Slashdot Mirror
Intuit Charges More For Previously Offered TurboTax Features, Users Livid
An anonymous reader writes: For years, the Deluxe edition of TurboTax was enough for investors and the self-employed to do their taxes. With this year's edition, Intuit removed Schedules C, D, and E, covering self-employment, investment income and asset depreciation. Those features now require an extra charge of $40. The company is getting murdered on Amazon reviews for it, with 900 users giving the software a 1-star rating.
If you're self-employed, have investment income, or asset depreciation, you probably already do your taxes with a real CPA. If you aren't, you probably should.
Morphing Software
More bad business decisions from the genius MBAs that are ruining everything that was good...
Is anyone really surprised? This is the same company that tried to instill DRM in TurboTax a few years back, and they lost HUGE amount of sales, (myself included), so clearly they haven't learned their lesson. Too bad too. I guess it's time for this investor to start letting an accountant do my taxes.
Maybe instead of posting an impotent Amazon review, those people should work to get the tax system simplified.
I remember back in the days of QuickTax -- Windows users could buy QuickTax for a decent price and do their taxes. However, if you had a Mac, you needed to buy Deluxe, as that was the only version provided for the platform -- at a higher price than the Windows Deluxe version, both of which were twice the price of the regular version.
What were the extras you got? IIRC, it was the self-employment, investment income and asset depreciation packages, along with some retirement planning tools.
The other gotcha: the schedules were never updated until AFTER the early filing deadline, which meant I always had to file an update once I'd re-calculated for actual retirement values/contributions.
Well, it's been around 15 years now since I ditched Intuit for a web-based alternative that just works (I get tax refunds now within two weeks of filing), and I see absolutely no reason to go back, or recommend anyone else uses an Intuit product. This is just another nail in the Intuit coffin.
But I hear they're one of the best places to work....
Maybe I can understand the self-employment schedules as an upcharge, but Schedule D?!
That's something the average American household should (hopefully) be needing for their investment savings.
Owning a few mutual fund shares should hardly be an esoteric tax topic!
Plus, ya know, ahhh Bitcoin. (Just kidding)
Intuit top management got a huge pay raise in 2014. That money's gotta come from somewhere.
According to one article you can call them to complain and get a free upgrade to the version you need or send a scan of your receipt to H&R Block and get a free version of Tax Cut that has all the forms. Personally, I prefer the former so Intuit knows they have an unhappy customer serious enough to call them on these shenanigans.
ASCII tastes bad dude.
Binary it is then.
and apparently "chicken" isn't valid input? 1/5 This new software sucks.
OMG facts!
It seems Intuit is now in damage control mode; apparently if you call them and bitch enough they will upgrade you to "Premier" for free.
I've been a quickbooks customer for a long time, so I'm kind of used to the fleecing. I have never had a high opinion of Intuit the company; Quickbooks works well enough for the money, but if there was a reasonable alternative I would be gone in seconds.
Intuit sucks.
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
Has anyone ever tried to create an open source tax preparation software? It seems like a good candidate for open source software. The public could check it for accuracy and contribute better tax saving strategies to the greater public.
Your fake incredulity notwithstanding, most people do not have the cash for that. They have to pay bills.
Yeah, this is a thing companies are doing to consumers now.
It's also a big topic of conversation at the dinners I have to sit through with money-grubbing shitfaced sociopathic CEOs.
It's called retrocharging.
It works on the same model as MMORPG's and DLC except it's more insidious: The company threatens to take away something you already have unless you pay them more money.
Comcast does this. They are now doing "account audits" after which they send you a letter telling you they're going to start charging for features they claim you have always had but haven't been paying for.
So now that it's 1.5 stars, does that mean it's underrated? because it's still one of the best bits of software out there.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
They 'expire' the online features of their Quicken, etc software every few years, to force an upgrade. They have no need to do anything on their end with the online connectivity... it's all connecting directly to banks. It's crippling their software to force upgrades that add very little value (and usually add more bugs than improvements).
They also at least at one point had 'problems' connecting to network printers that they had to go out of their way to detect, just to force upgrades to higher level software.... because, you know... people with network printers must be businesses.
F--- them. There are very few people I actually despise, and the executives there certainly made the list.
Soooo they don't plan on retiring ever?
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
That's a good question. I would think it wouldn't be a large percentage.
Sure like 50% of Americans have 401k's etc, but actual capital gains/losses? I would guess that number is pretty low and probably a large part of the development for the software since it can be so complex versus your straight 1040a/ez filer.
The best way to do your taxes is with a ball point pen on tax forms that you've printed on your own printer. Just fill in the same stuff you did last year, recalculating or modifying the numbers where they've changed.
Federal + state takes about an hour, and you're not paying anyone a penny, except for two stamps. You can do self-employment taxes and investment income yourself, and pretty much anything a typical Slashdot reader would ever need.
Don't bother with "free file" unless you work in a state without income tax. That's where they charge you. Forget about H&R Block: Saves you no time whatsoever and they charge you a lot. If you make an honest mistake on your taxes, you can file revised paperwork. The IRS understands that people make mistakes. H&R Block doesn't "find you money." They do the same work you can do in an hour.
If you happen to make well over a hundred thousand dollars a year, congratulations, you're not a typical Slashdot reader. Pay an accountant to do the job. Don't even think about doing your own taxes.
Your fake incredulity notwithstanding, most people do not have the cash for that. They have to pay bills.
Investment income does not necessarily mean having a fortune in assets.
Your personal bank account pays dividends and the government will tax it. Even my kids who maintain a balance of under $100 in their accounts earn a few cents of "investment income" each year.
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement
If you have a side-job that doesn't withhold you are legally required to report it as a business. That way Self-Employment taxes get calculated properly, and you get credit with Social Security administration. The only out is if you earned less then $400. Then you're exempt from Schedule SE.
Which means that if you make $500 helping a caterer do big banquets, or even if you work for a cheap-skate who does't like withholding, you've got a Schedule C. You have to have some records of whatever expenses you paid to do the job (this is pretty much the only way you can deduct commuting mileage), you have to put them on the form, the whole nine-goddamn yards.
Schedule D is less common, but not as rare as you'd think. It;s where you report stock sales, so any Slashdotter who lived the dream of a successful start-up has filed quite a few of these. Most of Mitt Romney's income is actually reported on a D, because he pays himself with stock from his company, which he holds for a long time, which allows him to take advantage of the very low long-term Capital Gains rate.
Schedule E is the rare one. It's only for landlords.
Pretty much:
http://www.fool.com/retirement...
Your fake incredulity aside, not everyone is so lucky as to be planning for retirement.
Some people simply hope to die peacefully at their desk or behind their counter.
Been a long time customer, but no more. TaxACT 2014 looks good, and at reasonable cost if you want the upgraded version.
One year they includes a 'feature' that locked the version to a single computer. I had used Turbo Tax up until then but ditched it when they pulled that stunt. I have never looked back.
How many versions do they have now? And WHY?
I have some, had some sales last year too. Doesn't need to be much, there's only a few thousand dollars in it.
Retirement? In this economy? Most people in their 20s and 30s now will probably not be able to, at least not completely.
I switched to TaxAct last year as the discounts I got from my e-stock brokers were severely curtailed. What happened this year doesn't surprise me in the least.
I have schedules D and E, and the only issue with TaxAct that I had 2013 taxes was the State E-filing option. I ended up filing state using paper.
A few years ago, a relative bought a new laptop that came with Windows Vista. She asked me for help putting her QuickBooks onto it.
Her version of QuickBooks simply wouldn't run on Vista. So I went to the store to buy an upgrade. I carefully studied the feature lists on the boxes for the various versions, trying to figure out which one she needed. For $100 I got some version ("Express" or "Starter" or something like that). It had all the features she needed and was $100 cheaper than the next version.
It turned out that it was missing one key feature: it didn't support upgrading! It would have been fine for her if she had started out with it, but because she was upgrading from an old version, she had to get the $200 QuickBooks. That's right, her reward for being a long-time customer was to pay $200 instead of $100 for a version that would run on Vista. (And it really didn't say on the box that upgrading wasn't supported. I had to figure it out... when I couldn't find an "import" dialog in the menus, I searched their web site; and I found a knowledge base article that plainly spelled out that importing was a feature reserved to the $200 and above versions.)
If I ever start a home business, I'll run it on some open source system. No Intuit products for me, not ever.
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
when I die, I want to go in my sleep, like my grandfather.
Taxable interest is a line-item on the 1040. It's not treated as "investment income."
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
Schedule D won't apply to tax-sheltered retirement accounts (at least during the investment stage; I haven't gotten to the withdrawal stage to figure that part out yet), so it's only if you've got investments outside of that.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
The governments of most advanced countries provide free on-line income tax preparation for thier taxpayers. Not so in 'Murica it where it is "monetized".
There is quite a powerful American lobby (Intuit mostly) in place to keep things that way. This is perfect example of what happens when outfits such as faux news brainwash americans that no good can come from a government run program of any kind. The other advanced countries do not charge anything as they see it as something in thier best interest.
Most people have at least some money they could be saving, but many just do not bother.
Not if they keep believing people like you.
Such small amounts on $100 accounts are hardly worth claiming. People living paycheck to paycheck hardly earn more than that.
Time for the competitors to undercut them.
(If at first you don't succeed, do it different next time!)
The government makes the tax laws and could, in theory, check that everyone has paid correctly.
They simply do not have enough information to do what you suggest. Unless they could track *every* transaction every taxpayer made, even when in cash, there is no way to be sure they could catch everything correctly.
Also, *some* people make money but don't get a paycheck so there is nothing to deduct money from.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Maybe the tax software development department at Intuit got jealous of the Quicken software development department.
Perhaps the tax folks saw the Quicken folks changing the colors in Quicken X++ and tweaking a few settings to make sure that online banking no longer worked for older releases and coming out with a new version every year with little work. Then they looked at the actual work (gasp!) they have to do every year to conform to new tax laws and decided to find some way to extract more money to keep up with the Quicken scam.
[Actually, I suspect there's just a cron job at Intuit that makes these software "upgrades" to Quicken automatically every year. They probably don't even have to hire a contract programmer. Unfortunately (for Intuit) someday someone will unplug the dusty old 286 machine in a closet somewhere that does this work because they assume it must not still be in use and Intuit will realize too late they didn't come out with a Quicken #### that year.]
Why is there an "insightful" mod and why isn't it "-1"? If I wanted insight, I wouldn't be reading
or harder than spelling?
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
I dumped Turbo Tax for a competitor when they used DRM at least a decade or more ago. I do my own taxes with TaxAct and have been using it since then. I am retired and have Social Security, some retirement income from a defined benefit plan that is still around and investment income. I could afford to hire a CPA or anyone else to do my taxes, but I don't want to. I use the process as an opportunity to review my investments and how they impact my taxes and make changes that benefit ME. As a retired engineer the way taxes are calculated drives me nuts, but what do you expect when Lawyers try to do math?
Hopefully they will violently revolt and install a new system to replace our ailing oligarchy.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
My first two accountants were referred by my friends who had businesses, saying these CPAs were good. Both were grossly incompetent. The didn't know about basic things any small business needs to do like section 179 deduction and gave me an absolutely wrong answer when I asked how to account for home office expenses. Their errors would have cost me a few thousand dollars, had I not caught them.
The second one couldn't even get the right social security numbers on the W2s, filed late and didn't tell me, etc.
If I'm going to have to study all of this tax law and understand it, then go over everything in detail to see where they screwed up, why wouldn't I just do it myself to start with? What am I paying them for?
If you do get a CPA for a small business ask them about section 179. If they don't explain it in a way that indicates they thoroughly understand it, find another CPA.
Link
It is much cheaper, has equivalent features, and better technical support than TurboTax. I started using this back when TurboTax added horrible DRM to their offering, and have never looked back.
I switched to the equivalent H R Block product years ago. Works just as well and costs less.
I remember doing taxes one year. I'd spent all day at it. I was unsure I'd done it properly and came out owing around $100 in taxes. On the suggestion of a friend I hired a CPA. He gave me a 30 minute interview, took my various tax related papers, had me sign a few things, and that was it. In a week or two he reported back to me saying I'd be receiving a $1,500 tax return. It only cost $150. It's the best investment I've ever made. I have never done my taxes without a CPA since.
I've been using their tax software for years and haven't looked into their offering this year because I found an alternative that lets you pay what you want to, including nothing, after you have filed. It's at simpletax.ca in case anyone is interested. Now I just need to find an alternative for my company taxes.
I had just submitted an order for Turbotax on Amazon, then came here and saw this. I just canceled that order while I assess what to do about this situation. Hope Intuit loses a lot of business.
Sounds like business as usual 4/15/14 /. post about turbo tax lobbying against simplifying the tax system
The government makes the tax laws and could, in theory, check that everyone has paid correctly. So why do we have to do this yearly ritual? How about the bizarre game of guessing how much to deduct from your salery and how many exemptions it needs to be - just have the correct amount deducted automatically.
Anyone with complicated finances, which would include any business, or who doesn't trust the government would still do it the same as now, but for most people it'd be far simpler.
Because as ProPublica reported, Intuit has spent over $11 million lobbying to prevent the IRS from offering us that service. That's why, every time we discuss electronic filing on Slashdot, we get posts from outside the U.S. saying, "Ha! Ha! Stupid yanks! We file our taxes automatically for free!! How's Obamacare going?" And the worst thing is they're right. We are stupid for letting corporations buy Congress and run the country.
http://www.propublica.org/arti...
How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing
by Liz Day
ProPublica, March 26, 2013, 4 a.m
Imagine filing your income taxes in five minutes — and for free. You'd open up a pre-filled return, see what the government thinks you owe, make any needed changes and be done. The miserable annual IRS shuffle, gone.
It's already a reality in Denmark, Sweden and Spain. The government-prepared return would estimate your taxes using information your employer and bank already send it. Advocates say tens of millions of taxpayers could use such a system each year, saving them a collective $2 billion and 225 million hours in prep costs and time, according to one estimate.
The idea, known as "return-free filing," would be a voluntary alternative to hiring a tax preparer or using commercial tax software. The concept has been around for decades and has been endorsed by both President Ronald Reagan and a campaigning President Obama.
"This is not some pie-in-the-sky that's never been done before," said William Gale, co-director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. "It's doable, feasible, implementable, and at a relatively low cost."
So why hasn't it become a reality?
Well, for one thing, it doesn't help that it's been opposed for years by the company behind the most popular consumer tax software — Intuit, maker of TurboTax. Conservative tax activist Grover Norquist and an influential computer industry group also have fought return-free filing.
Imagine filing your income taxes in five minutes — and for free. You'd open up a pre-filled return, see what the government thinks you owe, make any needed changes and be done. The miserable annual IRS shuffle, gone.
It's already a reality in Denmark, Sweden and Spain. The government-prepared return would estimate your taxes using information your employer and bank already send it. Advocates say tens of millions of taxpayers could use such a system each year, saving them a collective $2 billion and 225 million hours in prep costs and time, according to one estimate.
The idea, known as "return-free filing," would be a voluntary alternative to hiring a tax preparer or using commercial tax software. The concept has been around for decades and has been endorsed by both President Ronald Reagan and a campaigning President Obama.
"This is not some pie-in-the-sky that's never been done before," said William Gale, co-director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. "It's doable, feasible, implementable, and at a relatively low cost."
So why hasn't it become a reality?
www.propublica.org/article/turbotax-maker-linked-to-grassroots-campaign-against-free-simple-tax-filing
TurboTax Maker Linked to ‘Grassroots’ Campaign Against Free, Simple Tax Filing
Intuit and its allies are continuing to work against proposals for what’s known as return-free filing.
by Liz Day
ProPublica, April 1
I have never been a fan of Intuit. They have highly questionable business practices and I feel are very lacking in business ethics. Their competitor is much the same. At least here in Canada there is no decent company providing any accounting software. Make your own I say, at least you know who's douching you then.
Mean what you say...say what you mean.
This is largely FUD to cover up that their profit models take a hit.
For years tax prep people have made a boatload off people who can file a 1040-EZ, but out of their own fear and confusion pay a prep firm $50-$150 to fill out the simple one page form for them. It's easy money.
But, many of those people are now taking an ACA subsidy to get health insurance. The subsidy can't be done on a 1040-EZ, so those folks now have to file a traditional, more complex 1040. It doesn't take a lot more time, and it isn't unprofitable, but rather than clearing a $75 profit per person they are going to clear a $20 profit per person.
To anyone already filing a 1040, the additional work is _minutes_, and will make no statistical difference in the cost.
The government makes the tax laws and could, in theory, check that everyone has paid correctly.
They simply do not have enough information to do what you suggest. Unless they could track *every* transaction every taxpayer made, even when in cash, there is no way to be sure they could catch everything correctly.
Also, *some* people make money but don't get a paycheck so there is nothing to deduct money from.
Actually they do have enough information. Other countries do it. As the ProPublica story explains, the reason the IRS can't do it is that Intuit spent $11 million lobbying to prevent it.
http://www.propublica.org/arti...
How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing
by Liz Day
ProPublica, March 26, 2013, 4 a.m
neither my retirement funds nor pension plan are taxable...for now. The piper will be paid when I withdraw
There is a support page for TaxAct that mentions there is no Mac version, and instructs you to try the web version instead...
But at the end it says:
"Also, please ensure you are using the latest version of Internet Explorer "
Rather hard since Microsoft discontinued that for the Mac years ago!
At least the system requirements page is accurate, mentioning the three major modern browsers on the Mac...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You are funny, you'd advise someone struggling financially to save say $100 a month so they can have "retirement income"? That's beyond stupid andf a waste if time at best
pffft, you could have $15,000 in a checking account and the interest for a year wouldn't even buy a gallon of milk
A few years ago, Intuit released an "update" to Quickbooks for Macs. Upon installation, poof, there goes your entire partition table. Completely unrecoverable. In my case, I happened to be on a business trip and had to get my backup drive FedExed to me. Did Intuit offer to pay for that? Nope. Rat bastards.
Now, I'll grant you that Intuit doesn't seem to give a crap about the Mac but having switched over to the Windoze version of Quickbooks so I could get the Manufacturing edition features, I've come to the conclusion that they don't give a crap about their Windoze customers either given their track record of ignoring enhancements or additions to core functionality and instead trying to push people onto the web.
I haven't used their equivalent of the deluxe version, but the standard one has worked well for me for quite a few years and costs less than Turbo Tax.
Not what they should be doing, but the IRS doesn't seem to care much to go after people for it. I can see it too, given that usually you'd end up close to even. While the money you charge is income, you can deduct the space used, expenses, etc, etc. As such I doubt there is a lot of extra taxes to be had for people with roommates and so the IRS doesn't do much in the way of enforcement.
What I mean is some places still offer defined benefit pensions. Those are investments, but they don't count as a normal investment does for tax purposes. You don't report on them or their value since you have no access to the money during your term of employment. So no need for a form for that.
But mutual funds are investment income. A lot of less wealthy people have something similar. All it takes is the ability to save some money for later. A saving's account pays so little interest that it makes a lot more sense to put that money into some funds (stocks, bonds, a mix, an index, whatever). You don't need to be a big financial guy to do this, just head to the bank and make an appointment for the investment desk.
$100 dollars a month, starting at age 20 is enough to generate a very substantial nest egg by the time you reach 65, even in future dollars.
Go here:
http://money.cnn.com/tools/sav...
Put in $1200 per year taxable saving. Put in zero's for how much you have (taxable) 28% federal, 6% state, 0 for tax deferred and 0 per year. Then 45 in years to save (20 to 65) and put in an annual growth of 6%.
Results:
Your current savings will grow to:
$183,100
Inflation adjusted:
$46,496
That is not nothing, you won't be living high on the hog but you will have a reliable nest egg and if you were smart and bought a house and paid it off during those 40 years you will have more than enough to survive even if they decimate social security.
About 48%? Currently about 52% of Americans own stocks (including mutual funds and retirement accounts), and that number has been trending lower each year since 2007.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/162353/stock-ownership-stays-record-low.aspx
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
I don't pretend to know much about the American tax system, but I use TurboTax for my taxes in Quebec (where I have the privilege of basically doing my tax twice because the provincial and federal government each have complete sets of tax forms to fill out, but only in Quebec). TurboTax standard costs $18 and is what around 82% of people use (based on the number of reviews for each version). But if I didn't want to use TurboTax, there are something like 20 other tax programs out there, many of them cheaper, some of them free.
So, what's the big deal? Don't like what TurboTax charges, use something else.
Wanna simplify the tax system? Declare anyone in Congress must do their own taxes. No CPAs, no accountants, no advisers. I'd be tempted to say no tax software, but that might be going to far.
Guarantee, within 1 year taxes will be greatly simplified.
How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing http://www.propublica.org/arti...
If a $40 is a make or break cost for someone self-employed, they should get a regular job. Expenses are expenses. They're write-offs. The same for investments.
Seriously, we're worried about a bunch of whiners bitching about less than the cost of a tank of gas -- even with the recent price cuts at the pumps?
Shit. I'm on disability and I still often spend more than that on one meal.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
none of us would need this crap.
11% flat across the board, single sheet of paper that can be filled out in less than 10 minutes. DONE.
Other than the rich assholes that have been hiding their money whining about it 90% of america would benefit from this. Why are none of you demanding it from your senators?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
If the government wants us to pay taxes, why doesn't the government set up an online system so that we can pay our taxes without this added fee?
H&R block does it, Turbo Tax does it. The government still allows you to pay using magnetic tape.
At what opportunity cost? The post you replied to asked about someone struggling financially. If they are struggling financially, then likely the only way to get that $100 per month to put away is to borrow it. The cost of this would erode much of the benefit.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH *pop*
Orbital explosive decompression?
With all this uproar it sounds like TurboTax has become the ObamaCare of tax software.
No brain, no pain.
That's some expensive milk. Most interest bearing checking accounts are at least 0.1%. That'll get you at least $15 worth of milk.
Thanks for the confirmation. I thought so, but didn't want to say that and give anyone bad information.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
And I can do my own taxes, thank you. The software was helpful for correct arithmetic.
TaxSlayer had these online forms free last year plus free efiling, AMT and NIT.
I'm expecting this comment to be very buried, but there is sort of a silver-lining. TurboTax will offer you 110% of your refund (for download/disc versions, 105% for online versions) if you take it in the form of an Amazon.com gift card. It doesn't take long for that to more than recoup the cost of the software, even if you have to move up a tier. What's more, Amazon is offering discounts for Prime members. If you're pushed (yes, I know, it hurts) into the Premier tier now, that is $54.99 for the download version. There will be an extra charge for the state file, if you so choose (but why bother). If you choose to get $600 of any tax refund as an Amazon GC, you've just recouped your $54.99, and come out $5.01 ahead (because you're getting $660 gift card for your $600 return portion). From there, every $100 more you put on that gift card is another $10 in your pocket. You can even have Amazon create an order report for you to see what you spent last year. I don't know, it's hard to get that upset about $10-$20 increase in costs for their software when they're giving me 10% bonus on anything from $100 to $10,000.
You are mistaken. Even if the IRS COULD track every transaction, they wouldn't know enough.
Given our current set of tax regulations it would be generally impossible for the IRS to figure out your tax liability by watching all your transactions. In many cases there are multiple options for the tax treatment of a transactions which may result in different tax liabilities. There are even non-financial transactions (ones that don't involve money changing hands) that can drive differing tax bills. And you cannot just say you will take the minimum liability every time because some times you WANT to pay more now for the opportunity to pay less later (Like a ROTH IRA). There is no way for the IRS to figure these choices out for you.
This regulation difficulty plus the *fact* that it is totally impossible to track every transaction made by US citizens/tax payer world wide, makes it impossible for the IRS to just calculate your tax burden directly.
Other countries have different ways to levy taxes than the USA. Where they may have the ability to track transactions and their regulations allow them to automatically collect taxes, such an option will not work here without a lot of very disruptive tax law changes. IMHO the tax code here is WAY too complex and needs to be simplified, but until that's done, there will be no "automatic" way to calculate and collect taxes and products like TurboTax will be viable. However, woe is the politician that attempts to overhaul the tax system, their opponents will howl about how unfair their simplification is or how it ignores this pet tax break or two and nothing will get done.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
When you start taking Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) or other distributions from your IRAs, 401ks, etc., the distributions are taxed as normal income. The investments remaining in the retirement accounts continue to change tax free, so no Schedule D is involved on that account. Of course, if you reinvest those distributions in stocks, bonds, mutual funds you may have a Schedule D to fill out as you will probably be selling assets, particularly as mutual funds adjust their portfolios of stocks through selling some assets at least once a year.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
Maybe if in retirement you survive on cardboard boxes from the dumpster, and forsake modern luxuries like automobiles, electricity, and running water. Although I suppose you could possibly double that nest egg or more by selling the home and moving to one of those areas where homes are valued at $20k or under, presuming of course that you aren't already in that boat.
Personally I'm saving and plan to have enough to retire and maintain my current standard of living. I do hope to raise my children in such a way that they wouldn't mind sharing a multigenerational home with me. I've already let my parents and inlaws know they are welcome in my home if they should want or need that.
Most people's retirement savings are all in 401ks. Those don't complicate returns.
How else are they going to pay for all those commercials they've been running during the playoffs? That ain't free!
If you live in maryland, you should know the comptroller site contains both iFile (for individual) and bFile (for business). https://interactive.marylandta...
Opens Jan 20th.
Maryland sponsors a website for doing state income taxes (with certain exceptions) free on their site. It may cost a nominal fee to efile it. https://interactive.marylandta...
The forms are Free at IRS.gov so no need for TurboTax. I've stopped using TurboTax. It is simpler to just do the paper forms. I download them from the IRS.gov web site for ___FREE___ and fill them out as PDF files (use your favorite program such as Preview on the Mac, Adobe Acrobat, etc) and then submit them. Easy peasy. No fees.
I think what Intuit actually blocked was the IRS providing a software solution similiar to all the other commercially available stuff. This would have effectively killed 90% of those commercial products business.
The US government could very well setup a system like much of the rest of the 1st world uses. That is the government tells you what it thinks your taxes for the year should be, and since those taxes are already being withheld they have the money. You then get to tell them if you think the amount is correct or not, some systems don't even require your input and you only contact them if it's wrong. In the event that they owe you money you provide the documentation via forms and receipts or whatever showing that they owe you money. The USA could very simply do this for a very large chunk of the population. Your W2 and 1099's are all sent to the Fed anyways, they have all they need to calculate the form for most people. Currently whether or not your taxes are simple or complex you have to file all the paperwork, and hope they don't disagree. They should just figure it out and the taxpayer only interacts with the Fed in the event they think the Fed has it wrong.
I stopped using TurboTax when they decided they could write data outside my filesystem, as if it were their computer. I use H&R Block's TaxCut, and it's just as good as TurboTax ever was.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
The equivalent of $46K after 45 years isn't impressive. That's less than one year's US median annual household income, and is going to make very little difference in retirement unless the plan is to die horribly by age 68.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
How many own stocks etc. outside of retirement accounts that are not currently taxed (IRAs, 401(k)s, etc.)? Their taxes will get a lot more complicated when they start drawing on that, but I don't even report what happens in my retirement accounts.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
They already made some people get the expensive version, it is just more people now. I had to use the business version last year as my tax situation tends to be more complicated than most (and it still takes an entire day despite the software.) I was using a CPA before that, but I grew tired of the errors (for which I am still liable) and decided to do it myself from now on.
I think you misunderstand how a deduction works. It does not directly reduce your taxes, it effectively reduces your income for purposes of calculating your taxes. This works out to a 10% - 40% effective discount on the item in question if you can deduct it, but you do not get all the money back.
I'm a signature virus. Please copy me to your signature so I can replicate.
Something less than 52%.
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
TaxAct a couple of years ago, because Turbo Tax could not properly do the Schedule K I needed. TaxAct had no problem with it, and it ended up being cheaper anyway. So no big loss here.
The day Microsoft creates a product that doesn't suck, it will be known as the Microsoft Vaccuum Cleaner!
no, that's the high end. From my bank I received $1.31 for the year
Either you didn't have an average balance of $15,000 or you have an interest rate of .008%. I'll admit that I didn't compound that, but that would only work to a lower interest rate. That's definitely not the high end: http://www.nerdwallet.com/rate...
the number I remember is 0.0065%, but if anyone laughs and says why don't I change to high end 0.1%, is because whether $15 or $1.31 it doesn't matter, from my point of view it's essentially zero.