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this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2026
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Any business that depends and actually lobbies hardcore on making regular-ass people (with simple returns the government could handle easily manage themself) pay to pay their taxes shouldnt exist.
It should be an absolute defense to not filing/paying your taxes that you refuse to pay to pay your taxes and that you are happy to do so once the government either does it for you or provides a free streamlined way to do so or lightly amend the governments working copy to include the relevant and recurring deductions where applicable
My income is disability, and falls below the poverty line so I don't technically need to file. I like to file just to make sure i have a record, but damn all the free programs were trying to make me pay out of pocket to file in my state. I'm sure most people are happy to spare the $35 or so for the ease of using software, but not having money at all makes the cost seem absurd. And there's no reason for these companies to care that I can't afford it, considering people going to pay that cost because for most the penalty of not filling taxes is much, much higher than the cut those programs take.
Not sure if you already know but for people in your situation you can usually file for free using the free to file links from the IRS website.
Only federally. State filing isn't free
Depends on the state. Several offer their own online filing through their website.
Over half of the states already the software capability to do the same, but many are prevented by Intuit's "free file alliance" contract bullshit preventing them from turning it on
Would have been free, if the traitor filth magat trash hadn't destroyed the program designed to help people file for free easily.
Yeah unfortunately not unless you want to do them on paper. I've been using FreeTaxUSA since CreditKarma got bought out by intuit and cash app. I think it's $10 or $15 for state filing
If you have a complex situation you should pay for help. However most people should not have a complex situation where they need that help, and tax preparation has made a ton of money preying on people who have a simple tax situation. This long predates software.
It shouldn't matter how complex your situation is if you're filing using software. I can understand paying for actual help like chat support, but a user filing a complex return and user filing a simple return are going to be using the software all the same. TurboTax loves to force you into a higher cost tier if you have simple stock sales or have an HSA which are both pretty basic.
Implementing the software to handle the labyrinthine tax code takes a lot of development effort. And not just for annual updates, they often identify bugs in the logic and issue updates monthly or weekly, especially as tax season ramps up. All that development labor needs to be paid.
... And the various Departments of Taxation can handle that. Half of them already have the software to handle direct filing, but simply can't turn it on for contractual reasons (because of Intuit).
Orrrr - and hear me out - maybe that rag-tag collection of state and federal governments you've got going on over there in the US should have a way of online filing that's free?
You know, like how most civilised countries have been doing for the last decade or so.
They had one half built, but then a pedophile took over the government
Of course, but you still have to file your taxes in spite of those things being nonexistent.