The 'gotacha' up-charge 70% of the way through your taxes where you can't use the form you legally need to fill out unless you give them $40 did extract money from me. Got tired of that shit and went to Free Tax USA.
this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2023
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The fact that the govt has the balls to tell me to figure out how much I owe them is hysterical. Especially when they supposedly know (at least roughly) how much I should owe
I think the irs is piloting its own tax filing software this year.
I think it’s still in beta, but it’s a step in the right direction.
I was gonna say some snarky shit about govt software being ass but I think you’re right ultimately. It’s not perfect, it’ll probably suck, but it’s better than letting people like turbo tax profit off something we legally have to fucking do and is complicated for most people to do.
There are lots of other free options to help file out there however, I will say that.
I agre
Cant wait to try that. Real tired of the bullshit of dealing with tax prep software companies. Their bullshit, fake smiley happy cheery "were looking to do what we can to save you the most money". My ass they do.
Yeah, it’s so tiring figuring it all out. And I messaged an accountant that wanted like $700 to do my taxes.
What the hell!? I’d rather just make a mistake and over pay too much.
Companies like TurboTax bribe politicians to not pass laws that would require you be told how much you owe
Wow, I’d never heard of this. Was there a specific story or article you read about this or did you mean that loosely
Google for "Intuit lobbying."
It's not literally bribery; it's corporate America at work. Effectively bribery, IMHO.
Lobbying is brain aids I don’t understand what it’s legitimate purpose is
There can be value in lobbying. But this ain't it.
Is there though? I feel like your “businesses” decision to push for laws should be done as an individual citizen like everyone else. Idk again I don’t really see their point personally
Here is a great NPR podcast on it. But basically they tried it in California, people liked it, TurboTax didn’t and lobbied against it. They sent you how much you owed and you could verify it, confirm, and send it back super simple.
https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2019/04/03/709656642/episode-760-tax-hero
Yeah in Sweden we just get the information and have to sign it or correct faults in their calculations (things they couldn't have known etc). Takes 5 minutes for most people and can be done in the phone with digital identification.
UK ex-pat here. I was self employed. You typed in the numbers of what you earned, what you spent, hit send. That's it. The American system is so fucked.
This is basically what we do also but we have a bunch of other fields and whatnot for other services and so on and so forth.
It’s just more bs paperwork to trip up poor people on and let rich people navigate through.
Why is the US like this? I'm not from there and am very confused... how is it the citizen's responsibility?
Most people in the UK don't think about tax, it just happens without their input.
If you have a small business or something more complex there are forms, but they're not that complex.. you mostly just tick boxes.
The US sounds like a dystopian nightmare the way they talk about tax.
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I think in most of Europe (speaking from UK here) if you have one job then it's on the employer to sort your tax out. You get a form at the end of the year to add any other other gains (including benefit in kind etc). If you owe more they adjust your tax code next year to cover it. If they owe you they send a cheque, and then I have to remember how to deposit such ancient technology.
IRS: Guess how much you owe.
Me: $20,000?
IRS: Nope!
Me: Okay how much do I owe?
IRS: You have to guess!
I think the idea is that if you do it and they do it, when they match, they can assume they are both right, and when they don't, they can compare and update their side or suggest/demand correction on yours. And if things look fishy, have a closer look at everything with an audit.
Okay, how bout they do the math, I check their work, and if I disagree I let them know? And what if that process didn't involve a bunch of complicated bullshit rules, and what if I didn't have to put money into garbage tax companies' pockets?
I have one source of income and I am not rich. I don't have a trust, or investments, or multiple jobs. My taxes should be simple as hell, easy to file, and free.
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I feel that taxes should just be automatic unless you do unusual things like own a personal business or trade a lot of stocks or some such. Doing taxes for those makes sense since you need to write off business expenses and similar
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I went through "doing" my taxes 3 times last year. Once at H&R block when I saw how much it was I basically called back and said don't file them I'm not paying that much. Once self filed through "free" TurboTax, then found out it wasn't free when they snuck a 40 dollar fee in, go fuck yourself TurboTax. Finally landed on free tax use where it was actually free.
They did that to me once. I got much of the way through filing, when the site informed me that I needed to "upgrade" to the $40 tier to file a 1098-E form for student loan interest. The deduction would've saved me less than $40, though, so I just didn't file that form. If the IRS audited my return, I could point out that I overpaid my tax.
Why can't we just do it like the rest of the world where the IRS (or equivalent) does it and you just sign off on it being correct? They should already have all the data they need from corporate quarterly filings.
Because of the lobbying these tax companies are doing to keep the tax system so complex you need to hire them to do your taxes for you. If it were easy to do your taxes then these companies would not need to exist - and they cannot have that.
Capitalism
I do believe the other countries that have better tax filing systems are also capitalist...
Other countries seemed to have some common sense when it comes to capitalism in that they largely don't allow capitalist incentives to entirely consume areas of public good, such as healthcare / education / and yes even government services such as tax collection.
The USA kind of forgot during the cold war that crony capitalism is a thing and the incentive to make the most money possible isn't compatible with providing public goods.
Here's an explanation on why https://youtu.be/Vu3T4ZXzOyw?si=O0HkB8a8MVYsIjeD
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
The initial decision by Administrative Law Judge D. Michael Chappell was released today and is subject to an automatic review by the full commission.
Moreover, if an Intuit good or service is not free for most US taxpayers, that fact must be "disclosed clearly and conspicuously at the outset of any disclosures required" by the order.
The ruling said that "Intuit had removed several of the most plausibly deceptive advertisements—that is, three videos that repeated the word 'free' a dozen or more times over 30 seconds before a very brief disclaimer."
"However, if Intuit resumes its full advertising campaign... or the facts on the ground change significantly, the FTC may return to this Court to request relief," US District Judge Charles Breyer wrote.
In its response to the administrative law judge's decision, Intuit said it expected the ruling because of the FTC's "flawed and highly questionable process, Chair Lina Khan's previous public and prejudicial statements against Intuit, and the fact that the FTC has ruled in its own favor in nearly every consumer protection case for the last two decades."
"We believe the FTC's decision is improper, wholly ignores the facts, and tramples on the foundations of an independent American judicial system with its serving as prosecutor, judge, and jury on its own matters," Intuit said.
The original article contains 860 words, the summary contains 216 words. Saved 75%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Does the exoenditure of the people then spool the intake to bring more economic ignition back into to eonomy, resulting in significant gains in GDP? Or are we back in the '90s again, where it's cool to put the word "turbo" on everything.
Turbotax is from the 80's.
Why not both yo
Don't you tempt me with a good time. I'll play What Is Love from a boombox, I swear.
Ohohohoho you tease!
Anand. Nothing.
Is it not free? I didn't pay anything when I used it last year.
May have come out of your return - also it only does federal, there is a fee for state. And it only does federal for free if you meet a whole slew of requirements, otherwise, you are required to pay a premium.
I'll look at the paperwork again, I definitely didn't see anything about any charges and I did federal and 2 states. It prompted me a few times to go up to the paid tier but I declined it. I didn't get enough of a return for them to take out of.