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FTC bans TurboTax from advertising ‘free’ services, calls it deceptive
(edition.cnn.com)
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this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2024
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This is something I don't get. I live in a "third world shithole" (Brazil). Annually, we have to fill online form (that already comes pre-filled), for most people there's a minimal amount of work involved. Only very rich people need accountants and stuff. Why the USA can't (or won't) do something like that is beyond me.
It's not can't, it's won't. Tax companies like TurboTax pay a lot of money for lobbying to keep the IRS from making it free and simple
It's just one of the many perks of living in a first world shithole country.
Americans are largely stupid and believe taxes are more complicated than they really are. The majority can use the standard deduction, and maybe have to add child tax credits. That can be done in less than an hour manually, the hardest part would be getting a physical copy of a 1040.
US Taxes can be very complex and the gov’t does not know ahead of time all the details.
However:
I’m not sure what’s missing to keep these from being simple and automatic for the majority: tipping income? State and local taxes? All the little nooks and crannies that make taxes complex are really not likely for most people.
I don’t know the limits are for TurboTax free filing but I’d expect most people to be able to now.
Actually, the standard deduction doesn't mean people can't itemize, it means it doesn't make financial sense to itemize. Itemizing is worse for them. If they want to itemize, they're still allowed to.
... At least that's what TurboTax and the other FreeFile program I used claimed.
This confuses me too as an Aussie. Partly because we do our taxes July-november, but also because it's just a simple form that's mostly pre-filled here too. Businesses I believe do have a more complicated form to fill out, but as an individual person you just hop online, read through a few pages of pre-filled info (or what most people do: just spam next through it) and you're done. They tell you how much they've recorded you paying in tax, you confirm it, then they tell you how much money you either need to pay or you get refunded (or nothing at all if you got your taxes spot on/don't need to pay tax)
yes, this is similar to how it's done here in Brazil too, except our taxes season is between March and May