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Comment by macspoofing | Hacker News Reader

We are talking about inexpensive tax software as an alternative to free filing methods. It's not a big deal. Of course it could be more efficient and cheaper ... but so can many government programs. Are public sector unions evil when they negotiate outrageous contracts that the public has to pick up the tab for? This is what democracy looks like.

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This very article explains how they're deliberately blocking millions of desperately impoverished people from receiving billions of dollars. How is that not a big deal?

>they're deliberately blocking millions of desperately impoverished people from receiving billions of dollars.

They aren't. Those programs don't require Intuit to claim.

The problem isn't that Intuit wants to charge something instead or nothing. The filing fee is not the harmful part. The problem is they can't directly ensure people use their service. But they can indirectly make it hard to file without using their service by lobbying against tax code simplications that would benefit most fillers.

Your argument makes it sound like you do not know what the issue in question actually is.

Recipients' other options are hire a CPA (obviously untenable), find the correct forms, calculate the credit themselves, do the rest of their returns by hand, and submit those (difficult for the target groups) or... pay to use TurboTax. That's the exact dilemma this new site would've helped solve if it hadn't been sabotaged.

> (difficult for the target groups)

Why? My father is an immigrant, speaks with broken English and has no higher education ... and did his taxes for years with forms.

Which target group are you referring to?

I'm referring to people with incomes low enough to qualify for the CTC. About half of US adults are functionally illiterate and innumerate, even measured by the Department of Education's (low) standards, and this correlates highly with income. I'm happy your father was able to do his own taxes, but he's not representative.

> Are public sector unions evil when they negotiate outrageous contracts that the public has to pick up the tab for?

the question starts to sound more interesting when you add the fact that the members of that union have "death or life" power over the public.

>This is what democracy looks like.

it is more like a "contract you can't refuse".

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