> Did you know that if you make less than $66,000 a year
But I don't, so...they didn't trick me?
But I don't, so...they didn't trick me?
[1] https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-f...
The article leaves this out.
Yes, it would be great if the IRS were able to provide software as slick as Intuit's to assist with this, and it would also be nice if Intuit didn't use so many dark patterns, and at the same time they've built a product that makes self-filing far easier to do correctly than any other option out there.
> If you choose Free File Fillable Forms as your Free File option, you should be comfortable doing your own taxes. Limitations with Free File Fillable Forms include:
> It won't give you guidance about which forms to use or help with your tax situation
> It only performs basic calculations and doesn't provide extensive error checking
> It will only file your federal return for the current tax year
> No state tax return option is available
I don't want to "do my own taxes". That's the whole point of paying for a service that makes it easier. And also it's not even available right now:
> Free File Fillable Forms reopens Feb. 12, 2021 at noon ET.
What I mean by that is that even for people who were eligible for doing their taxes for free last year, they offered additional services like e-file (literally sending a file akin to the effort and cost of sending an email) at some ridiculous price, and then for those having to do state taxes both charging for the state return software (understandible) and the state e-file … but at rates that ended up tallying up to higher than if the "free" filer had just bought Trubotax with state and free e-file at some discounter or in some cases even at higher rates than the full price.
What a lot of people are not aware of is just how utterly evil that these "tax preparer" companies are in their practices, they aren't just unethical or even corrupt, they are deliberately evil and even criminal in their methods. The leaked emails from TurboTax illustrate that. They actively sabotage efforts to, e.g., make it possible for citizens to simply upload the tax return or even just the tax form output from the software so that the utter nonsense e-file has to be used that the companies have a gate around.
It's just one of the many ways and things that are modern forms of company stores, traps that are intentionally and deliberately constructed to ensnare and entrap and pilfer from people for little to no value. It's quite literally BILLIIONS of dollars that are drained from the middle and lower classes to file taxes … information the IRS already has.