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TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

propublica.org

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Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#81

Post by ceejayoz »

Zenst wrote: post #22
ceejayoz wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. That's one approach, but the page has a meta tag that has the same effect:

Saw that on every page they have, not scrutinised the sanity of their code, but looks like it is part of their site template. Also the site code - egads, 200+_ blank lines as a header, then clearly some extra padding blank lines here and there.

It is not part of their site template.

The Turbotax home page has "yes, do index" meta tags. So does their deceptive "free edition" page at https://turbotax.intuit.com/personal-taxes/online/free-editi...:
You've been tricked. Imagine how easily people who can't read source code get sucked into the wrong version.

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#82

Post by chrismeller »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #70
chrismeller wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly this. Amount of income is actually quite a crappy measure for what should be free to file. If it’s flat W2 income with nothing else to consider then sure... When you start adding in all these other little side cases you’ve blown your argument. They literally take more effort (either on your part deciphering and completing, the CPA’s part deciphering and completing, or Turbotax’s part developing and validating…

Funding an IRA is "incredibly uncommon"?

If you’ve got only W2 income then a 401k would be much more common. A normal IRA is “common” as well, but not nearly as much so I’d argue.

As another comment pointed out it could have been a Roth IRA, which has different rules. It could also have simply been some other oddity or quirk of the tax software at the time.

None of the specifics negate anything related to complexity vs cost.

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#83

Post by rm999 »

linsomniac wrote: post #32

I've been using TurboTax for the last 4 years or so but I'm getting pretty tired of this story. I read an article a few weeks ago that mentioned CreditKarma has free tools for tax prep, so I signed up for it and I'm planning on using it next year. I used to use an accountant because my taxes were kinda complicated, but once I sold my business they got really easy. Turbo makes it slightly easier, but honestly the IRS…

>I'm getting pretty tired of this story. I read an article a few weeks ago that mentioned CreditKarma has free tools for tax prep, so I signed up for it and I'm planning on using it next year.

This is exactly what I did this year and it went incredibly smoothly. It felt a lot like Turbotax, but Credit Karma was noticeably faster without all the confusing upsells (I did my and my wife's taxes in ~30 minutes, including three W2s and investment income from two banks; almost entirely within the iphone app).

Personally I think the writing is on the wall for Turbotax et al. Credit Karma got much better from year 1 to 2 and I predict it will be increasingly recommended in future years, starting a race to the bottom in the industry.

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#84

Post by mherdeg »

Huh I didn't realize that ProPublica did blog posts (I'm used to seeing long articles from them, often with partners, like that great Katrina piece).

I used to be dismissive of newspapers re-reporting things that were not news. I probably would have been surprised to see an entire news article basically re-reporting a Twitter message and a reddit post. In retrospect though this attitude I used to have is unfair and mean. Who cares if the re-hashed reporting about the tax-filing industry's regulatory capture is brand new or just a reminder? Reminders are important.

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#86

Post by bunderbunder »

themagician wrote: post #73
linsomniac wrote: post #37

Govt: "We need some money from you to buy things." Me: "How much?" Govt: "You figure it out." Me: "Oh, I get to pay whatever I want?" Govt: "LOL, no, we have a figure that we want you to pay." Me: "What happens if I guess that number wrong?" Govt: "You get to go to prison."

You only go to prison if you willfully and purposely try to defraud the government. It’s more of a, “Pay what you believe you owe based on your best guess and the laws as you best understand them, and if we disagree we may ask you to pay more.”

> if we disagree we may ask you to pay more

The opposite can happen, too. The last time they disagreed with me on how much tax I should have paid, they mailed me a check for the difference.

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#87

Post by cr0sh »

grecy wrote: post #56
metalliqaz wrote: post #4

Yeah they do, of course they do. They are in business to make money, after all. The real story is the absolute travesty of government corruption that TurboTax and HR Block have perpetrated by making it illegal for the government to make tax filing as easy as it should be. It's one of the things I would immediately correct if I was king for a day.

> The real story is the absolute travesty of government corruption that TurboTax and HR Block have perpetrated by making it illegal for the government to make tax filing as easy as it should be You know this applies to pretty much every service in the US right? A company wants to make massive profits, so it just lobbies and buys the laws it wants. Healthcare, private prisons, banking, "security" (TSA), education, tra…

I don't know why, but all of this "privatization" bugs the hell out of me.

Maybe it has something to with wanting to see my taxes being used properly, rather than going to a private company's profits. Maybe it's the abstraction; that'd I like to know that the workers I see doing the work for the government are government employees, and that I am, in some small way, helping them?

I mean, sure, with a private company that's still a thing - but maybe I also like seeing road crews with the city's emblem and such working on issues - not a private company doing it?

You know that here in the USA, there is virtually a single private company that handles emergency and construction signage in every state? When you see signs out that say "Road Construction Ahead" or the flashing signs on trailers, or even just some construction cones - all of those are owned and placed by virtually one company?

The name of the company is "United Rentals" - and while if you look on the back of those signs they may have different company names printed on them, when you call the number, it will always patch you through to the United Rentals phone bank/answering service. You might call "Bob's Signs" - but United Rentals will answer.

We can't even handle placing road signs out using public means and employees.

I'm sure somewhere in all of this, it was done as part of the whole process of breaking up (public) worker's unions.

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#88

Post by wefarrell »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #27
metalliqaz wrote: post #4

Yeah they do, of course they do. They are in business to make money, after all. The real story is the absolute travesty of government corruption that TurboTax and HR Block have perpetrated by making it illegal for the government to make tax filing as easy as it should be. It's one of the things I would immediately correct if I was king for a day.

This is directly related, I think. One reason the IRS hasn't made it easier is a deal with the industry group "Free File Alliance", which essentially privatizes this (indeed, the page TurboTax is hiding here is their Free File page). However, while 70% of taxpayers would be eligible for free filing, in practice only 3% do — no doubt because tax prep companies make it so difficult to find and use this option. These co…

Filing for free isn't filing easily. In other countries the tax department sends you an automatically completed return and you can choose to dispute it.

There is no option like that for the US, free or paid.

Re: TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines

#89

Post by jakelazaroff »

chrismeller wrote: post #82
jakelazaroff wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funding an IRA is "incredibly uncommon"?

If you’ve got only W2 income then a 401k would be much more common. A normal IRA is “common” as well, but not nearly as much so I’d argue. As another comment pointed out it could have been a Roth IRA, which has different rules. It could also have simply been some other oddity or quirk of the tax software at the time. None of the specifics negate anything related to complexity vs cost.

Unless you change jobs, in which case you might roll over your 401k into an IRA.

I agree, though, that this is a digression from the broader argument, which is that the lack of an easy and unqualified free option (or automatic filing) by the IRS is a particularly egregious case of regulatory capture by the tax prep industry.

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