Comment on FTC judge rules Intuit broke law, must stop advertising TurboTax as “free”

BombOmOm@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

• stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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

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  • Hikiru@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Companies like TurboTax bribe politicians to not pass laws that would require you be told how much you owe

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    • stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Wow, I’d never heard of this. Was there a specific story or article you read about this or did you mean that loosely

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      • sfbing@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Google for “Intuit lobbying.”

        It’s not literally bribery; it’s corporate America at work. Effectively bribery, IMHO.

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      • allthelolcats@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        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.

        www.npr.org/transcripts/521132960

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  • ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    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.

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  • ElPussyKangaroo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Why is the US like this? I’m not from there and am very confused… how is it the citizen’s responsibility?

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    • tony@lemmy.hoyle.me.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      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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      • ElPussyKangaroo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Ifkr?! How tf do I have to calculate what I owe you? Especially when YOU are setting the rates! Wtf?!

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  • triptrapper@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    IRS: Guess how much you owe.

    Me: $20,000?

    IRS: Nope!

    Me: Okay how much do I owe?

    IRS: You have to guess!

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  • snootchiebootchies@lemmynsfw.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    [deleted]

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    • residentmarchant@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      In some other countries, you only need to fill out the exemption part. If you have nothing, you just click “file” and it does it for you

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    • stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I think we can definitely agree on your last sentence

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  • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    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.

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    • Rolder@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      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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• otter@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Wasn’t there a site at some point like turbotaxsucks.org

  Edit: turbotaxsucksass.org

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• woodenskewer@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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.

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• SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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.

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