How the maker of TurboTax fought free, simple tax filing

I'm a realist so I know things like this happen all the time, but it doesn't make the facts any less outrageous.

Big companies trying to screw over people who are just trying to make a living.

~Jeff

I suspect that steps in this direction are actually what's behind Intuits free services they've been offering for the past few years. Unfortunately, they only apply to a limited subset of filers.

We've used TaxAct for the past several years. They offer free electronic filing of your federal return, and a much lower price for your state return than Intuit has ever offered. And as far as I've been able to tell, their free version handles everything just about as well as Intuit's full priced versions.

I won't bother providing a link, as that would smack too much of advertising. They're a quick Google search away for anyone who wants to try them. We're merely satisfied customers.

I'm not sure that I'd be comfortable with the government filling my taxes out for me either.

"It's Voluntary!"

Sure. Just like the income tax.

> I'm not sure that I'd be comfortable with the government filling my taxes out for me either.

I can understand that completely. I do think it's safe to say that you'd never have to worry about underpaying.

As an ex-Scot now living in the US who has had the UK Govt do his taxes (PAYE) since forever this tax filing by your average salaried individual just seems silly to me, since they pretty much have all your info already.

And its not like they are asking you to trust them as they send you the stuff which you can change if its incorrect so this trust issue is a complete non-starter.

> And its not like they are asking you to trust them...

Have you ever looked at the US tax code, Koriel? It's a bloated monstrosity. The room for creative interpretation of the various rules is almost unlimited. The one thing you can guarantee is that the government will never get creative in your favor.

If there's any creative interpretation going on, I want it to be from my accountant :)

Every year, one of the newspapers has 6 different firms/people prepare one tax return.

They never get the same results.

A couple of things in this article jumped out at me. The article states:

Quoting:... the IRS expects to process 147 million individual returns this year.

According to the census.gov site, the total U.S. population in 2010 was approximately 308 million. Looking at the tables, approximately 82 million were between the ages of 0 and 19. That means there were well over 226 million in the income tax filing age bracket.

The article also states that:

Quoting:Eric Toder, co-director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, said the IRS, "an overpressed agency that's being asked to do a lot of things," shouldn't be asked to do what software companies could easily do.

Apart from USC Title 26, which is over 2,400 pages, the income tax law resides within the 16th Amendment, which is one sentence long. The first part of the sentence states:

Quoting:The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes ...

Lay and collect means computing the amount owed and presenting the bill.

> Lay and collect means computing the amount owed and presenting the bill.

Tell us something we don't know. The clear meaning of the law hasn't had anything to do with government operations in quite a while now.

Quoting:Tell us something we don't know.

Well, I'm not psychic. Psycho, maybe.

> Well, I'm not psychic.

I apologize. That was meant as a rueful agreement, not sarcasm. Obviously I didn't do a good enough job of getting that across.

Ah yes, "The three taxable revenue activities: profits from trade in alcohol, tobacco, and firearms."

Just in case you ever wondered why the treasury department would have had a bureau of tax collectors called the ATF.

There is law as it is written, and there is law as it is enforced. I don't think those two things have ever really matched up, in any country, at any time.

@jdixon,

Quoting:I apologize. That was meant as a rueful agreement, not sarcasm.

Thanks. Kinda hard to tell one's intent from a post.

Quoting:The clear meaning of the law hasn't had anything to do with government operations in quite a while now.

I could not agree with you more.

Quoting: Looking at the tables, approximately 82 million were between the ages of 0 and 19. That means there were well over 226 million in the income tax filing age bracket.

Now,... reduce that number by married filing jointly, and by those who do not need to file (entitlements recipients, mostly),... There. That gives you your 147M number...