this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
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politics

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[–] [email protected] 198 points 2 years 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.

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

What's the issue with Venmo and cashapp?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 years 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 2 years 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.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 years 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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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 years ago (7 children)

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

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[–] [email protected] 103 points 2 years ago (8 children)
[–] [email protected] 41 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 years 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 2 years ago (1 children)

Freetaxusa is one of the options available in that link.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years 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 2 years 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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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

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

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years 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.

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 2 years 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 2 years ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years 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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years 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?!

[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 years ago

Oh fuck all the way off.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years 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 2 years 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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[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years 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] 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years 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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