Comment by bko | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bko | Hacker News Reader

Tax software isn't expensive and complicated just because. It's expensive and complicated because the tax code is expensive and complicated. Otherwise there would be a ton of free tools.

People are focused too much on the tooling. Do you think having the government re-write TurboTax software and give it away for free is a good idea? Do you think they would do it cheaper? They literally employee hundreds or even thousands of people to support this software.

You'll pay one way or another, whether its tax payer funding of IRS or through TurboTax. I guess the question is whether you think some government agency can write tax software more efficiently than a private company.

Some people don't understand software and think it doesn't require maintenance, which is especially wrong when you're trying to work with ever changing federal and state tax codes. I'm surprised whenever I see this issue on HN, presumably an engineering heavy group, this idea of "free tax filing software" is so popular.

I'd prefer they simplify the tax code and this problem takes care of itself

TurboTax and other tax companies don’t just lobby to prevent a free filing solution, they also lobby for more complicated tax laws to create a greater need for their product

Literally every special interest group lobbies for more complicated tax laws.

"We need to incentivize [green tech|solar panels|electric cars|homeownership|child care|education|capital investments|...]" just translates to more complicated tax laws.

Your comment doesn’t refute the heart of the argument—it’s just “whataboutism”.

What's the gps argument? That intuit lobbies? In 2024 that amount was ~$3.8m.

Even if 100% of that is to make taxes complicated. Is their lobby somehow driving the complicated tax code and if we just tell them "cut it out" or have the government spin up its own TurboTax, something that other private companies have not been able to do successfully at scale, it'll somehow stop?

I don't get the point other than people don't like paying for stuff they think should be free. But my point is there is a real cost to helping people fill out their taxes, and I'd prefer that's done on the private side as government isn't historically good running at running tech companies. Either way you pay, just one you have a choice and it's explicit how much it costs and the other is another murky inefficient government run agency.

https://substack.perfectunion.us/p/turbotaxs-intuit-spent-re...

The argument is that Intuit engages in corrupt practices to boost their profits at the expense of american taxpayers' time and money, by complicating tax code and limiting the development of government-funded solutions. Your comparison to other forms of lobbying doesn't change that, and neither does sowing doubt about the efficacy of said lobbying; these practices are unethical and wrong regardless of your ideologically-motivated justifications.

There is a material difference between all of those examples and Intuit though.

It is normal for governments to use incentives to drive their policy objectives. If they want to incentivize home ownership for example, the resulting increase in complexity of the tax code may be a reasonable trade off.

Intuit is just trying to get a government guarantee that their business model will continue to exist, without their being any positive public policy angle to compensate for the negative externality. In other countries free tax filing is the norm, because although they have the same types of incentives to promote policy objectives, the government has not allowed themselves to become captive to someone like Intuit.

For example, I have filled my taxes in myself (for free) in the UK for about 20 years now. It used to be a (simple) paper form. Then around 15 years or so ago it changed to be web or paper (your choice) and now they strongly incentivise web over paper. For the last 2 or 3 years all the important details of my income and pension are already filled out automatically from the record they get from my employer and I only need to fill in the capital gains and charitable giving parts of my return.

Exactly. Investment (best case) vs rent seeking.

For the vast majority of taxpayers, who have only W2 income and take the standard deduction, the tax code is not complicated. Those taxes can be done with a pen and calculator, or an excel sheet if you want to get fancy. No complex tax law rules needed.

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