Intuit Still Lobbying Hard To Stop Governments From Making It Easy To File Taxes
from the corporate-culture dept
Earlier this year, we wrote about how much effort Intuit has put towards blocking proposals to have the federal government send you pre-filled out tax forms. After all, the IRS already has your information, so why not just send you a form with all of your details filled in, let you check it over for any mistakes, errors or omissions, sign it and send it back? It would save a whole lot of hassle, and certainly would avoid problems caused by simple mistakes. But, of course, if the government made it easy to pay your taxes, why then, Intuit wouldn't be able to sell as many copies of TurboTax. So it's been fighting it all along.Of course, some states have already implemented similar systems for state taxes, and Intuit then goes on the lobbying offensive to try to repeal those laws. Reader Xan points us to an LA Times story about the lengths to which Intuit is going to try to kill off a highly successful set of programs in California that have made it much easier for many, many, many residents, while at the same time saving the state millions of dollars. It's a clear win-win.
Well, except for Intuit.
Intuit is lobbying hard for California to ditch this tremendously successful program that helps both tax payers and the state, and replace it with a different program that... helps Intuit. It would offer a much more limited offering to many fewer people, mostly designed as an upsell to get people to pay for TurboTax. And, while Intuit hasn't been successful yet, it has been spending plenty of money supporting California state politicians on both sides of the aisle to try to find support for its efforts.
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Filed Under: california, lobbying, software, taxes
Companies: intuit
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Should Intuit be trying to basically "kill" such programs? No, I do not think so. Should Intuit be trying to require such government offerings be more informative? Yes, I do believe so. Might improved government offerings take away from private sales? Probably, but then again they are much too general and limited to apply, in my view, to anything other than "no-brainer" situations.
Personally, I will always use commerical packages (I use H&R Block's software, particularly since the sleight of hand Intuit tried to use a couple of years ago) because such packages tend to look out for me and keep my taxes to a minimum. I cannot say the same for government offerings, which appear to resolve doubts in its favor.
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I have direct experience with your "which appear to resolve doubts in its favor" theory.
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I generally agree with you; I personally wish the fed. would go back to its mandate of national defense and interstate road maintenance ONLY. And the IRS is certainly one of the most malevolent public creatures around. HOWEVER: one of my best friend's wives is an IRS field agent. She helps me and my wife with our taxes every year, and she does a great job. Her opinion on IRS matters is very valuable to *me*, and I can say that although the IRS can be an incredible burden on people who for whatever reason have screwed themselves on not towing the tax line, they appear to do their best to make information on the tax code available, and up to date. Say what you want about the organization; but their web site is quite comprehensive and helpful. I hate paying taxes, trust me. I have no love for them, but you kind of have to be pretty flagrant and dismissive of the IRS to get its interest in your affairs. If you follow the rules and grit your teeth and pay your taxes according to their rules they generally tend to leave you alone. Trust me, according to this woman's case load they have plenty of legitimately bad fish to fry. I guess what I'm saying is if these tools and forms were some kind of trap for earnest tax-paying citizens I'd be surprised.
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One concern I have, however, is that even if you use their programs or have tax forms filled out with the assistance of an IRS employee retained for just such a purpose, you are not as a matter or law entitled to rely on the information you have been provided in the event of an audit and the assessment of a tax deficiency.
In the event of a conflict between the IRC and advice/assistance you have received and acted upon in good faith, the IRC beats you every time.
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Yeah, they really started overstepping their bounds about the time they started telling states that they couldn't have slavery. It's been all downhill from there.
/s
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Yep. Hopefully they'll step up and regulate the internet to keep morons from slipping into the computer room and randomly typing nonsense.
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since when?
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Me, I still use Intuit, because of some nasty bugs in H&R's past.
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Free Markets...
At that point, we have to find another need gap to fill and that's just business. There are no guarantees in life and not to be trite, but you just need to roll with the punches.
I'm extremely concerned if the current political environment continues that we will get increased protectionist policies (via regulation) usually sold by protecting labor in these industries.
I find it ironic to say the least that progressives believe in such protectionist policies to protect labor and temporary disruptions which ultimately leads to much less overall "progression". To say they are being short sighted is an under statement.
Freedom
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Googletax
It seems to me that this is simply another story about what lobbyists do, convince the government to play favorites. It would certainly be a surprise if Intuit was lobbying for simpler tax prep.
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Re: Googletax
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Horrible
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A Reagan administration study proved that
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Re: A Reagan administration study proved that
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Re: A Reagan administration study proved that
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Lobby, my ass ...
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Re: Lobby, my ass ...
One is like paying a prostitute. For those in need of immediate "action".
One is like courting your future spouse, with the family watching and all. In the long run you might be better off... or not.
We have morals in this country, after all.
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Re: Lobby, my ass ...
I think a commenter on /. put it best when asked what the political cycle was like compared to the parliamentary system in Europe (I think it was actually put to the Australian political system, but still quite apt for the US);
"Its a unicycle ridden by clowns."
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Intuit
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Intuit
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Idiots
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Re: Idiots
Regardless if you agree with the organization known as the IRS, why shouldn't they be accessible? Chris makes a great point, they can pull it off elsewhere why not here.
Perhaps if we could set our sites beyond next years election or next quarters profits we could see that changes are necessary for systems to survive.
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A simple solution to the problem
Because everybody who pays salaries and pensions are supposed to report this and pay the tax part of the salary directly to our government, the majority of tax payers do not have to fill in anything on their tax forms. These people are not even mailed a tax form to file, unless they ask for it. They just have an obligation to tell government if/when they get other taxable assets.
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Already happens in Norway
Intuit is a small fraction of a bigger problem of corporations all over the world using government regulations in favor of their specific industry to guarantee economic rents. It's a massive distortion. Either fully regulate by government or fully free a process to the private sector, but not both and not when changing the rules half way through for some but not others.
If you think this is ridiculous, in the province of Alberta in Canada carwashes are allowed to deduct disproportionate food, uniform and locker room costs while forcing minimum wage employees to punch out when no cars are coming through during a shift, even though employees are forced to stay on premises. This was passed at the behest of the owners of several of the larger well-known car wash chains.
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1040 EZ filing is already free
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Why doesn't Intuit...
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Intuit...
The stupid thing is I’m still using Quicken 2000 quite happily but I don’t know for how long – I hope I can get it to work with the next version of Windows – or Ubuntu :-)
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this should be illegal
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Setting the Record Straight
· Lower tax bills by helping taxpayers find every credit and deduction they deserve. The state-prepared return won’t do that, virtually guaranteeing taxpayers pay more than they should.
· Reach more low-income taxpayers. Seventy percent of Californians qualify for Free File; just 44 percent qualify under the state’s program.
· Make filing simpler. Free File completes both state and federal returns. The state’s program forces Californians to do their taxes twice.
Free File also helps eligible Californians to obtain their share of the $1.2 billion federal Earned Income Tax Credit that is unclaimed in California. The state system won’t. You can read a recent story from Capitol Weekly (http://www.capitolweekly.net/article.php?_c=z0pont7hqyl09o&xid=z0p77e6d46ttm7&done=.z0pont7 hqza09o#) that gives a more balanced look at the issue.
We appreciate the conversation and balanced debate on a very important issue for California taxpayers. Hope these facts help set the record the straight.
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Re: Setting the Record Straight
That's the rub. I think most people are complaining because the lobbying seems to be nothing more than an attempt to block a beneficial new plan in order to prevent addtional competition.
Personally, I used to buy and use Intuit's tax software every year up until they released the version that wrote DRM to the zero sector of their customers' hard drives, at which time I went elsewhere and haven't looked back.
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