TurboTax Halts E-filing of State Tax Returns Because of Potential Fraud

mpicpp writes with this news from Marketwatch: Intuit, the parent company of TurboTax, has stopped e-filing all state tax returns due to increased suspicion of fraud. The company says it is investigating criminal attempts to use stolen data to file fraudulent returns and claim refunds, after hearing concerns from a handful of states, Intuit spokeswoman Diane Carlini told MarketWatch. After a preliminary examination with security experts, Intuit believes its systems weren't breached, but crooks may have used TurboTax software to file fraudulent returns after stealing identities, she said. Intuit said in a release that "the information used to file fraudulent returns was obtained from other sources outside the tax preparation process." The company called pausing e-filings to states a "precautionary step." Utah, the first state to reach out to Intuit, issued a notice Thursday saying the state tax commission has discovered 28 fraud attempts that "originate from data compromised through a third-party commercial tax preparation software process," as well as 8,000 returns flagged as potentially fraudulent.

Comments

I stopped using them years ago

[ganjadude]

I liked them a good 10 years ago, simple, easy. then again i was making minimum wage. This year im thinking about trying taxslayer. I like the reviews ive heard from friends who made the switch years ago. anyone else have any good simple do it yourself methods to share?

Re:I stopped using them years ago

[Anonymous Coward]

I liked them a good 10 years ago, simple, easy. then again i was making minimum wage. This year im thinking about trying taxslayer. I like the reviews ive heard from friends who made the switch years ago. anyone else have any good simple do it yourself methods to share?

Besides filling out the forms and mailing them?

Re:I stopped using them years ago

[ganjadude]

yes

Re:I stopped using them years ago

[Anonymous Coward]

I have been extremely satisfied using H&R Block over the past 8 years. As an application developer I am very impressed with their online application. Building an application that can interpret the US tax code is not easy to do.

Re:I stopped using them years ago

[mspohr]

I switched to H&R block also about 10 years ago when they made their asshat move where you could only use their software one time and had to pay more if you wanted to do taxes for your relatives.
I've been very happy with their software... works well with good support.

Tax Scammer version of First Post

[packrat0x]

If you are going to file under someone else's identity, you have to file first!

Half way there

[burtosis]

So why don't they stop filing federal as well?

There needs to be better protection in place to prevent this such as cross verifying the bank account to the actual person doing the filing. It's pretty shitty when 28 false claims can shut down the entire system and ruin it for everyone. Thank you for ruining it for everyone.

Re:Half way there

[ganjadude]

easy solution, stop filing taxes. The government gets all that information anyway. why not just have the gov send you a bill/refund every year, and IF you are not happy with the bill/refund, then you can file your taxes yourself. the way we do things is so backwards

Re:Half way there

[NicBenjamin]

The Feds do more cross-checking then the states, so it's harder to just tell Utah "I am totally former Governor John Hunstman, I really really made enough money to owe you $500 in taxes but had $15,000 witheld, and please send all the money to a bank account for Michaleen Czirpinski in Pittsburgh." The example is slightly exaggerated (the state would usually know how much Hunstman paid into the system), but not much.

Re:Half way there

[burtosis]

That's like asking the lottery to track down who actually won instead of just keeping the winnings. Unlikely.

Re:Half way there

[mrchaotica]

Most other first-world countries manage it.

Re:Half way there

[Anonymous Coward]

The government gets all that information anyway. why not just have the gov send you a bill/refund every year, and IF you are not happy with the bill/refund, then you can file your taxes yourself.

Corporate welfare.

The IRS is fully capable of doing this, and they even researched implementing just such a system. Lobbyists put a quick stop to that idea every time it comes up. Tax preparation services like H&R Block and online filing services like TurboTax have spent millions and millions of dollars fighting proposed legislation that would let Americans choose to have the IRS handle their taxes instead of paying a third party. Intuit (parent of TurboTax) has a larger lobbying budget than Apple!

Re:Half way there

[machineghost]

Strangely it's not actually that issue, as plenty of other countries do their taxes that way.

The problem here (like just about all of our problems) comes from the intersection of business and government. The IRS actually looked in to free tax filing, but Intuit and their fellow companies lobbied hard to get it killed. It turns out Intuit would make a lot less money if the government did our taxes for us, so it's in their best interest to spend lots of money to prevent it from happening.

Re:Half way there

[ColdWetDog]

But that would fly in the face of the resilient, independent American taxpayer, used to bootstrapping their entire life up from nowhere. Trained to walk uphill both ways.

Who gets rebates for farming, fishing, insulating, health care, baby sitting, tax preparation, eating right and donating to the religion of your choice (as long as they aren't terrorists).

USA! USA! USA!

Re:Half way there

[geezer nerd]

No doubt, this is a substantial reason why the government does not do the bill.

Another big reason is that in many (most?) other countries the number of exceptions (deductions, exemptions, etc.) is much smaller, so it is much easier for the government to figure your taxes based on your income reported from the employer. I live in NZ, and I would say the average guy does not file a return. If every scrap of income he made was from a job, or bank interest, or pension payments, or dividends lodged with a broker, then the government has already taxed those things at source and there is nothing more to be said.

On the other hand, there are some items which can be claimed to reduce tax that the government may not know about. This leads to an entire industry in NZ which helps people figure out if they have a refund coming that they did not know about. Most people do not.

And I have been very satisfied every year using Turbotax to prepare my US returns from NZ. The ability to link to financial institutions and automatically download the data is a real plus. For several years Intuit did not allow one to efile with a foreign address, but now they do, and that is icing on the cake.

Re:Half way there

[NicBenjamin]

easy solution, stop filing taxes. The government gets all that information anyway. why not just have the gov send you a bill/refund every year, and IF you are not happy with the bill/refund, then you can file your taxes yourself. the way we do things is so backwards

That would work so much better if most of our social safety net was;t the tax code. Day care, college education, a significant proportion of health costs (obviously Obamacare, but also the Employer Health Care Exclusion), etc. are all run through the tax code.

Which makes our taxes much more complicated then a place like Denmark, where they just pay for that shit directly and mostly fund the government through a VAT (i.e.: a sales tax).

Re:Half way there

[ganjadude]

well, it could be done right now as is, giving people the option to review. in other words, instead of sending us tax forms to fill out and send to the government to compare with what they have on file, have the govt send us the tax forms they have, and we can reply with a yes - or a no, along with the forms explaining why they got it wrong

or we could do the right thing, eliminate income taxes are we currently know them, and institute a fair or flat tax, thus making the idea of a tax return for an individual moot

Re:Half way there

[dirk]

While this is a great idea that works in the rest of the world, there is no way it can work here. Our tax system is too screwed up for it to work in the US. Most other countries don't have different taxes for different types of income, tax deferred income, tax deductions, tax rebates, and any number of other things to deal with. It would work for people with very simple tax returns but our system is too screwed up for it to work for most people.

This is the same reason a flat tax would never work in the US. No one wants to give up their loopholes and deductions and the only way a flat tax works is if all that goes away.

Re:Half way there

[Anonymous Coward]

Since when does the IRS send you a refund if you don't file taxes. NEVER. They'll send you a bill but if they owe you they will not contact you.

Re:Half way there

[sabri]

easy solution, stop filing taxes. The government gets all that information anyway.

Not true. First of all, you may have accounts outside of the country, which you will need to report. Second, you may have rental income that is not automatically reported. And those are only the first two things I thought of when I read your post.

Oh, and those are Federal only. An example of state taxes that are not automatically reported is the use tax that you have to pay if your state uses it, like California does.

The IRS also doesn't necessarily need to know about your deductions, unless you want your doctor to inform the IRS every time you visit the office, and perhaps you'd like your kid's preschool to inform the IRS that you prefer the Catholic Baptist Imams Kiddie Academy instead of your local preschool. And let's not forget deductions like home office or certain business expenses.

I'm pretty sure that in order to have everything go automagically, the entire tax system would need to be overhauled.

Re:Half way there

[tysonedwards]

So, Apple's lifetime lobbying budget has been $2,264,655 dollars, and last year the amount spent was $91,900.

Intuit spent $820,422 last year on lobbying. As such, the implication that they're doing more than Apple is outright trolling. If you want a better examples to use instead:
Elliot Management (2014): $7,152,149
National Assn of Realtors (2014): $6,324,267
Renaissance Technologies (2014): $3,671,200
Goldman Sachs (2014): $3,026,286
Microsoft (2014): $2,131,252
Exxon Mobil (2014): $1,931,230
Google (2014): $1,647,952
DLA Piper (2014): $944,672
Chevron Corp (2014): $701,983
Facebook (2014): $484,644
Sony (2014): $337,377

Re:Half way there

[jonbryce]

In the UK, you are required to file a return if you have more than £300 of income from offshore investments, or you have rental income. But the vast majority of people manage fine without filing a tax return.

Re:Half way there

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, I'm a bit sick this weekend and may be misreading you, but are you saying that spending almost ten times as much as Apple on lobbying isn't doing more than Apple?

Re:Half way there

[NicBenjamin]

It would be more complicated then you think to do this. Americans with very boring tax lives do not get the simple form, so the forms would have to be reworked.

Good luck with Fair Tax or Flat Tax. Obama just proposed ending a tax break I have never seen anywhere outside of an IRS textbook (the 529 deduction, I do taxes three months a year and I've never seen anyone use it, I know how to report it in theory but I could;t tell which button tho click on the software to put it on a return) and got crucified by his own party. The other party sat back and smirked. The Upper Middle Class which dominates the country is absolutely convinced each and every tax write-off they get is something sacred, handed down by fucking God, which means that it is virtually impossible to get rid of said write-offs. And if you can't do that you can't simplify the form, because the form is how you tell the IRS you're taking the deduction.

Like I said, this is how we run most of our welfare state. Saying "cut all the deductions, simplify the code, and reduce the rates" works about as well here as telling the Danes/Germans/Brits that their entire welfare state would be replaced by a simple check cut to every citizen resident in the country this year.

Re: Half way there

[Anonymous Coward]

You and me both. He is supplying evidence that contradicts his own statements.

Re: Half way there

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, you are supposed to file taxes. They will only contact you if you are going to be audited / under payment.

If you don't file, how will the IRS know if your payments are accurate or not? You do realize that it is your responsibility to not over pay in the first place.

Re:Half way there

[Bourdain]

"other" ? :)

Re:Half way there

[Anonymous Coward]

You want to pay for the federal government and all the state governments to collect, process, and securely store all of this data? They don't have it all already. And they sure as shit don't have the funds to do what you want.

Re:Half way there

[GNious]

As a guy from Denmark, let me make one small observation:
If your taxes are "much more complicated" than what we have back home, you're thoroughly screwed.

Re:Half way there

[NicBenjamin]

I don't know about the Danish system as a whole, but the income tax system for individuals is much simpler then the US. For example, there are three different tax forms Americans file (1040EZ with about 15 lines, 1040A with fifths, and the full 1040 with 79 lines). Your income tax is calculated in stages.

First you add up all potential sources of income -- wage income, independent contractor income (which usually has to go on a Schedule C so your software calculates the Self-Employment tax correctly), interest from your bank account, capital gains (which could come from selling Bitcoin at a profit), etc. This is your Gross Income.

Then you adjust the Gross Income by taking out certain other expenses the government really approves of. This are called "above the line" deductions. This year I paid student-loan interest, so I subtracted that interest from my wages to get my Gross Income. This gave me an "Adjusted Gross Income." Many retirement accounts, health savings accounts, etc. are here which means the Feds are using the Income tax system top subsidize a) health care, b) higher education, and c) retirement. You will also note that since it's done through the income tax system, the tax-break used to pay for all these things is much more advantageous for people who have a lot of income to tax (like Mitt Romney) then the poor schmuck whose so proud that he's full-time at Walmart.

After that you take out your exemptions ($3,950 per person claimed on your return, and there are lengthy legal tomes devoted to the thorny subject of who gets to claim whom for what), your Deduction ($6,200 for single or married filing single, $9,100 for Head of Household, or $12,400 for Married Filing Joint; or some completely different number you calculate yourself based on a completely different list of expenses The Government Really Approves of them the aforementioned above-the-line deductions). This results in a Modified Adjusted Gross Income.

But now that we've grossed our income, adjusted it, and modified the adjustment, surely it will be a simple matter of math to figure out the taxes owed? Don't be stupid.America has multiple tax brackets, and if you told an American just on the cusp of going from the 10% bracket to the 15% that his tax bill would increase by 50% if he'd made just bit more he will scream to high heaven and start a rebellion. So what they did is they made a table. It's in $50 increments. If you're in the 10% bracket every increment is $5 of taxes until you get to the end of the bracket. Then it's 15%, so it alternates going up by $7 and $8 (including pennies so you could just do $750 would make sense, so we don't). Then you hit the 25% bracket and alternate between $12 and $13, the 28% bracket is $14, but once you're halfway through the 28% bracket they stop the table and you have to calculate by hand for the rest of the 28% bracket, and the entirety of the 33%, the 35% and there 39.6% brackets.

Congratulations! We're half done! You see now that we know what you should theoretically pay we can start using tax credits. Tax credits are better then deductions because credits reduce the full amount you pay. There're child-care credits, education credits, and retirement credits. We're now about 2/3 done. Maybe 3/4.

Now we have to factor in your payments. Your withholding is just a very small part of what you officially paid. The thing about the credits in the last paragraph is they can make you own $0 taxes, but the can't make the Federal government cut you a fucking check for $5,000 (note: I actually had someone at my tax desk today get a $5,000 check from the Feds). Some education payments double as tax payments, there's a credit for buying gasoline for your tractor, there's the infamous Earned Income Credit which is de facto the major element of the modern welfare state because it gives people who made very little money and are raising families multi-thousand$ checks.

So my friend, if Denmark has managed to make it's income tax system more complicated then the US I will be both extremely disappointed and impressed.

Re:Half way there

[NicBenjamin]

BTW: You know that controversy over Obamacare? The way it works is that the federal government set up an insurance market, and even the poorest can afford to buy insurance because of Federal subsidies. You know how they do the subsidy? You tell the marketplace how much you think you'll make. It runs an algorithm for how much you can afford to pay, and then calculates the subsidy necessary for insurance to be affordable.

That subsidy is an income tax credit. Which you have to repay if you got a raise and didn't report it to the exchange so they could cut your subsidy a little, or if you got fired and still made your payments you might get some money back.

And the US income tax system is so ridiculously complex and stupid that I was able to fill a huge post on the topic without thinking about Obamacare.

Ripple Effect

[Virtucon]

You know we have to stop using SSN's for everything. It's time to have a different system. The Anthem hacking is now another example of how vulnerable we are and how we let these companies skate when caught. It's time that PII needs to be held in strictest confidence and with financial penalties awarded to the victims of these stupid attacks. Right now if the FTC slaps them on the wrists and fines them it all goes to the Feds. Fuck that! If I'm a victim of your mishandling of my PII you owe me bitches! Pay Up!

Re:Ripple Effect

[Anonymous Coward]

So, people who commit tax fraud can get more money than they're entitled to from the government? Shocking!

Re:Ripple Effect

[whoever57]

This is over-hyped BS.

Yes, the amnestied immigrant may get some tax credits, based on his/her newly-aquired SSN. However his/her foreign children won't be able to get a SSN, without which one cannot claim EITC.

So, yes, there are probably a few cases where these large tax credits will be available, but not the vast numbers breathlessly reported.

Re:Ripple Effect

[TheGratefulNet]

that blog you linked to quotes this guy:

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

and, well, he's not exactly a trustable source, given that:

In announcing his Senate candidacy, Sasse expressed strong opposition to the Affordable Care Act (ACA, a.k.a. "Obamacare"), describing himself as "the anti-Obamacare candidate"

so, got any REPUTABLE sources for this?

an 'anti obamacare' guy is not what I would call a trusted source, mate.

Re:Ripple Effect

[TheGratefulNet]

neocon bullshit website.

yeah, we'll listen to that....

Re:Ripple Effect

[zidium]

But the main point is that illegal aliens who have kids in America ARE NOT COMMITTING TAX FRAUD ANYMORE!

They are literally being handed potentially TWENTY biLLION dollars ANNUALLY, just for being here ,ILLEGALLY and having kids they can't afford. All at $6,000 a pop per mother ($2,000 per kid up to 3). TIMES FOUR for the four years they can backdate!

Re:Ripple Effect

[zidium]

Read the article. Several senators are testifying in Congress that you are wrong.

Re:Ripple Effect

[zidium]

http://news.investors.com/ibd-...

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, an unindicted co-conspirator in the cover-up of the IRS Tea Party targeting by Lois Lerner, confirmed Tuesday in a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee that an illegal alien who filed tax returns using Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) will be eligible to amend the returns for the three prior years to collect the EITC once he or she obtains a valid Social Security number.

He's on the opposite side of the political spectrum as the source you have issues with, and is an authority in places ot know such things, *and* he said this stuff under oath to Congress.

Re:Ripple Effect

[TheRealMindChild]

Wow. Senators have never lied or been flat out ignorant when testifying before congress /s

Re:Ripple Effect

[whoever57]

He's on the opposite side of the political spectrum as the source you have issues with, and is an authority in places ot know such things, *and* he said this stuff under oath to Congress.

The IRS is *very* clear on this. The children must have SSNs and must have lived in the USA. So, even if they get SSNs for the children, unless the children were actually in the USA for those years, it would still be tax fraud.

Incidentally, you clearly are concerned about the credibility of your original source, because I did not disagree with you based on the source of the information, instead, I disagreed with you on the *content* and *gasp* I compared it with the advice that the IRS and other organizations give on this topic. But I'll let you into a clue. A publication that quotes someone with "an unindicted co-conspirator in the cover-up ..." makes me suspect that the quote is not accurately portrayed.

So I looked at the page you referenced and all the commisioner stated was that amnestied aliens would be able to amend prior filings. All that stuff about kids -- that came from the (obviously biased) author of the article.

But even more, you were not able to accurately read the article, since it gives an example where the credit would be clearly fraudulent -- the claimed-for children were not in the USA.

The ACTC is a fully refundable credit of up to $1,000 per child to help working families who have children at home.

Problem is, that home may not be here, but back in Mexico, and the children claimed are often nieces and nephews in what are often rather large extended families. An investigation done in 2012 by NBC affiliate WTHR in Indianapolis found four workers claiming 20 children living in one residence, with the IRS sending these aliens tax refunds totaling $29,608. The children did not in fact reside in the United States.

Re:Ripple Effect

[Anonymous Coward]

So... opposing Obamacare makes one not 'reputable' on any other topic? Good learn where your own biases exist.

Re:Ripple Effect

[zidium]

You're going to have to submit a citation on this. I have already submitted citations on my part, and Senator Rand Paul just said today that illegals can get EITC for foreign national children, by applying for their SSNs in absentia (which *is* totally allowable).

Re:Ripple Effect

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course they haven't. It's not in the Congressional Record. Jon Kyl never said 90% of what Planned Parenthood does is abortions in front of Congress and anybody posting the video is obviously lying.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/6306481/jon_kyls_planned_parenthood_statements_stricken_from_record/

Re:Ripple Effect

[Anonymous Coward]

ITINs are also permissable just requires a little extra documentation. My I ran into while doing my taxes thought that interesting.

Re:Ripple Effect

[Anonymous Coward]

You're going to have to submit a citation on this. I have already submitted citations on my part,

This isn't WIkipedia. What you have cited are partisan comments by people with an axe to grind, plus misreading (by you) of other quotes. But here is what the IRS says on the topic.

Residency Test


Your child must have lived with you, or your spouse if you file a joint return, in the United States for more than half of the year.

And for the proposition (I assume yours) that an ITIN is sufficient: No it isn't:

Yes. The taxpayer, the spouse (if filing jointly) and any qualifying child listed on Schedule EIC must have valid Social Security numbers (SSNs) valid for employment and issued by the Social Security Administration. You cannot claim EITC using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) or Adoption Taxpayer Identification Number (ATIN) issued by IRS.

Rand Paul, who you gleefully quote, was talking about fraud and his numbers are grossly exaggerated

So you are wrong about your central claim (that the amnestied aliens will be able to lawfully claim EITC for non-resident children) and wrong on the size of the problem -- even looking at fraud.

So now it's time for some ad hominem. Rand Paul is not a reliable source of information -- just look at what he recently said about vaccines. I am going to make the unsupported claim that non-resident children of amnestied aliens cannot legally get SSNs. Whatever the truth is on SSNs, it's not legal for them to claim EITC for non-resident children. You haven't provided a reliable citation for your position, while I have provided one for my position.

Go back to your tea party meeting. It's people like you who are driving the increasing disparity of wealth in this country and the stagnation of incomes for anyone except the top 0.1%.

It's clear that your comprehension skills are poor, so I should probably not expect you to understand what is really going on.

Re:Ripple Effect

[lgw]

Wow, you still believe in Obamacare, even after it's architect bragged that it was a lie designed to fool the gullible America voter? No wonder he felt safe in bragging.

So let's see if I have this right...

[burtosis]

The government will scrutinize my returns for the last five years and screw me if I make one tiny mistake. Then proceed to not even bother to check that they are sending the return to the right person period? Only after dozens of people file criminal complaints to they get off their butt and check?

Re:So let's see if I have this right...

[NicBenjamin]

Strictly speaking this is the way the vast majority of Americans want it.

They want their refunds within days of filing, and since everybody files within the same few months (i.e.: late Jan to Mid-April), and most actually file within the same few weeks (late Jan and easy Feb), that means checking tens of millions identities a day. It would be possible to make a system that could do this, but it would be cost-prohibitive. So they do obvious bullshit error-checking (i.e.: are your W2s as reported the ones they have on record? do all SSNs, names, and birthdays match? does the bank account you're having direct deposit go to belong to someone on the return?), and deal with fraud after the fact.

Re:So let's see if I have this right...

[NicBenjamin]

BTW: The Feds won't screw you if the mistake is tiny. If you put something on the wrong line, but the answer you end up with is correct, they may make you back-up your claims, but they literally can't screw you. You paid your taxes, on-time, so there's no back-taxes for them to collect, which means the penalty and interest are applied to $0.

If your mistake is small, and it's in the IRS favor, they may fix it and send you a check. Several tax pros I know have neglected to report certain small tax credits (like the Saver's Credit, where the government sends people money to reward them putting money into IRAs) because the money the client got from the IRS would be less then the cost of filling out the forms necessary to claim the credit (most tax places charge buy the form). It's not unusual for their clients to get a check for the unclaimed credit.

If it's small and it's in your favor you're paying the mistake, plus penalties and interest. But they're capped, and directly proportional to the magnitude of the mistake.

Thieves from Asia can file your tax return

[rmdingler]

The social security number is used at every school you went to, every job you've had, every credit account you ever held...that is way more exposure than the cleverest security can ever defend.

Do we need to implement a password system that doesn't include a pet's name for our SSN's verification?

Re:Thieves from Asia can file your tax return

[Bigbutt]

The worst part is when I was in the military back in the 70's, you were instructed to mark your personal gear. Either etched or written. My gaming books from back then all have my SSN written on the inside cover with my full name should it get lost.

[John]

Re:Thieves from Asia can file your tax return

[stox]

Back in the "Good Old Days" Social Security cards were clearly marked as "DO NOT USE FOR IDENTIFICATION"

Sadly, when Emperor Reagan was elected, we forgot all that.

Prior to that, it was illegal to use your SSN for identification, outside of the military.

I think it was the military who pioneered the use of an SSN as an ID.

Re:Thieves from Asia can file your tax return

[antdude]

Even utilitites and other services require it. :( Also for those Q&As, don't enter real data.

Re:Thieves from Asia can file your tax return

[amxcoder]

Followed next by many universities and colleges. At least most employers, while they have your SSN for legitimate reasons (W2/1099 filing) at least have the courtesy in most cases to assign you an Employee number to use within the company.

Intuit has a history of ABUSE.

[Anonymous Coward]

There are 2,095 negative 1-star reviews on Amazon of Intuit's TurboTax Deluxe tax preparation software. Why? Because, without telling customers, Intuit removed important functions from TurboTax Deluxe.

Most helpful review: "The Deluxe version does not allow you to file Schedule D or E. ..."

Most helpful critical review: "I hate being gouged, and I hate weasel word explanations even more... I am angry about the deliberate disabling of critical features in TurboTax Deluxe. No Schedules C, D, or E."

The solution? In my opinion, the CEO of Intuit should be fired. Intuit should find a new CEO who will cure Intuit of its long-term abusiveness.

Re:Intuit has a history of ABUSE.

[zidium]

They are making things right tomorrow by upgrading every Dexluxe owner for free and putting back the features in next year's version. The CEO also gave a very sincere apology.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse...

Re:Intuit has a history of ABUSE.

[sexconker]

They are making things right tomorrow by upgrading every Dexluxe owner for free and putting back the features in next year's version. The CEO also gave a very sincere apology.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse...

They'll just try it again later.

Re:Intuit has a history of ABUSE.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bullshit. All that Republican did was spout nonsense and lies. He hates us. Because we're not wealthy like him, he thinks we should die. That is the way of his kind. If Intuit cared, they would apologize, do refunds, and/or add the features back. They are doing none of those things. Corporations are not people, but they hate us like people. They are people in that regard. They hate us.

Re:Intuit has a history of ABUSE.

[Anonymous Coward]

The solution? In my opinion, the CEO of Intuit should be fired.

Let's take it further...

1. Everyone needs to be aware that Intuit lobbied to keep our taxes expensive and complicated. Their tactics included faking bullshit grass roots support for complicated filing, (more here)

2. Although they've fought it tooth and nail, federal law still requires Intuit and others to provide tax software/form filing for free for the public. You gotta make a certain minimal adjusted gross income (which is bullshit to begin with-- this threshhold was unfortunately lowered during the Bush years-- fuck you Intuit), but there are at least 14 different free options to choose from.

Re:Intuit has a history of ABUSE.

[tipo159]

They are making things right tomorrow by upgrading every Dexluxe owner for free and putting back the features in next year's version. The CEO also gave a very sincere apology.

They are nowhere close to making it right.

I have been using TurboTax Deluxe for 15+ years without even thinking about it. I have a minimal amount of iOS app income (net about $100/year right now) so I need to file a minimal Schedule C. I bought TurboTax for 2014 a couple of weeks ago and installed it, but was waiting for W-2s, so hadn't entered any numbers yet.

A week and a half ago, Intuit and its CEO sent me e-mail with a "very sincere apology" that explained that I was eligible for $25 towards upgrading. As explained in the e-mail, they were improving the customer experience by removing functionality and it was really being done for customer benefit or something like that. I had no idea what the letter was referring to, so did a search and found that they had disabled Schedules C, D & E in TurboTax Deluxe and there had been a huge outcry.

I thought that they had disabled the wizards that walk you through the forms, but found out that I was wrong when I started entering numbers into TurboTax. I tried to select Schedule C and was told that I needed to upgrade TurboTax and that it would cost $40. Note that Intuit was only offering to reimburse $25 towards an upgrade. At that point, I removed TurboTax from my computer and returned it to Costco and bought competing tax software.

One interesting thing to note is that the product info on the Intuit web page still indicated that TurboTax Deluxe could be used to file Schedule C even though it actually could not.

Yesterday, Intuit and its CEO sent me another e-mail with a "very sincere apology" which explained the they would be reverting TurboTax Deluxe back to the way that has been for years (but, if you had already paid for an upgrade and already filed your taxes, they were still only reimbursing $25, even though the actual upgrade cost could be more). Since I now already have other tax software, I will not be taking them up on the offer.

As I said, I would just buy TurboTax every year without thinking about it and I know a lot of people who did the same. The idea to try and squeeze even more money out of people, resulting in people thinking about whether to buy their product and considering a competitor, has got to be among the worst 'penny-wise, pound-foolish' business decisions ever made.

Re:Intuit has a history of ABUSE.

[dcollins117]

There are 2,095 negative 1-star reviews on Amazon ... Because, without telling customers, Intuit removed important functions from TurboTax Deluxe.

I find great satisfaction in seeing a company lose customers, brand reputation, and a good deal of money in response to pulling a dick move like this. It gives me the sense that all is right with the world. The H&R Block software is cheaper and is not crippled in the way TurboTax is. My family has abandoned TurboTax, never to return, based on this incident.

Re:Intuit has a history of ABUSE.

[Anonymous Coward]

Intuit made the weaselly marketing decision to move some features of one of its lower-cost products to one of its higher-cost products. This is merely a run-of-the-mill, profit-motivated dick move, not all-caps ABUSE!!!!11. Yes, it was sleazy, and sneaky, and underhanded, and many people got gouged. (Many of them then received refunds, I believe.) But dude, you were not raped, tortured, or forced to listen to Michael Buble, so stop screaming ABUSE.

Re:Intuit has a history of ABUSE.

[zidium]

So your only complaint now is that you didn't get $40 instead of $25?

I checked on Amazon and Deluxe is $60 and Premier is $75. So it looks like you'd be getting money.

Re:Intuit has a history of ABUSE.

[amxcoder]

Don't know how much your paying now, or why the upgrade was $40, but I just picked up TT "Home & Business" a week or two ago for $60 at Amazon. Was the cheapest I've been able to buy it in the last 10 years.

Due to running my own software business, I have to use the Home & Bussiness version every year, and the price has only gone down over the years. When I first started buying it several years ago, it was usually around $100. Then a couple years later $90... then the last couple years I've been able to get it for $80. This year was definitely the cheapest so far at $60.

Re:Intuit has a history of ABUSE.

[amxcoder]

The big thing I don't understand from all the people that are mad and feel they got shafted is this... On every TT software box I've ever purchased, there is a nice little chart on the back that shows the different levels of the software, and the features they support. I understand that this change wasn't announced, and could have been done better, but shouldn't people bear some of the responsibility of getting the wrong version, in the fact that they didn't check the features included that are clearly marked on all the boxes? I mean yeah, TT handled it wrong, but not checking what your buying before you pay money for it is a sure fire way to LET companies of all sorts take advantage of you. *** "Batteries not included"

Re:Intuit has a history of ABUSE.

[zidium]

Me, too. TT Home & Business:

2011: $120
2012: $115
2013: $90
2014: $85
2015: $65

TT For Corporations :
2012: $150
2013: $140
2014: $135
2015: $120

Victim

[bumlike]

I am actually a victim of this. I got my W2s on the 22nd and went to file them on TurboTax, just like I have for about the last 10 years. To my surprise my claim had been approved already by the IRS. I contacted TurboTax thinking I was going to be able to resolve it with a quick phone call for them to reset my account so I could really file my taxes. They werent able to do anything and I had to contact the IRS directly along with a few other branches and my local police department. I now have to paper file along with a Identity Theft form. My refund will now take at least 180 days to process. It could really be worse than it is. I didnt lose anything, the payment to the thieves was stopped before it was paid, just a hassle at this point. And those responsible had my refund at over $1600 short! :-P

Re:Victim

[ganjadude]

1600 short? Geez, if your gonna steal someones identity, at LEAST get everything you are "entitled" to!

Re:Victim

[sexconker]

I wish someone would steal my identity and do my taxes.
(I owe money every year because I don't like giving the government interest-free loans.)

Re:Victim

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah but if you skip more than one year and still owe then you're paying penalties which is a complete waste of money. If you skip the penalties then, eventually you're going to jail.

Who the fuck cares about interest free "loans" in this market anyway. Are you telling me you're making any return whatsoever on your investments at 0.00001% return per year?

Re:Victim

[Anonymous Coward]

Who randomly skips a year?

Re:Victim

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you telling me you're making any return whatsoever on your investments at 0.00001% return per year?

Maybe he isn't a retard and doesn't consider "mattress in my room in mom's basement" to be a viable investment instrument, like you do.

Re:Victim

[amxcoder]

LOL, same here. I owe my complete tax bill each year, no refunds for me. I don't even file quarterly returns, because the penalty for not doing so (~$100) is less than the interest I'll make keeping it in savings all year long + the amount of time and effort to do the quarterly returns.

While it's not fun paying a big lump sum in full each year, I do take satisfaction in knowing I'm not giving the government an interest free loan all year long. And I'm keeping control of my money and only paying them what I owe and nothing more. I kinda laughed inside the year that many people got issued IOU vouchers from the IRS for their returns, knowing that I wasn't getting screwed out of getting my own money back.

Not to mention, when you pay in full each year, you quickly realize 2 things, first is how much you really are paying in taxes, and secondly how retarded most people sound/behave when they are getting their own money refunded to them. I've never seen someone take something back to a store and get all happy and brag about how they are getting their money refunded to them, yet people do every year when it comes to the money that was taken from them all year. Again, I chuckle inside and think to myself, "you DO realize that was YOUR money to begin with right?". With the current system of automatic payroll withholding, I think this is the plan of the IRS... to make a normal person excited that they loaned the government money without interest, and aren't getting it back until after they fill out a bunch of forms to prove that they should get it back.

Of course Utah noticed

[Anonymous Coward]

Utah has its own simple website for e-filing state taxes. It costs nothing.
There's no reason for a Utah filer to go through TurboTax or any other company.

Re:Of course Utah noticed

[NicBenjamin]

If you've done the data entry for the Federal form on Turbotax, not doing it again is a reason to not bother with Utah's site. Especially since Turbotax does not charge for the state if you've got an EZ.

Of course the number of people who actually have an EZ is much lower then the number of people who think they have an EZ (I actually met a woman with an annuity who thought she had the cheap tax form, sorry lady), and their business model is to lure people into answering a bunch of questions that disqualify them from the 1040EZ and then surprising them with a larger fee, but if you're a filer who actually file an EZ through Turbotax, it's fairly silly to go to Utah's site.

Re:Of course Utah noticed

[Anonymous Coward]

Add to that Free File Fillable forms for Federal tax return, the IRS' own free filing service. It likewise costs nothing and can be used by many. While not guided, if you know how to do your taxes yourself and can enter the data for electronic filing, there's another reason for many not to not need TurboTax or any other company.

Re:Of course Utah noticed

[amxcoder]

State is usually included with TT even if you don't have an EZ. It's free if you print them, they usually only charge more for state if you need more than one state add-on or if you are e-filing. You can always print and mail in for free.

Intuit's crooked lobbying

[MillionthMonkey]

Intuit is notorious for lobbying politicians to make tax filing complicated for anyone not using TurboTax.

Re:Intuit's crooked lobbying

[Virtucon]

It was complicated long before Intuit came into being.

Convenience vs. Security

[Holistic Missile]

I've been using H&R Block's TaxCut software for years, and in the last couple of years or so, I noticed a new option to retrieve your W-2 information for you. Since most companies use a payroll service, the software can actually find and retrieve your W-2 information and fill it in for you. I didn't even have to know who my employer's payroll service is, which is stupid for them not to require - it's on every check stub. I don't remember if it did any authentication offhand (it was a year ago!). If, through ID theft, someone has your name, SSN, etc., they could easily fill this information in on a bogus return they are filing. Then, as mentioned in another post, no attempt is made to verify that the bank account the refund is being deposited in actually belongs to the taxpayer. On second thought, I guess the ID thief could just open an account in your name to receive the refund in.

Re:Convenience vs. Security

[NicBenjamin]

Question: How old are you?

I'm 34 and I don't even know what color paper my paystub is. Direct Deposit to a checking account attached to a debit card means I literally haven't seen a pay stub in four years. And I have two jobs. I vaguely recall Home Depots are blue, but I honestly have no fucking clue what color the ones from H and R Block are.

Which means that if you're using that as a security measure you've pissed off a massive section of your customer base.

I agree that if customers valued their security more highly it would be fairly simple to make tax-based identity theft harder. For example, if you simply said "all refunds will be sent out on the First of May" then a lot of it would disappear because there'd be time for IRS bureaucrats to go over cases where two people filed the same name/SSN/etc., and it would generally be easy to tell the real return. But if you did that voters would howl to Congressman.

Re:Convenience vs. Security

[ShaunC]

Which means that if you're using that as a security measure you've pissed off a massive section of your customer base.

It's still required by law that the W2 be mailed out, so that's where the payroll company's name (or a ten-digit identifier that's also supplied to the IRS, or any of a number of other security features) could go. For what it's worth, I'm 35 and will always request paper paychecks as long as they're an option.

Re:Convenience vs. Security

[Holistic Missile]

48. I guess I used an out-dated term! Of course, I have direct deposit, and we can access our pay stubs through our portal to ADP. They are PDF files that look exactly like they did when we received paper ones each week, years ago. They keep 3 years' worth of them (and W-2's) online for the employees to access directly. Older ones have to be requested via a rep. We get W-2's mailed to us, but that's it. Everything else is available online. We also schedule PTO and vacation days online through the portal.

The point of my original post was that we have the convenience of not needing to enter our W-2 information (or even have the document in hand), at the expense of a security hole that can be exploited if someone has the right information, which is just run-of-the-mill personal identification information that we all give to many institutions, some of which have been or will be breached.

Re:Convenience vs. Security

[NicBenjamin]

It's required by law that there be an option to receive a W2 by mail, not that it actually be sent out. I personally have not been offered a physical copy of a 2 from an employer in years because I made a point of checking the e-everything box. I sincerely hope nobody's tried to physically mail me one, because my address from Feb '11 to Aug of '14 was a Boarding House where some incredibly sketchy people had access to the mail.

You can add all the security features you want, the core problem is that they will get worked around by the massive demand for extremely quick tax refunds until the identity-theft problem gets serious enough that people actually care. This little thread was actually started because one security feature (the employer id number that's on every W2) can now be easily compromised by anyone who has access to enough personal info to get into an H and R Block account.

Re:Convenience vs. Security

[NicBenjamin]

There's dozens and dozens of things that the IRS/companies/tax places/etc. could do to make taxes more secure. W2 info is just the tip of the iceberg. In many cases it's actually irrelevant, because you can make the numbers up and file on Jan 20th, but the IRS will not have most W2s until closer to the W2 deadline of the 31st. You've got a decent chance of getting the money and being gone before anyone's the wiser.

As a country, most Americans strongly prefer quicker refunds, which means that any security feature that takes time (and almost all of the most effective ones take at least some time) is a non-starter. It will be worked around by the magic of the combined powers of the free market and democracy, because the American people would rather have a significant proportion of tax returns be fraudulent then wait an extra 48 hours for their god-given refunds.

Re:Convenience vs. Security

[Chaos Incarnate]

If you hold back refunds until the first of May, people won't bother to file until April 14th; there's no incentive to file sooner like there is now. So then you're trying to do more work in that tight window.

Re:Convenience vs. Security

[NicBenjamin]

Number one, you'd still get people doing their taxes early. Believe me, I work in a tax office and we get people before the first filing day (the 20th this year). Some of them even have a good reason (i.e.: a surprising number of anti-poverty charities require a 1040 to prove you're poor). Moreover if you did this places like my office would probably extend their loan eligibility through the 15th, which means a lot of people who need $500 NOW and can't wait until May would file in January or February.

Number two, if everybody's form is in the system before it pays out a lot of the automated defenses work a lot better. For example right now if I get your Social and your birthday I can file your taxes and get your refund before the IRS gets a single W2 from your employer. If I get your kid's Social and name I can get several thousand by filing for EIC/child tax credit/etc. fraudulently, and then you either have to fight it with the IRS (and delay your refund until a human has time to look into it AFTER tax season), or just let yourself (and the kid, for whom you are paying 100% of the expenses, while the cheat -- frequently a relative -- goes to Vegas) be fucked over. I have had more then one client whose needed money NOW so badly that they let some asshole use one of their kid's social every year.

If we delayed that payment until May then the IRS computer knows "OK we've got two tax returns for this guy, and only this one is accurate, so the fraudster gets no money." In more difficult cases the refund could be delayed until a human has time to do an audit. It would also force people to fight for their kids once, which would mean that instead of 18 years of not-enough-trefund-to-cover-childcare you'd get delayed once and then 18 years of proper refund.

BTW, the main point of that little comment wasn't to solve the problem, but to illustrate that if Americans really wanted to solve the problem there are a whole host of things they could do that delay their refunds but reduce fraud.

Re:Convenience vs. Security

[amxcoder]

Everyone is talking about delaying refunds until later. Here's the problem, it's your money, you should get it back as soon as you can. How would a bank take it if they loaned you money at 0% interest, and when your payment came due, you handed them a book of convoluted formulas and complex word problems, and told them they needed to fill out half a dozen forms correctly and you'll make sure they're correct and then hold your loan payment from them for several months to make sure that they are the correct bank to which you owe the money to? I think the bank would throw a fit, and so should any taxpayer if the IRS tries this for the same reason.

The REAL solution to this problem, and others, is to STOP automatic withholding, and make everyone cut a check to the IRS at the end of the tax year for what they owe. No refunds, you keep your money until then. There would be no room for fraudulent filings anymore. Plus the government would have to wait until their "payday" like every other person in our country does and maybe have to actually create and balance a budget since they wouldn't know how much they're going to get, and would have to have savings to cover the entire year of expenses until next tax season.

Any argument about how people would not be able to come up with the money needed at the end of the year, are BS, as they are already comming up with money now as it is, if they spend too much and can't come up with it at the end of the year, it's due to their own lack of responsibility. This scenario would also help lower income families as well, as they would keep their entire paycheck month-to-month rather than having some of it withheld and then returned later.

And...semi-obsolete already.

[CrimsonAvenger]

As of about two hours ago, Turbo-Tax is again processing State Tax Returns....

Re:And...semi-obsolete already.

[Anonymous Coward]

No source? Really? Right now it's all hearsay.

Re:And...semi-obsolete already.

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2015/02/06/turbotax-state-filings-halted/22979519/

Intuit is NOT making things right! Cost: 4 cents.

[Futurepower(R)]

Intuit is NOT making things completely right! Intuit is apparently just reducing the amount of abuse. See this explanation by an Intuit VP on Amazon:

"... returning customers who have already upgraded to Premier or Home & Business, we are continuing to offer $25 cash back through April 20."

Apparently only customers who know about the rebate will get money back; that may be a very small percentage. Many customers paid $30 extra, so Intuit will still make $5 extra for tricking customers. Some customers have automatic extensions of time to file, so they won't get the "$25 cash back", because they will file after April 20.

See this Amazon review: **UPDATE -- IT'S EVEN WORSE**. Quote: " Even in the high-priced Premier version, Schedule C is crippled -- limited to $100 of deductions in a couple of expense categories. I.e. only good for a tiny hobby business, and maybe not even that. So now having forced me to Premier, even that high priced product is useless to me."

See this story: Citing Tax Fraud Spike, TurboTax Suspends State E-Filings. Quote: "Cyber thieves have long sought stolen credentials for hijacked tax preparation accounts at TurboTax, H&R Block and related services."

Another quote:

"Stolen TurboTax or H&R Block credentials are cheaper and more plentiful that most people probably would imagine. According to the below-pictured well-known seller on the Dark Web forum Evolution Market, hacked accounts currently can be had for .0002 bitcoins, which works out to about 4 cents apiece."

Another:

"Unfortunately for Intuit and its users, calls for the company to support two-factor authentication have fallen on deaf ears so far, at least according to twofactorauth.org, a site that tracks which popular cloud-based services support the added security measure."

Intuit has a LONG history of abuse, of being anti-customer to make more money. Dishonest people don't later become honest, generally. This is an example of that. Dishonest people, when forced to correct their dishonesty, look for other ways to be dishonest.

If Intuit has a capable, strong board of directors, which I doubt, the board should consider getting a new CEO, and firing all the other dishonest people in Intuit top management.

This comment gives only a very short summary of what I consider to be Intuit's anti-customer behavior.

Thankfully 8,000 /' state isn't a lot

[Anonymous Coward]

It's statistically probably less than those which get lost/mishandled in the mail, so far.

Just end the madness

[reboot246]

Pass the Fair Tax at the Federal and state levels, and never pay income taxes again. It's drop dead simple and it even taxes the criminals. No favors, no loopholes, no cheating, and no tax returns!

As far as I can tell, only the government is against it. It removes too much of their power.

Re:Just end the madness

[KermodeBear]

The power to tax is the power to destroy. When all it takes is the whim of a the legislature to pass a tax...

Of course, this isn't nearly as bad as regulatory organizations that don't even have to pass a bill; executive fiat is all that is required.

Because of this, we'll never see a flat or fair tax in this country.

Re:Just end the madness

[Anonymous Coward]

Pass the Fair Tax at the Federal and state levels, and never pay income taxes again. It's drop dead simple and it even taxes the criminals. No favors, no loopholes, no cheating, and no tax returns!

Thanks for the propaganda. You haven't put any thought into this.

There will always be smuggling and black markets. The criminals will still avoid paying a lot of taxes. Since they have better access to these things than the average citizen, they'll be able to avoid sales taxes better than the average person.

Next problem: it's impossible to define the word "retail" fairly and unambiguously (even with goods, let alone services), and thus the basis for taxation under the "fair" tax is flawed from the beginning. If I'm a furniture maker, and I buy a screw for a desk I'm selling, is that retail? Is the screw a consumer good (and thus taxable as retail), or merely a part in a larger system that is the actual consumer good (and thus the screw is not taxable)? What about the metal for the screw, do we tax the sale of the metal? How about the service of converting the metal to the screw? Do we tax that as well, then tax the service of bringing the finished screw to the place of purchase, then tax the service of selling the screw? Where do we draw the line on what is taxable?

Do we tax finished goods only, or some broader category? How do we define "finished" goods? What about the home-owner that buys a screw to repair something so they can sell their house? Is that retail? Do we dare treat these differently? If so, how do we justify that?

You will inevitably end up with complex rules, leading to lots of loopholes and cheating.

Also, don't forget that "retail" sales tax systems inevitably lead to larger and larger corporations, since this type of system creates an incentive to do more "in house". Think about the consequences this has with respect to corruption in government.

This problem, incidentally, is why every transaction is -- ideally -- taxed in many tax systems (such as "VAT" systems), not just retail. In practice, of course, "every transaction" somehow always ends up including lots of exceptions (which in turn leads to loopholes and cheating).

The idea of not having favors in politics, of course, is pure delusion. There will always be corruption, the key is to limit the damage it can do.

Then there's the problem of bias against the poor. Yes, I know they get an allowance, but is it big enough to pay for things other than basic food and housing? What about the education and training they need to move themselves (or their children) out of poverty? Don't forget the need to travel for some of that education and training: taxes on gas and transportation goods and services directly affect the ability of the poor to better their lot in life. Also, many arts and crafts require a lot of hours spent using relatively expensive tools to develop proficiency, and many of these tools need to be replaced often when used hard (such as when the user is using the tool to make a living, or when the user is a novice): how do you allow for the purchase of this equipment in your "allowance"?

The poor get hit repeatedly by sales taxes as a result of the complex processes and logistics needed to get modern goods to the point of sales (even those taxes that are just "retail based" do this, as opposed to the horrific compounding effects of VAT-type taxes), and this means the allowance is hardly likely to be high enough, or to take everything into account that needs to be considered.

Failing to get the allowance right, of course, will give us a class system in which movement between classes is very difficult - a huge disaster for any rational society.

Hence, the "fair" tax will probably not be fair.

An intelligent person would realize that we have much the same problem with defining "income" -- this contributes to a lot of the complexity of income-based tax systems. A "retail" sales tax based system simply shifts the proble

MOD PARENT UP!

[Futurepower(R)]

Quote from that article, How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax 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."

Intuit has been paying government officials to try to prevent improvements that would benefit everyone, the article says.

Re:MOD PARENT UP!

[swb]

It really baffles me why the IRS doesn't have a web form for filing taxes. They have all the filed data on what you made. The only explanation that makes any sense is lobbying pressure from the tax filing industry.

Re:MOD PARENT UP!

[CrimsonAvenger]

And then there's the other explanation that makes even more sense:

The tax code is so complicated that not even the IRS actually understands it. And if THEY made mistakes on their tax software, they'd be held accountable. If a third party makes mistakes, well, not the IRS' fault you owe extra money this year....

Re:MOD PARENT UP!

[swb]

It's complex, sure, but how complex is it for the vast majority of taxpayers? Most people have pretty standardized and well-understood income sources and deductions.

Before my wife started working a lot of free-lance work, I used to do our taxes by hand (two incomes, two small stock dividends, mortgage, childcare expenses) and one year they said I overpaid and refunded something in the neighborhood of $25, every other year I was dead on and that was just from following the forms and IRS instructions.

I see no reason why the IRS couldn't handle that pretty easily and accurately. I can understand them not trying to automate truly complex investment vehicles or business taxes, but I'd also wager that people worried about those kinds of taxes would use a professional preparer anyway.

Re:MOD PARENT UP!

[amxcoder]

They might have all the filed data for what YOU made, but many people are not you. Sure, if you work in the same job all year, have no investments and made no other income in any way, and your only tax document you get is a single W2, then yes, it should be easy. Any case other than that scenario starts getting more and more complicated pretty quick.

I use H&R Block

[Sycraft-fu]

Cheaper than TT, very easy to use, and it works well. Ya I could do it myself but in addition to being a fair bit of paperwork and math (I think about 15-20 pages between federal and state in my case) I don't want to have to look up any rule changes or breaks that might apply to me and the tax software has all that programmed in. I'm way too lazy to do them by hand, and they aren't complex enough to be worth paying an accountant to do for me.

Only downside is they want more money to e-file a state return. No problem, I just print it and mail it. E-file is convenient but no big deal.

Re:TurboTax

[davester666]

And please carry on using our software for defrauding the Federal government, as they can just print more money as necessary.

That Is the way it happens here in germany

[aepervius]

Except they get the money from you every month in your pay directly so it is probably not 100% comparable to the US system. You can make a formular to get some back once per year. I easily got a few thousands back for example a few years ago.

You get a big refund?

[Anonymous Coward]

You are doing it wrong...

No need to mention the Operating System involved

[lippydude]

"Utah, the first state to reach out to Intuit, issued a notice Thursday saying the state tax commission has discovered 28 fraud attempts that "originate from data compromised through a third-party commercial tax preparation software process," as well as 8,000 returns flagged as potentially fraudulent."

So....

[King_TJ]

Given this reality, doesn't that ethically justify using only pirated copies of TurboTax to do one's taxes?

Re:So....

[mrchaotica]

Yes... but you should be doing your taxes with a spreadsheet and a PDF reader anyway, just because it works better.

about f-ing time

[Anonymous Coward]

For YEARS i got other peoples tax returns emailed to me I spent months trying to get them to stop sending me these details from fraudulently created accounts.

It took several BBB complaints and finally I had to bring the CANADIAN anti spam legislation into the picture and filed several complaints. Apparently intuit would rather send your tax information to people in foreign nations than address the problem head on and admit something may be wrong

Re:Just end the madness - link

[Anonymous Coward]

http://sti2.blogspot.com/

Taxact

[dingleberrie]

I always felt frustrated paying over 50 bucks for tax software.
I went to Taxact 8 years ago because of price (22 bucks or so for deluxe state and federal and federal efile, $19 if you buy early). I had tried turbotax and H&R block. They are all roughly equivalent.
The only negative is that they don't seem to import my stocks directly from one of my brokerages.
But it's well worth the avoided hassle of the big names, though.

I'm not avid over tax software, but I like these guys because I think they charge a fair price and don't try to screw you.
(I have no affiliations)