"The Commission alleges that the company’s ubiquitous advertisements touting their supposedly 'free' products—some of which have consisted almost entirely of the word 'free' spoken repeatedly—mislead consumers into believing that they can file their taxes for free with TurboTax. In fact, most tax filers can’t use the company’s 'free' service because it is not available to millions of taxpayers, such as those who get a 1099 form for work in the gig economy, or those who earn farm income. In 2020, for example, approximately two-thirds of tax filers could not use TurboTax’s free product." -Federal Trade Commission
---
"Internal presentations lay out company tactics for fighting 'encroachment,' Intuit’s catchall term for any government initiative to make filing taxes easier — such as creating a free government filing system or pre-filling people’s returns with payroll or other data the IRS already has.
Under the terms of [the IRS Free File Program], Intuit and other commercial tax prep companies promised to provide free online filing to tens of millions of lower-income taxpayers. In exchange, the IRS pledged not to create a government-run system.
Since Free File’s launch, Intuit has done everything it could to limit the program’s reach while making sure the government stuck to its end of the deal. As ProPublica has reported, Intuit added code to the Free File landing page of TurboTax that hid it from search engines like Google, making it harder for would-be users to find." -ProPublica
---
"The IRS brags that 70 percent of Americans are eligible for Free File, but for the 2019 tax season, only 4.2 million returns out of 157.2 million total were filed through Free File, or 2.6 percent." -Vox
---
Intuit, H&R Block, and others like them make their money by pulling a bait-and-switch on people who would otherwise take advantage of the system you would expect from a wealthy, modern country - one that lets them file their taxes for free. They have paid for millions of dollars in lobbying over decades to keep taxes as confusing as possible, and their efforts to deceive you will continue until you find yourself one click away from being done with this whole nightmare and going to fetch your wallet to just get this over with.
I can't recommend in good conscience that you put your Social Security Number into some mystery program (even though I find myself agreeing with MSCHF). What I will ask is that you avoid giving Intuit or H&R Block a single cent if at all possible, because they will only use that money to make your life worse.
Uhhh Iris is cute. Who doesn't love an office lady! The backgrounds here are pretty good and I never found the soundtrack grating. Would be nice if they had a fullscreen option, but for something this short, I had a pretty good time! Didn't expect to laugh so much, hehe!
https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free
---
"Internal presentations lay out company tactics for fighting 'encroachment,' Intuit’s catchall term for any government initiative to make filing taxes easier — such as creating a free government filing system or pre-filling people’s returns with payroll or other data the IRS already has.
Under the terms of [the IRS Free File Program], Intuit and other commercial tax prep companies promised to provide free online filing to tens of millions of lower-income taxpayers. In exchange, the IRS pledged not to create a government-run system.
Since Free File’s launch, Intuit has done everything it could to limit the program’s reach while making sure the government stuck to its end of the deal. As ProPublica has reported, Intuit added code to the Free File landing page of TurboTax that hid it from search engines like Google, making it harder for would-be users to find." -ProPublica
---
"The IRS brags that 70 percent of Americans are eligible for Free File, but for the 2019 tax season, only 4.2 million returns out of 157.2 million total were filed through Free File, or 2.6 percent." -Vox
---
Intuit, H&R Block, and others like them make their money by pulling a bait-and-switch on people who would otherwise take advantage of the system you would expect from a wealthy, modern country - one that lets them file their taxes for free. They have paid for millions of dollars in lobbying over decades to keep taxes as confusing as possible, and their efforts to deceive you will continue until you find yourself one click away from being done with this whole nightmare and going to fetch your wallet to just get this over with.
I can't recommend in good conscience that you put your Social Security Number into some mystery program (even though I find myself agreeing with MSCHF). What I will ask is that you avoid giving Intuit or H&R Block a single cent if at all possible, because they will only use that money to make your life worse.
Uhhh Iris is cute. Who doesn't love an office lady! The backgrounds here are pretty good and I never found the soundtrack grating. Would be nice if they had a fullscreen option, but for something this short, I had a pretty good time! Didn't expect to laugh so much, hehe!
https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free
2 Comments
"We know exactly how much you owe us, but we won't tell you, and if don't pay us the right amount we'll come after you, so you better pay to know how much you should pay us." What a Kafkaesque nightmare you americans have for a tax system.
spageddystyle
1 year ago