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FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign

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Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign

#561

Post by pc86 »

eyelidlessness wrote: post #411
pc86 wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lobby certainly doesn't help but "just tell me what I owe" is not practical or possible, and is an overly simplistic view of everything about the system. Most importantly, the 1099 your client filed telling them you got paid more than $600 was due the same time your taxes were due, so they didn't know about it until after the fact. The feds have no idea how your deductions (and to a lesser extent, your income) have c…

How is it not obvious this is a system designed for abuse favoring the most privileged abusers?

Pretend it's not for a moment and make your argument?

Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign

#562

Post by jacobolus »

jbverschoor wrote: post #494
jacobolus wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like anyone else, politicians respond to incentives. US crony capitalism is a large-scale systemic failure, and the tax filing system (and under-resourced IRS) is just one symptom. If you want a narrow target, you can blame the GOP activists on the US Supreme Court, or if you want to go beyond that, blame the GOP senators/presidents who appointed them, the Federalist Society, the GOP donor base, GOP-aligned media org…

There's a word for those incentives.. "bribes"

The #1 most relevant goal for politicians is to get re-elected. (Personal enrichment is largely orthogonal.) Raising large campaign contributions is of obvious benefit to that effort, and is not directly a bribe per se. But it does have some of the same problems that bribery has.

It’s undoubtedly true that some US politicians have gotten bribes, defrauded partners or constituents, embezzled money from their campaigns or the government, used inside information to trade stocks, etc. But even if all of those were impossible, the nature of the US campaign finance system would create plenty of perverse incentives.

Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign

#563

Post by LinuxBender »

lupire wrote: post #152
LinuxBender wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would be required for the US to adopt this solution?

Congress passes a law to amend the Free File program. https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-f...

Does this system pre-populate the forms with everything the IRS already knows about me and then I just modify the things that are incorrect? Can people upload their tax documents from all the financial institutions in some standard format that automatically figures out what form to use and populates maybe 95% of the fields and marks the empty required fields with yellow? I ask because I have an id.me/IRS login and they do not appear to have this data until I give it to them.

This is the system I am looking for. I think it would make the lives of the IRS employees better and would save me time and money.

Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign

#564

Post by swozey »

toast0 wrote: post #469
swozey wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a $165k notice of defiecency bill from the IRS due next month that is a complete joke that I have had to spend days figuring out. I almost dropped thousands on a lawyer for it until I understood Tax Court better. Why? They think I sold a house and kept all of the gains. Like I didn't have a mortgage, and like it wasn't my primary residence. It's ridiculous. I can't explain how stressed out getting a $165k bill…

Did you report the sale? When I sold my primary residence in 2018, it ended up on Schedule D and Form 8949, and there were no questions asked. The IRS does have a tendency to assume zero basis when there's a capital sale reported to them that doesn't appear in the tax return; which makes for scary bills, but can usually be resolved by reporting the sale and your basis on the appropriate form. (although I see from fur…

I don't believe I did, it was my primary residence so bypassing a lot of the tax implications from capital gains. It was my first house sale so I was really expecting to companies involved in it that I paid a small fortune to to handle things of that nature, or at least send me documentation to send when I did my taxes. Unless something got lost in the mail I never received any sort of tax docs, which in my obvious-now ignorance might have been very wrong.

I did these taxes in the height of the pandemic in March after being laid off and living out of airbnbs for 3 months so it very well may have just been missed unfortunately. I'm not even sure what they need or who to talk to, I'm just going to mail them everything I have including the Statute stating I don't need to pay capital gains on a primary residence house sale under $500k.

Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign

#565

Post by cstoner »

noduerme wrote: post #551
adwww wrote: post #544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Well, that's a very glass-half-empty way of looking at it. I'm saying that high earners have to help subsidize lower earners the more luxuries they accrue in their life. It's not the earning after all that makes the difference between rich and poor; that's why the wealthiest people in America pay no income tax . They're not earning anything, officially. But boy do they spend . So maybe, I don't know, if you're really…

I think you drastically over-estimate what percentage of income the rich spend on luxury goods. People don't stay rich by buying things.

I consider myself pretty high income. If I was just taxed on consumption, I would bet I'd pay probably half as much tax as I do now.

Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign

#566

Post by toast0 »

swozey wrote: post #564
toast0 wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you report the sale? When I sold my primary residence in 2018, it ended up on Schedule D and Form 8949, and there were no questions asked. The IRS does have a tendency to assume zero basis when there's a capital sale reported to them that doesn't appear in the tax return; which makes for scary bills, but can usually be resolved by reporting the sale and your basis on the appropriate form. (although I see from fur…

I don't believe I did, it was my primary residence so bypassing a lot of the tax implications from capital gains. It was my first house sale so I was really expecting to companies involved in it that I paid a small fortune to to handle things of that nature, or at least send me documentation to send when I did my taxes. Unless something got lost in the mail I never received any sort of tax docs, which in my obvious-n…

I'm not a tax person, but probably all they need is an amended tax return (1040X) with the sale reported. Grab the instructions for schedule D for the tax year you sold your home, and follow the section for "Sale of Your Home". It says you're only required to report the sale if the gains exceeded the exclusion amount or you received a 1099-S; but I'm guessing the IRS must have received a 1099-S even if you didn't. You might be able to get a copy of that through the IRS Tax Transcript service?

They probably don't need a copy of the Statute, but eh. :)

Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign

#567

Post by valarauko »

sschueller wrote: post #471
cmutel wrote: post #462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since we're having the semi-annual "how do taxes work in other countries" thread, here is my experience as an American living in Switzerland. Though I have been here a while, I still find it interesting and a little weird. At the beginning of the year, you get a bill for that year based on what they think you will owe. This bill is due on October 31, i.e. you need to pay your estimated income tax before you have earn…

You forgot the part where you need to also file and pay US taxes although you may no longer be living there, have any income or assets there but you still need to pay as long as you hold a citizenship or green card.

> you still need to pay as long as you hold a citizenship or green card.

wait, I thought this only applied to US citizens, not Green Card holders

Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign

#568

Post by tmp_anon_22 »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #523
sgjohnson wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn’t. And “sin taxes”, i.e. tobbaco taxes and carbon taxes are a logical fallacy. Tobacco tax won’t offset the additional healthcare costs for smokers on average, so it ends up just being a penalty for having a bad habit, and carbon tax will simply put a price tag on high carbon emissions.

Kind of tangential - the tobacco tax is a fallacy in another way: without taking into account quality of life adjustments, smokers are actually a net benefit for society in healthcare costs [1]. The simple reason is because they die earlier and most healthcare costs are incurred near the tail end of life, so by shortening those final years it becomes much cheaper for society to pay out. 1: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/con…

How many people die per year of second hand smoke? Smokers impact non-smokers significantly.

Re: FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign

#569

Post by teknopaul »

gambiting wrote: post #548
JSavageOne wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

For many who don't have an automated tax return it could be easily. It amazes me the systems like bizum and bank transfers don't have a checkbox for "this ought to be taxed".

If you are not getting a VAT refund then you are paying VAT and it is in your interest that everyone does, so most consumers would select the box. The transfer is recorded, consumers would be complicit in the fraud if they didn't tick the box and that's enough excuse for both sides to want to play ball.

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