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Comment by ryanobjc | Hacker News Reader

It's really too bad, their basic product - turbo tax free file uses the 1040 EZ form and can be confusing.

My gf who is a student was told by turbotax she owed over $300, after doing it on paper, the old fashioned way, the tax liability was 0. Why? The tuition deduction didn't apply on the EZ version of the form.

Ultimately turbo tax takes a conservative, strict and rigid approach to taxes, but as anyone knows this isn't the reality of doing taxes. For anyone with a moderately complex return, I think it's better to hire a tax professional, then at least you'll LEARN something for your money (which can be about the same amount!).

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That seems unfair to TurboTax. I have found it to ask you about things that are beyond the form it is filling out (and then upsell you on upgrading to the other version) and I think it does a great job with educating you about how you can lower your taxes. If you want, you can avoid their fees by filling everything out through the program and remembering the relevant information when filling out the form manually.

TurboTax Free did a 1040A for me this year. It's not limited just to 1040EZ.

I think they may have adjusted things compared to last year; it imported my data from last year (a new feature), and I thought there used to be a "Basic" product between "Free" and "Deluxe".

> and I thought there used to be a "Basic" product between "Free" and "Deluxe".

There is, but it seems like they're not pushing it as hard this year: https://turbotax.intuit.com/personal-taxes/online/basic.jsp

    "When all else fails, read the instructions."

TurboTax specifically states that you only need to claim the tuition deduction if it benefits you.

btw there are 3 different tuition deductions!

Maybe its also an indictment of the tax code, but I don't see why I should give turbo tax a break.

I also file my taxes on paper and I do all the calculations manually (well, in a spreadsheet). Even though my tax situation is far from the most complex, it is more complex than TurboTax can handle. Also I like to keep tax preparation painful as a reminder of the burden that the ridiculous complexity of the tax code places on me.

That said, I do agree with Intuit here. I don't think there's any evidence whatsoever that the government is capable of making software to either provide a service similar to TurboTax or to correctly pre-calculate your taxes. They don't have the technical expertise so they'd have to contract it out. We saw how well that worked with healthcare.gov. They are not incented to "find every deduction" like a private tax preparer is, quite the opposite in fact. They also simply don't know enough in many cases. They don't know what my self employment income and expenses are, for example, until I tell them.

The only way that government can make taxes easier is to simplify the tax code itself.

But why restrict the gov't ability to provide free online filing. If TurboTax can provide an alternative that is better then they can still make money by providing value.

I'm not sure you actually agree with Intuit. They're saying that the IRS and state-level agencies should not provide free online filing services--even though they already provide free paper filing systems.

As far as I've seen, no one has done a movement to ban tax paperers (either online or in person). If Intuit or H&R Block can provide a better website for $39 or whatever, they can. The question is if the agencies in question shouldn't develop their own replacements to paper tax forms.

Can you imagine it was 30 years ago and if, instead of getting tax forms mailed to you every year (or photocopies from the local library for a pittance 5 years ago), you had to walk down to the local H&R Block or other private company and pay them $40 to get the forms they wrote based on the tax code to file your taxes? It's pretty much the same thing.

From a pragmatic standpoint, the forms already exist. They have to be updated, but the changes from year to year are not huge. Governments have a lot of experience creating forms. We don't hear about massive budget overruns and failed government projects creating forms. We do hear this about almost every software project they undertake.

Nothing the government does is free, and implemnenting online filing services would be something they (and by that I mean we) would pay billions of dollars for, and it would be poorly implemented, insecure, and it would crash constantly from overload during the month of April and especially on April 15th. I'd rather let Intuit do it for 1/1000 of the cost, and even at that, a cost that I would only pay voluntarily.

Several states already offer a high quality, secure, stable, and fast online filing so your clearly mistaken.

If Intuit can do it for 1/1000th of the cost, they could bid for the contracts at extortionate markups to cover their lost future revenue and still likely win them. Especially given that they apparently know the lobbying game quite well.

"I don't think there's any evidence whatsoever that the government is capable of making software to either provide a service similar to TurboTax or to correctly pre-calculate your taxes."

Yes and no. When the government wants to get quality software that solves real problems and saves taxpayer money, it manages to do so:

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

"We saw how well that worked with healthcare.gov."

Keep in mind that healthcare.gov was overburdened with moronic, ideologically driven requirements that were still being finalized a week before it was supposed to go live. It was being set up for failure from step one.

Don't forget that even with how healthcare.gov was set up for failure it /still/ exceeded its goals. That's what Intuit is really afraid of.

It's certainly possible. CA tax filing via website is now a breeze.

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