this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
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TurboTax Parent Company’s Latest Argument Against Free Tax Filing: It Will Harm Black Taxpayers (www.propublica.org)
submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/politics
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[–] venorathebarbarian 198 points 9 months ago (12 children)

Man, I hope I live to see the day that these greedy bastards lose a huge chunk of their business to free filing via the IRS. They've been fighting to keep tax paying citizens from getting what they want from their government for years. It's gross.

I want to see this free filing happen both for the good it'll do and because I want to see Intuit's stock plummet. Fuck Intuit.

"It'S gOiNg tO HuRt bLaCk pEoPle" fuck off you dirty liars.

[–] joekar1990 41 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Between Intuit and some of these money transfer applications (venmo, cashapp etc) they are pivoting hard to diversify and lobbying hard with the government looking to finally come more into the 21st century. Free tax filing and fednow could be very good for the everyday person.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

What's the issue with Venmo and cashapp?

[–] Sanctus 46 points 9 months ago (13 children)

In other countries the government has an app thats free and plays that role. Instead of a corporation trying to make money.

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[–] porksoda 16 points 9 months ago (1 children)

My beef is that they want to act like banks, but with none of the oversight and regulations of an actual bank. Ever had a real problem with PayPal? Say what you want about the banking industry, but I can get a real US -based person on the phone within 10 minutes to help me solve my problem.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

First of all. Primus sucks! and I should have taken your name.

On the subject, didn't PayPal get hit with regulations finally or did I make that up in my head?
Very true about actually getting in contact with someone. The best you can do is chat support, and I've been through that just to change my phone number with them cuz the app glitched out on me. Took two weeks to get it changed.

[–] Etterra 19 points 9 months ago (5 children)

Yeah that's probably one of the bolder bad faith arguments I've ever seen. It is transparently BS. I don't think Intuit has heard of the Evil Overlord List. Clearly they forgot to have a 5-year-old child on their payroll to double check all their evil plans.

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[–] Zippy 15 points 9 months ago (7 children)

They pulled the black card. You can't argue against that.

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[–] P34C0CK 103 points 9 months ago (8 children)

https://www.freetaxusa.com/

Switch, and never look back.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] Burn_The_Right 12 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I've had less than ideal experiences with the IRS linked companies. Freetaxusa.com has definitely been the best one by far for me. And my taxes are pretty complicated.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Freetaxusa is one of the options available in that link.

[–] Burn_The_Right 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

The others are so bad that it seems like they are there to distract people from freetaxusa. It's like Intuit was able to convince the IRS to add a bunch of filler apps to give people a bad experience and drive them back to Turbotax. That's why I don't recommend that list. It seems intentionally misleading and distracting to me.

The IRS has been cozy with Intuit for decades, and should not really be trusted with advice on free or affordable tax prep solutions.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I never gave them a chance because their name screamed: scammy site designed to lure old people into file taxes there.

But last year someone on here or reddit kicked off a thread and tons of people were singing it's praises.

So I checked it out after TurboTax was trying to charge me like $230 to do my taxes.

It was easier than TurboTax and I got the same numbers at the end, so I decided to go with them. I ended up spending $10 or something for the ability to refile amendments later or something. Honestly, I wanted to give them some money because I want them to stick around.

It was a great experience. I'll be using them moving forward.

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[–] thesprongler 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Or OLT.com. The Web app takes you step by step, just like turbotax.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

I second that, been using olt for years now and it's super affordable and reliable. Not the cleanest interface though

[–] laverabe 10 points 9 months ago

still a c corp. Enshitification will take them too. The IRS free fillable forms is what everyone should be using. https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/free-file-fillable-forms

Otherwise there is a profit motive for the status quo.

[–] kescusay 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Do they store records year over year so you don't have to type everything in again?

[–] 0110010001100010 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yup, been using them for years.

[–] finestnothing 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

To add to this, you can also export your last year tax documents (from TurboTax or any other tax service) and import them into freetaxusa so you don't need to manually enter all of that info! Made it super easy to switch to them last year, just wish I had found out about them sooner tbh

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 9 months ago (2 children)

They just say whatever they don't like hurts black people these days, like apparently free tax filing and student loan forgiveness. Ya know what actually hurts black people? The police.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Police departments hate the IRS, too. I'm starting to get suspicious of these weird coincidences...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

Id probably hate the IRS too if I had to justify spending tax dollars on military hand me downs like I'm at war with the populations I'm supposed to protect and serve.

[–] shalafi 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

There's probably a grain of truth to "hurts Black people".

Seeking to capitalize on recent research that found racial disparities in IRS audits

Racism -> blacks have less money -> wildly underfunded IRS mostly audits poor people who can't hire lawyers and fight back. That's the most profitable way for the IRS to gather money. Sickening, but here we are.

Also, racism regarding names is a thing. My first name and surname are total white bread, my middle name is almost exclusively "black". I'm betting black names get pulled out of the pile more often. I can tell stories. OTOH, I have no idea how audit randomization is handled, if at all.

So what does this all have to do with free filing being a bane to POC? LOL, jack and shit. If anything, giving people of modest or no means a way to file through the government only levels the playing field. How could it possibly hurt?!

Kinda off topic, but this article gave me a major part of the solution to lobbying. We can't make it illegal, that's unconstitutional, plain and simple.

First Amendment rights:

and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances

OK. If a corporation is a person, and it literally says so in the first section of the US Code (1 U.S. Code § 1 - Words denoting number, gender, and so forth_...

the words “person” and “whoever” include corporations, companies, associations, firms, partnerships, societies, and joint stock companies, as well as individuals;

Hold up...

In Washington, D.C., the company has deployed 63 lobbyists this year, according to OpenSecrets, to stalk the halls of government.

Then how the hell does Inuit get 62 additional voices to counter mine? 1 corporation = 1 voice. Yes, corporations deserve a voice in our government. They comprise people like you and I, and those people should be heard. But 63?!

[–] oakey66 32 points 9 months ago

Oh fuck all the way off.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Honestly we are overdue for a second paperwork reduction act when it comes to taxes

[–] Hoomod 17 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Turbotax doesn't want that, if taxes are simplified their entire business model vanishes

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago

If your business relies on an outdated legal system that may have worked for the time, but is in serious needs of updates, you should find a new business.

Fuck it, become a game studio, make Turbo Tax the Galaga Knockoff, then do a webseries about it... These capitalists have enough money to do what they want

[–] natedog526 25 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I utilize freetaxusa.com. They are affordable, and they did just as good a job as TurboTax ever did.

[–] jefff 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Me too! ~~Unfortunately I believe they were bought by Intuit a while back, so I fully expect them to start sucking or disappear soon~~

Edit: Okay I think I was operating on faulty information/memory, or just bullshit. Disregard, sorry

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I couldn't find anything about that. Could you provide a source? I would be very disappointed if true, but I don't see anything that points to that being true.

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[–] vanontom 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

You should be more careful spreading misinformation like this. (You may as well say they give you cancer and eat your baby.) FreeTaxUSA is still owned by TaxHawk, and absolutely not any part of Intuit (in fact it's a direct competitor that is doing great work to kill them). Intuit has managed to buy Credit Karma though, maybe others.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Burn INTUIT TO the fucking ground.

Their employees need to start talking about how they get screwed by that criminal company too I bet there are plenty of lawsuits tucked away that would blow that pos criminal enterprise away for sure.

Imagine working for a company that has a business model that intentionally hurts every American?

THATS INTUIT.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

FreeTaxUSA allows free federal returns with something like 10$ for state returns. Been using them for the past few years, fuck TurboTax H&R Block, and all the rest of 'em

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I worry that this is part of some two-pronged initiative that also involves ~~bribing~~ generously donating to a couple of the more crooked members of the CBC - Clyburn, Waters, Booker - to make this argument for them in Congress.

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