what does ‘free’ mean? it shouldn’t be up for debate.
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research
american taxpayers are all victims of a tax scam.
yes, all of them.
more: if only the irs’s tax pro were useful | tax pros file 33% of early returns | the nightmare of non-credentialed tax preparers | must the irs be a dark hole? | irs plays whac-a-mole with the phones | vcs plunk $60 million into ai-powered ‘autonomous’ tax prep
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and the new york times points an accusatory finger straight at turbotax.
a tax season villain
in a 15-minute video article by john harris and binyamin appelbaum, the times says there’s a tax villain, and it’s neither the tax rate nor the internal revenue service.
“it isn’t the actual tax rate,” harris says, “but how we pay our taxes, all of this …”
“this” is a series of image after image depicting the many tax forms that taxpayers have to fill out and file.
“in countries like netherlands or japan or new zealand,” the video says, “none of (these forms) exist. like, if you search for ‘how to pay your taxes in estonia,’ you get a video that is less than three minutes long.”
the article names two huge problems with u.s. tax collection:
- it’s too complicated.
- it’s too expensive.
the expense, of course, is the hiring of a tax preparer to do what the average citizen can’t, the need to pay to pay one’s taxes.
the video shows senator paul ryan on “60 minutes” saying, “right now, the tax system is so complicated, so complex, that it is not working for anybody.”
so why, harris asks, can other countries manage to collect taxes with simple systems while the u.s. can’t?
he calls the american tax collection system “the biggest scam you’ve never heard about.”
the video shows presidents reagan, clinton, g.w. bush, obama and biden sincerely promising to simplify the system. but it never happens.
why? because there is something more powerful than the president and the congress of the united states.
it’s turbotax, or rather its parent company, intuit.
we almost had it
early in the century, under the g.w. bush administration, the irs came close to offering a free and easy online platform where americans could file their taxes. according to the times video, the government basically told turbotax and other tax-prep software companies to “get another line of work. you’re going out of business.”
the companies responded with a massive lobbying effort and a sly promise to construct a free tax filing portal so the government could stay out of that business. intuit then flooded the market with advertising that promises of “free! free! free!” software. in fact, the product was called “turbotax free edition.”
but in the american tradition of deceptive advertising, the product turned out to be free only for those who paid for it. after spending hours completing all the tax forms, the most wannabe taxpayers discovered that a $59.99 upgrade was necessary to actually file the return.
the video shows senator elizabeth warren saying, “tax prep companies have sabotaged the free file program. they tricked and trapped american taxpayers into paying for alternative services that should be free and are marketed as free but in fact they don’t make free.”
in yet another great american tradition, intuit got sued and told to cough up some reimbursement and stop with the malarkey.
samuel levine, director of the federal trade commission bureau of consumer protection, issued a statement that said,
“the (ftc) concluded that ‘intuit’s deceptive advertising campaign has been widespread,’ and that it ‘lasted for years and continues to the present day.’ it found that intuit kept running the ads ‘knowing that they led consumers to believe that they could file their returns for free.’ the commission described these violations as ‘egregious.’”
the biden administration is funding the development of a truly free online platform. the pilot program is available in several states.
but american tradition continues to gum up a good idea. tax prep companies have dramatically increased spending on lobbying, and republicans in congress have responded with efforts to cut funding for the irs, including the pilot filing program.
“i think at the end of the day this story is about faith in government,” appelbaum says in the video, “the ability of the government to do what it should have been doing all along, to do it well, and to deliver what americans deserve, which is an easy and free way to file their taxes. this is a chance for the government to prove itself.”
one response to “ftc nails turbotax for ‘free filing’ scam”
roger rotolante
you left out selling the taxpayer’s information, another violation for the law.
its private unless somebody wants it, the government or scam artists. the tax preparers & accountants
do not have privilege in court and cannot be trusted.