Many U.S. taxpayers in a dozen states for the first time can electronically file their federal returns directly to the Internal Revenue Service for free — but critics insist the new federal benefit is not needed and will even harm both users and states.
Is the critic turbotax?
Ok, so turbotax is mentioned,
In 2022, Intuit settled with attorneys general from across the U.S., agreeing to pay $141 million to Intuit TurboTax customers who ended up buying services that should have been free to them.
But mostly it seems republican states are saying its residents are too stupid to figure out they would still need to file state taxes, if federal taxes are available to file free through the federal government instead of a tax company that would do both.
Texas is participating but I was immediately disqualified from using it for having health insurance and HSA contributions.
“American taxpayers do not want to invite the proverbial fox into the hen house,” wrote the officials, led by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen.
…then wtf is TurboTax? Aren’t they getting way too much information regarding taxing, aren’t they becoming a central company with probably the economic oversight of an authoritarian nation?
Also… the IRS is where you file your taxes. To say they shouldn’t have a system to make that easier, while claiming they are getting all the information… when their job… is to get all that information from the tax payer in the first place.
Is these officials stupid, or do they expect their constituency to be?
Here’s a little theory; the IRS has been gamed for many, many decades, so that oligarchs can have an easier time hiding money and avoiding taxes, while ordinary tax payers are overburdened by an outdated, obsfucated, unnecessarily complex and archaic filing practice.
Again, US officials licking boot by way of acting tough.
If you make it too easy it will ruin the economy!
- TurboTax
