FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign • Hacker News Board

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

#581

Post by thebigman433 » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 7:46 PM UTC

refurb wrote: post #464

thebigman433 wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally by massively outspending opponents in the primary.

No, this is just the cynic HN perspective and an excuse to do nothing about it.

I dont think its cynical at all, as someone who has done some work for political campaigns, follows them closely, and studies them. Incumbents keep power within their own party by generally massively outspending their primary opponents, making it extremely rare for them to lose in the primary. The only real exceptions to this recently have been Dem stronghold incumbents losing to progressives.

After that, its just whether or not the incumbent can defend against the opposition party in the general election. Primaries are generally where the biggest changes are made, and are also where its the hardest to oust the incumbent.

Its not cynical, nor an excuse.

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

#582

Post by sschueller » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 7:52 PM UTC

valarauko wrote: post #567

sschueller wrote: post #471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Green card holders are not excempt from this: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/freq...

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

#583

Post by throwawayboise » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 8:53 PM UTC

zakpatterson wrote: post #345

throwawayboise wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very cool. Will give it a look, I am about to start my taxes. Last year I used http://opentaxsolver.sourceforge.net/ It did the job, mostly, but had some quirks and didn't quite get everything right with the rounding when I set it to use whole dollar amounts, so I had to correct a few totals that ended up being $1 off, which was annoying. Probably won't use that one again.

This is actually a bit of an annoying problem for us! All the 1040 instructions say to round all figures at the end. So it is expected that you would have a few cases of 1.49 + 1.49 = 3 showing as 1 + 1 = 3. But the freefilefillableforms supported by IRS rounds all input and then does addition based on that. For now we just maintain all cents and do math with the precise numbers, then round at the end when the number…

The way it seems it should work is that once the amount is entered on the form, it should be treated as the whole dollar amount for subsequent calculations. E.g. if the number comes from Schedule C, once that form is completed and you "enter this amount on line X of Form 1040" then any further calculations on the Form 1040 should use the whole dollar amount as printed, not the dollars and cents.

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

#584

Post by JohnTHaller » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 9:09 PM UTC

sofixa wrote: post #486

JohnTHaller wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, it's still a line item on your receipt. Most places don't include sales tax on the shelf tag or price sticker due to complexity. You can have state, county/area, and/or city taxes that apply. In NYC, for instance, we have a 4% NY State sales tax, a 4.5% NYC sales tax, and a 0.375% NYC metro area sales tax, totaling 8.875%. Clothes aren't taxed in the metro area sales tax so are 8.5% unless they're under $1…

As has been said numerous times, this is a bullshit excuse. If the register is capable of calculating the taxes, an electronic price tag system ( which is the norm in all big chain stores in Western European countries, which have multiple geographic locations and have locale-specific prices) would too.

If you're referring to the digitally updated signage at the shelves (e-paper or otherwise), none of the stores I go to in NYC have that except Best Buy.

It may be weird for you when you visit, but, as we all grew up with it, it's just normal here.

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

#585

Post by eropple » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 9:36 PM UTC

UncleMeat wrote: post #370

eropple wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, somebody who has tax preparation as a primary job is often not a CPA. A CPA usually offers a suite of services, and is also usually a lot more useful. My CPA is great, and I save money through using his services.

"Primary job" as in "not a side gig."

Gotcha. Still worth noting that going to somebody whose sign says "tax preparer" often isn't the same thing as "accountant", and one conflates at their peril!

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

#586

Post by bpye » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 9:39 PM UTC

kwhitefoot wrote: post #502

masklinn wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That has nothing to do with the issue at hand. All tax codes are complicated, and you can always spend days minmaxing your taxes (or hire someone to do that for you). But the US is unique in the developed world as making filing taxes hell even if you don’t try to minmax them, and that is primarily due to tax filing companies lobbying against the IRS doing what everybody else does (and secondarily due to the GOP very…

> All tax codes are complicated, But the US tax code is an order of magnitude larger than the Swedish one. Which probably means that it is several orders of magnitude more complex (however that might be defined).

And yet as mentioned earlier in this comment thread, the IRS has already managed to automate this on their side, as they can do an “electronic audit”.

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

#587

Post by donbrae » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 9:54 PM UTC

masklinn wrote: post #460

markdown wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people in my country never have to file tax returns. Their taxes are deducted at source (by their employer).

In every country I know where taxes are collected by the employer you still have to file, to square things up and settle the tax bill (often you’ll get some money back, if you have other sources of income then you may have to pay taxes on those instead).

Not in the UK. Only those earning self-employed income over a certain threshold (£1,000, I think) need to complete a return.

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

#588

Post by cyanydeez » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 10:58 PM UTC

zw123456 wrote: post #271

A 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…

Republicans want you to hate paying taxes and tax providers are greedy.

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

#589

Post by swozey » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 11:08 PM UTC

toast0 wrote: post #566

swozey wrote: post #564

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. Yo…

I appreciate this, thank you.

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

#590

Post by nybble41 » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 11:08 PM UTC

jacobolus wrote: post #477

JSavageOne wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blaming "lobbyists" absolves the politicians of their responsibility. The fault lies with the politicians for creating and perpetuating this broken system. (copy and pasted from another comment)

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…

> Like anyone else, politicians respond to incentives.

Sure, but it's not like they don't have a choice. Regardless of any incentives, they're the only ones actually empowered to make these decisions. Lobbying, offers of bribes, campaign financing promises, etc. do not in any sense detract from their ability and responsibility to make the right choices.