Intuit has been paying off our elected officials for decades to prevent the IRS from creating an online filing system. They have directly cost the American public probably hundreds of millions of dollars, and if there was any justice they’d be forced into bankruptcy.
The biggest force in lobbying against these kinds of tax reforms is surely Grover Norquist and his Americans for Tax Reform. Grover has an iron grip on the tax policy of the Republican party. Virtually all republicans sign his pledge to oppose any and all tax increases. And they are opposed to anything that makes filling taxes easier:
Tax preparers have a vested financial interest in taxes being difficult, with Intuit even going so far as to say in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that federal and local governments making taxes easier to file was a “a continued competitive threat to our business.” ATR’s interests align with this in that they desire to keep taxes difficult to stoke anti-tax sentiment. That is to say, if paying taxes is “too easy”, then people will be less likely to fight taxes in the way ATR wants.
Norquist and the ATR have publicly argued that things that make tax filing easier on taxpayers constitute an automatic income tax audit on every taxpayer, and serves to keep people uninformed about how taxes work, and was an attempt by the IRS to “socialize all tax preparation in America.” In a 2005 presentation to the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, Norquist representing the ATR argued that if taxpayers did not have to prepare their own taxes, it “would allow the government to raise revenues invisibly.”
Roger, at Cornell University they have an incredible piece of scientific equipment known as the tunneling electron microscope. Now, this microscope is so powerful that by firing electrons you can actually see images of the atom, the infinitesimally minute building blocks of our universe. Roger, if I were using that microscope right now… I still wouldn’t be able to locate my interest in [Intuit’s] problem.
Free Tax USA is free for federal always and state is like $15. Been using it for years.
TurboTax lets you go through the entire process of entering information and telling you your refund amount before charging you.
I wasn’t sure if I trusted myself with the free system, so I did my semi-complicated taxes through TurboTax until I reached the payment screen, and then went and did them in the free system and confirmed that the dollar amounts matched. Then I submitted through the free system.
Next year, I’ll probably just trust myself more, so Intuit doesn’t get my data.
I tried to go that route and my TurboTax refund was much bigger than FTU. I wanted to transfer all my answers to FTU, but TurboTax wouldn’t let me go back and look at my individual answers without starting over. Seems like they got wise.
The day I take financial advice from a YouTube video with a fucking stupid thumbnail is the day I start investing in chocolate teapots
You literally didn’t even understand what the video was about. Just made a knee jerk reaction.
I too don’t really like these kind of thumbnails, but sadly those are the kind that get more clicks. Clicks is what pays and people getting paid will lead to more content for us all.
It’s not investment advice, it’s just a nice succinct video detailing that how the new free IRS system for filing taxes will finally completely replace the racket that is TurboTax and H&R Block, saving tax filers a lot of money.
Honestly…I’d buy a chocolate teapot
I have some wax fireguards you might be interested in
I’m gonna put a bad thumbnail over a video that tells you it’s a good idea to breathe.
Are they really reeling? I hope so, but I also doubt it. At least at this point.
