It’s about time that Intuit was called out for their scam. Hopefully, the attempt to stop the federal tax filing will get dismissed as well.
Fuck Intuit and H&R Block, all my homies use FreeTaxUSA.
A (now ex) coworker turned me on to FreeTaxUSA like a decade ago and I’ve been using it every year since then. It’s easy, free (for federal) and just works. I usually pay the $15 for them to file state/school since I’m a lazy fuck but really, my time is worth something after all. I’ve had zero complaints with them.
FWIW, CashApp Taxes (formerly Credit Karma Taxes) is free for state and federal.
Formerly Credit Karma taxes because Credit Karma was bought by Intuit, believe it or not, and they had to spin off the tax prep part.
I have used FreeTaxUSA. One year FreeTaxUSA was giving me a pretty low return number, so I went with TurboTax instead. I agree FreeTaxUSA is cheaper, but make sure you cross compare to ensure you aren’t leaving money on the table.
At this point though, my taxes are so complicated, I just hire a professional.
It is absolutely wild that it’s so bad over there, that you’re gushing over a service that should just be provided by the government in the first place (and is, in most developed countries)
For context, the reason I’m hating on Intuit and H&R Block and encouraging people to use FreeTaxUSA is because the first two are the main culprits behind the extensive lobbying that has led to the US government continuing to require people to file their own taxes rather than modernizing and making this process free and easy. My “gushing” is in pursuit of changing the broken system you’re pointing out.
Sorry, didn’t mean it to come across as insulting, just that it’s a weird situation you even need to be praising one of the others. I hope it gets better
FreeTaxUSA also tried to charge me for state after saying it was free though.
I guess I could have printed out the forms I had just filled out and mailed them, but that’s not exactly what was advertised. It’s “free tax filing” not “free forms.” I paid it because it was cheap, but then they kept kicking both my federal and state back to me with error messages saying they were not “accepted” by the IRS.
Cash app had no issues with the exact same information being “accepted.” It just worked. And it was actually free.
I love how it’s gone so far beyond “We would like to assist people in paying their taxes.”
“We would like to prevent the US government from examining the possibility of creating it’s own online tax filing portal.”
“We would like to advertise our product as free using government channels and grants only to then turn around after the user has input their most sensitive data into our database and attempt to wring them for $100.00 or not be bound by our privacy policy.”
Feels like every Evil Corporation ™ has gone this route. In ye olden days it used to be a competitive market where businesses tried to provide the best product and services for the best prices. Then at some point everyone collectively decided to start doing as little as possible without getting sued. I’m so sick of it.
Regarding tax compliance for individuals, if you have the slightest complications in your financial situation, it might be best to pay a small time preparer $500 to deal with the hassle. Software isn’t cheap these days so might as well pay a small premium for the better service a pro provides. (Disclaimer: I am a pro so my opinion is biased.)
Agree, would rather my money went to a local firm with an actual person who I can consistently contact for questions. Did this a few years ago for an especially challenging tax year. Absolutely 0 regrets - if I had done it via self-serve software I would’ve missed out on quite a few unknown tax assists that the accountant found.
It was in the specific moment that tort reform limited damages to 250,000 because they blamed an old Lady for getting burned by her 170° coffee. Though she was awarded like 7.6 million as an additive damage because.mcdonalds had been gently warned several times before
Why, because it’s cheaper to get sued for a few bucks than to not be a shitty company? Interesting. Like Ed Norton’s car recall equation in Fight Club. Got a source? Not challenging you but I’m curious if that’s your opinion or a known concept.
Every time you see a post like this, remember that one of your elected officials lined their pockets to fuck the entire country for generations ahead
You left out the best part… The amount is often extremely low. Just a few grand to the old PAC that directly feeds their campaign which is just a slush fund for their personal use.
In sane countries, the revenue service calculates your taxes for you and sends you a bill.
In Ireland and I believe most other European countries the tax is just taken out of your salary/wage by your employer and sent to Revenue. So unless you do something taxable outside of a normal wage you largely don’t need to worry about it.
It is in the U.S. too, but you often either owe more than was taken out or are due a refund because too much was taken out. But you need tax software in order to figure that out because it’s so damn complicated half the time.
Oh that sounds somehow more annoying than just having to pay it yourself, seeing as you have to do the calculations yourself anyway.
To be fair it possible to be owed a refund or owe extra tax in Ireland too. If you changed jobs and didn’t inform Revenue they won’t apply tax credits until they know the full story for example. You never have to calculate how much you owe or are due though, at least not for an individual. You just tell them what your salary is, or if you’re claiming a credit.
I remember one time I spent an hour filing taxes, I accidentally hit a premium option, it literally didn’t let me go back to free. On top of that it kept piling on charges. Fuck intuit. Thieving pieces of shit.
