Tell HN: TurboTax Desktop will require Intuit account for 2023 tax season | Hacker News Reader

Tell HN: TurboTax Desktop will require Intuit account for 2023 tax season

31 pointssome-guy7 comments

From their email to customers:

* Hi there,

We’re reaching out to our TurboTax Desktop customers to share an important change to how you’ll install and activate your software this upcoming 2023 tax season.

To install and activate TurboTax 2023 on your computer, you’ll be prompted to sign in to your existing Intuit Account (or create an account if you don’t already have one) before entering your license code. The software won't install unless you sign in to your Intuit Account online. Importantly, your product license code can only be associated with one Intuit Account.

Your license code will then be stored in your Intuit Account, should you need to install the software again.

If you forgot your user ID or password, or need additional assistance logging in to your Intuit Account, this article will provide you with helpful steps.

For more information on product installation and activation, go to TurboTaxHelp.com.

Thanks for being part of the TurboTax family.

Warm regards,

The TurboTax Team *

I tend to spam every HN post that mentions TurboTax, but I've been using https://freetaxusa.com for a number of years and it's easier than TurboTax, and is feature equivalent, without nearly as many upsells or gross practices.

I'm sure that some day, this will change, but for now, it's been great.

Is that website from the US government? I heard they were building an e-file platform finally.

No, private business.

https://www.freetaxusa.com/about

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_File_Alliance

Given that no Intuit account was needed before this, it seems to me that this is about gathering additional personal information about the customer and not about providing a benefit to the customer.

Say hello to H&R Block's desktop federal tax application.

I switched from Turbotax to H&R Block because of Intuit's need to "register" the application with them before it would work. Like I need permission to use an app I already paid for. Like does People magazine ask me to register when I read the magazine on the John?

It's worth reading the licensing details whether you authorize them to upload your local data to their cloud and use the data in any way. I have used the TurboTax online for a number of years and they are getting more insistent on trying to get you to click buttons to give them rights to all the data you enter there (not just for filing but for their own other vague purposes.)

Intuit Quicken (Desktop) forced its desktop users to sign terms of service many years ago that required you to become their product, and gave them the ability to load all your data to their cloud (and presumably aggregate and resell it), at which point I quit buying it a year or two later and switched to some home grown google sheets approach where I wouldn't get sold-out.

so who ever using my GSA id .. that is the FBI my Ss is a goverment # so u going again America please stop

I don't get the concern? This seems like the least shadiest thing Intuit has ever done wrt TurboTax

What am I missing?

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