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Comment by krferriter | Hacker News Reader

They're a corrupt, profiteering company that does everything it legally can to stop people from filing taxes for free.

https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-f...

But listen to my argument, I’m willing to pay to have an easier time filing my taxes. I’m not going to use IRS’s tool if it doesn’t make it a painless process like TurboTax.

So I ask again, will the IRS make a painless tool? If the answer is yes, but Intuit is lobbying them not to, then I understand your point.

If it’s just about free vs non-free, I could care less. Filing taxes or filling out anything for the government is usually an awful experience and I’m willing to pay to not have to deal with it.

> So I ask again, will the IRS make a painless tool? If the answer is yes, but Intuit is lobbying them not to, then I understand your point.

Exactly this, yes. It's well documented all over the place, but here are a couple of examples:

https://www.propublica.org/article/filing-taxes-could-be-fre...

https://www.economist.com/democracy-in-america/2013/04/02/it...

In any case, thanks to the folks in this thread suggesting alternatives. I was going to switch to Credit Karma last year, but literally the day after I created an account I woke up to the news that Intuit had bought them.

Edit: I see down-thread someone says they had to spin out the tax-filing portion of the business?

Square acquired Credit Karma's Tax business, probably folding it into CashApp

[1] https://squareup.com/us/en/press/credit-karma-tax

[2] https://www.pymnts.com/news/partnerships-acquisitions/2020/c...

The problem isn't that the IRS won't make a painless tool. The issue is that Intuit actively works to make sure the tax code stays as complicated as possible. Ideally the tax code is so simple that complicated tools aren't necessary for your average filer.

It’s more than that: they stopped the potential practice of the IRS sending you a pre-filled out tax form with what they know that you could then just sign and accept, as is done is many other countries.

>So I ask again, will the IRS make a painless tool? If the answer is yes, but Intuit is lobbying them not to, then I understand your point.

Yes, IRS would have made a painless tool, but for that lobbying.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/taxes/turbotax-h-r-block-sp...

Most other first world countries manage to offer some form of return-free filing. In that instance you wouldn't have to fill out anything at all.

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