up on search indexes. Scott Cook and all those involved should have all of their assets seized. About as slimy as you can get as a person. Made billions off of scamming United States citizens.
I'm curious what the original deal was, because Intuit doesn't even have the free system anymore. This year, they "elected not to renew its participation in the IRS Free File Program." [1] [1] https://freefile.intuit.com/
Allegedly the government had plans to make a completely free, simple way for you file your taxes electronically. Tax software companies knew if that took place their cash machines would die. They made an agreement with the government that they would provide a completely free simple way for individuals to file taxes electronically if the government wouldn't build their own. They technically did, they just made it pretty much impossible to find it. Broken links, hid it from search indexes etc.
Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign
#543A few years back I got audited, and it was called an "electronic audit" by the IRS. Which basically meant that they had their computer systems scour a bunch of the bank records and discovered that I had forgotten to claim a 1099 for some contract work I had. OK, so they sent me a computer print out and they had cross checked everything on my return electronically, my property tax deductions, my stock dividends so on…
Government: You owe us money. It’s called taxes. Me: How much do I owe? Gov’t: You have to figure that out. Me: I just pay what I want? Gov’t: Oh, no we know exactly how much you owe. But you have to guess that number too. Me: What if I get it wrong? Gov’t: You go to prison Source: https://twitter.com/jordan_stratton/status/11181414550616719... I dig this one up every April.
The best part is your employer already sent them the income tax money you owe them but you still have to tell them how much money someone else gave them. Its an absurdly brain damaged system.
Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign
#544Earlier quoted context omitted.
That sounds pretty regressive. A massive tax burdon on a low income family so that high earners don't have to file income taxes.
Well, really it's progressive if it only taxes stuff you don't need to buy . Here's what I think: Fuel and food, no tax. School supplies, shoes, clothing, any item under $100, no tax. Over $100, ramp it up. Diamond rings, 100% tax. Alcohol and cigarettes, 20-30%. Used cars, no tax. New cars, 10% up to 100%. Credits if they're electric or extremely fuel-efficient. Playstations, high end sneakers, Smart TVs, iPhones, r…
So low earners are allowed to eat basic food, but pay astronomical taxes for any luxuries in their life. Which you and I could easily afford.
Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign
#545Earlier quoted context omitted.
“Capitalism” does not mean “every use of money that I disagree with”. It also does not mean “greedy immoral bastards who sell political influence to the highest bidder”. There are lots of corrupt things about the US government. That’s not capitalism; it’s corruption. It can happen in any form of government; in the US it just happens to be much more visible.
However, Capitalism inherently rewards corruption. If you are a corrupt politician and earn $10 million through corruption you can invest your money and the capital gains alone will exceed any politician's salary and this is ignoring that you will earn more every single year due to compounding. You can burn the amazon down and then invest the earned or saved money and economists will tell you, you are doing well and…
Almost like all the "isms" are total garbage. The best route forward would be to examine all the "isms", find the parts of each that can be brought together to make a new path forward. Unabashed capitalism is a scourge, just like any other "ism" if left unchecked.
Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign
#546Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dirty secret: all versions of TurboTax have all the forms - you can just switch to form mode and enter the values yourself into the forms.
Even dirtier secret - the government is legally required to publish all the forms in an accessible manner. You can just download them without ever even installing any Intuit software. Just to back this up with facts - here are the braille and spanish language offerings which took all of two seconds of googling: https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/irs-tax-forms-in-braille-and-... https://apps.irs.gov/app/picklist/list/form…
Yep, though arguably the base turbotax is helpful in filling them out (but after the first year or so you could just imitate the previous year's filings).
Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign
#547Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or just use CashApp Tax. Your procedure makes it sound like Turbo Tax is the only game in town. Turbo Tax isn’t worth any of the effort you mentioned.
TurboTax is one of the few pieces of tax software meant for offline use, thus letting you keep your personal information from entering the permanent records of surveillance valley. Just quickly looking at CashApp Tax, it appears it is an Android app that likely will want network access to function. If that meets your requirements, good for you. But it doesn't meet mine. I'd also rather use the same software year to y…
CashApp Tax is Credit Karma Tax that was bought by Square. Everything transferred from previous years and Square/Block Inc is publicly traded corporation with a ~$85 billion market cap so I’m not sure what you mean by “whichever way the startup winds blow.”
Furthermore — it’s your tax records. As soon as the government receives them they enter the permanent records of surveillance valley.
Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign
#548Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is how is works in Australia. The Australian Tax Office will pre-fill your tax return online with income from your wages, interests, managed fund distributions, dividends etc. That maybe enough for simple tax returns, you can just accept their values and submit. What they don't know is your income from sources like rental income or crypto. They also don't know deductions you are going to claim. In this case you…
Pretty much every other major developed country operates like this. Here in South Korea for example filing taxes is as simple as logging into some government portal, verifying that the information they already have on you is correct, and making any corrections if necessary. 10 minutes, done. The U.S is unique in forcing its citizens to waste countless hours and pay hundreds/thousands of dollars every year doing the u…
In the UK it's so streamlined some of my coworkers were genuienly surprised when I told them it's the end of the tax year - as in, that's something they have never ever think about in their entire careers. Taxes are paid automatically by your employer, if you only work one regular full time job then "filling taxes" is just not a thing you'd ever have to do in your life.
Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign
#549Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, really it's progressive if it only taxes stuff you don't need to buy . Here's what I think: Fuel and food, no tax. School supplies, shoes, clothing, any item under $100, no tax. Over $100, ramp it up. Diamond rings, 100% tax. Alcohol and cigarettes, 20-30%. Used cars, no tax. New cars, 10% up to 100%. Credits if they're electric or extremely fuel-efficient. Playstations, high end sneakers, Smart TVs, iPhones, r…
So low earners are allowed to eat basic food, but pay astronomical taxes for any luxuries in their life. Which you and I could easily afford.
How is that any different right now?
Low earners drive some shit cars, while you and me can (probably) afford a brand new Audi. How is that fair? /s
>>Which you and I could easily afford.
That's the key part here. You tax those who can afford it the most.
Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign
#550Earlier quoted context omitted.
TurboTax is one of the few pieces of tax software meant for offline use, thus letting you keep your personal information from entering the permanent records of surveillance valley. Just quickly looking at CashApp Tax, it appears it is an Android app that likely will want network access to function. If that meets your requirements, good for you. But it doesn't meet mine. I'd also rather use the same software year to y…
CashApp Tax is Credit Karma Tax that was bought by Square. Everything transferred from previous years and Square/Block Inc is publicly traded corporation with a ~$85 billion market cap so I’m not sure what you mean by “whichever way the startup winds blow.” Furthermore — it’s your tax records. As soon as the government receives them they enter the permanent records of surveillance valley.
"Cash.app" had no name recognition for me and frankly the name sounds gimmicky. I hassumed it was some fly by night thing, but okay, thanks for informing me it has a longer history and large company behind it. Still, being free, it either presently has a revenue strategy (ie commercial surveillance), or it will inevitably pivot to one down the line.
> As soon as the government receives them they enter the permanent records of surveillance valley.
Uh no, US tax records are not public data, nor available for the surveillance industry to buy AFAIK. It's unavoidable that the government gets them, but the fewer parties that get mine the better.