politics

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.

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.

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

Get the link directly from the IRS: https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free

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.

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

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.

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

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

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?!

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

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

The article doesn't make it super clear what the basis for this claim is. I'll try to summarize as best I can, and welcome anyone to correct me.

They're saying that an IRS program to prefill tax information for the taxpayer (like what is done in so many other countries) would cause many people to miss tax credits. The tax credit they're referring to is the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which is "aimed at low-income, working class parents," who usually earn less than $20K/yr. Since Black people in America have disproportionately lower incomes, this is how simplifiying taxes across the board for everyone would "hurt Black people." And that Black people are audited at a rate three to five times the average taxpayer.

But wait. That increase in auditing is because of the EITC. "For decades, the IRS has disproportionately audited EITC claimants because of pressure from Republicans in Congress as well as laws that require a special focus on “improper payments.”"

In fact, free assisted filing would ensure that more people appropriately get the EITC, and fewer people would be likely to claim it when they shouldn't. Which (in concert with "stop over-auditing people just because they claimed EITC," which is already happening) will reduce the auditing problem.