Slashdot Mirror
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.
If you are going to file under someone else's identity, you have to file first!
227-3517
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!
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Do we need to implement a password system that doesn't include a pet's name for our SSN's verification?
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
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.
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
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
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
Intuit is notorious for lobbying politicians to make tax filing complicated for anyone not using TurboTax.
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.
When you're dead, you don't know you're dead. It only affects the people around you. Same thing when you're stupid.
As of about two hours ago, Turbo-Tax is again processing State Tax Returns....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Most other first-world countries manage it.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
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:
.0002 bitcoins, which works out to about 4 cents apiece."
"... 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
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.
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.
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.
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!
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
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.