this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2023
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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.
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.
Ifkr?! How tf do I have to calculate what I owe you? Especially when YOU are setting the rates! Wtf?!
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.
Interesting counterpoint to an already interesting point!
🍿 🍿😃
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
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
I think we can definitely agree on your last sentence
Wasn't there a site at some point like turbotaxsucks.org
Edit: https://turbotaxsucksass.org/
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.