5 ms·

This is exactly why I always used to pay extra for the TurboTax desktop edition (I say "used to" because I ended up ditching TurboTax entirely a couple years ag

by NickM 8y ago

This is exactly why I always used to pay extra for the TurboTax desktop edition (I say "used to" because I ended up ditching TurboTax entirely a couple years ago, but that's another story). It's worth it to me to pay a little extra to reduce the number of entities that have this kind of data stored, and it appears that bet has paid off in this case.

iamsmooney 8y ago
Does the desktop edition not utilize the server side logic that might have these accounts? I'm unfamiliar with that product and actually curious.
- pwg 8y ago
  The desktop editions are supposed to run locally, and save data locally [1]. But, one quirk many may not be aware of, even with 'desktop' versions, is if one e-files, the data follows this path: Desktop -> Intuit (or other software) servers -> IRS So to avoid a copy of one's tax data being stored on the servers of the software prep. company, one has to print and file via. paper forms. [1] I realize this does not mean it is not silently uploading the data in the background somewhere to their servers anyway, but the 'web' version is guaranteed to be storing the data on their servers. But I do hope with the number of users using these packages that if this were to happen, someone would notice and sound the alarm.
tacostakohashi 8y ago
What did you replace it with? I have used it for 5 odd years, but it's really starting to annoy me now. I'm seriously considering trying to find a professional that can handle everything for, say $500/year.
- technofiend 8y ago
  Don't know about Nick but I switched to taxcut after the turbotax C-Dilla kerfuffle. No complaints so far.
- Rebelgecko 8y ago
  Because I'm paranoid, I usually use Turbotax then do a sanity check by filling the paperwork out by hand. My return is probably slightly more complicated than the average one since 90% of people don't even itemize, but I can still do everything in an afternoon. Unless you have a particularly gnarly tax situation (own a business, exercising stock options, etc) it may be doable to take care of it yourself and save $500. Even if that $500 is a write-off :)
  - mjevans 8y ago
    90%+ don't itemize because, we tried it, some of us for a couple years, and realize that we've been spending 10s or even 100s of hours of time keeping records, feeding them in to the tax software and then get told... Taking the standard deduction (all your work, charitable donations, and other itemizable items still don't cross this threshold). It's really annoying that taxes are even the way they are, it's all just a huge, convoluted mess. For something like 95%+ of the US the government already knows your earnings (W2/etc), banking (INT-whatever), and any brokerage/etc stuff. The only reason the IRS doesn't send a pre-filled out form that says "this is what we believe is owed to whom, - please pay / cash the check, or fill out taxes manually to report where you think we missed data" is PRECISELY because HR Block and Intuit (Turbo Tax) lobby for complicated taxes and no government automation.
    - Rebelgecko 8y ago
      Yeah, it'll definitely depend on your personal situation. When I itemized last year I think I only need to grab 3 documents (W-2 which of course I already had, 1098 with my mortgage interest + property tax, and a charity receipt). If you're itemizing for medical bills or if you donate to many different charities I can see how the paperwork adds up. Maybe you already know this, but the "prefilled form form the IRS" is similar to how a lot of countries do their taxes. From what I've heard the US uses tax writeoffs to influence people's behavior more than other countries do, so I wonder if that approach would lead to fewer people taking certain deductions.
    - smkellat 8y ago
      Things generally not known by the government: deductions & credits you are eligible to take, any changes to your marital status, changes to your address. Often your government cannot find you, has no idea if you're still single/married/widow, and doesn't have the data for credit eligibility. Besides, you're also assuming perfectly accurate reporting of all data elements on income reporting documents by all payers and employers. We don't even have that now. It is a nice idea but in practice it would just overcomplicate things. Changing up the Internal Revenue Code is a better way forward.
- NickM 8y ago
  I started using Free File Fillable Forms. It's a refreshingly simple site run by the IRS that lets you fill out all the standard tax return forms in your browser and file them directly. It helps with a few small things, like doing basic math for you e.g. when a particular row is supposed to contain the sum of several other rows, but that's pretty much it. At the end of the filing season, they delete all accounts and data contained on the site, so I mean technically somebody could still hack them I suppose, but at least the attack window is much smaller than in the case of something like TurboTax where they store all your data forever. The first time around, it's a little bit of a pain to figure out what forms you need to attach and such, but it's really not that hard if you read the instructions for the forms and just follow the directions. If you're doing something complex like running a business and dealing with depreciable property or calculating AMT, it gets a little hairy, but even then I've generally been able to figure things out by just reading through the free publications that the IRS puts up on the web. I also like the sense of deeper understanding that I get from seeing how everything is being calculated, instead of just answering a bunch of questions and then having an algorithm spit out a number for my refund.
  - somacert 8y ago
    Not run by the irs. whois freefilefillableforms.com Domain Name: FREEFILEFILLABLEFORMS.COM Registry Domain ID: 1532523225_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com http://www.godaddy.com Updated Date: 2017-12-12T17:27:56Z Creation Date: 2008-12-11T19:53:30Z Registry Expiry Date: 2019-12-11T19:53:30Z Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC Registrar IANA ID: 146 Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@godaddy.com Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: 480-624-2505 Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited Name Server: DNS1.QUICKEN.COM Name Server: DNS2.QUICKEN.COM Name Server: DNS3.INTUIT.COM Name Server: DNS4.INTUIT.COM DNSSEC: unsigned URL of the ICANN Whois Inaccuracy Complaint Form: https://www.icann.org/wicf/ https://www.icann.org/wicf/ You are sending your data to Intuit. Personally, I am a bit pissed that the IRS, a government organization with the sole purpose of collecting taxes, has no method for me to submit my tax return to them via the internet.

by NickM 8y ago

iamsmooney 8y ago

Does the desktop edition not utilize the server side logic that might have these accounts? I'm unfamiliar with that product and actually curious.

pwg 8y ago
The desktop editions are supposed to run locally, and save data locally [1]. But, one quirk many may not be aware of, even with 'desktop' versions, is if one e-files, the data follows this path: Desktop -> Intuit (or other software) servers -> IRS So to avoid a copy of one's tax data being stored on the servers of the software prep. company, one has to print and file via. paper forms. [1] I realize this does not mean it is not silently uploading the data in the background somewhere to their servers anyway, but the 'web' version is guaranteed to be storing the data on their servers. But I do hope with the number of users using these packages that if this were to happen, someone would notice and sound the alarm.

tacostakohashi 8y ago

What did you replace it with? I have used it for 5 odd years, but it's really starting to annoy me now. I'm seriously considering trying to find a professional that can handle everything for, say $500/year.

technofiend 8y ago
Don't know about Nick but I switched to taxcut after the turbotax C-Dilla kerfuffle. No complaints so far.
Rebelgecko 8y ago
Because I'm paranoid, I usually use Turbotax then do a sanity check by filling the paperwork out by hand. My return is probably slightly more complicated than the average one since 90% of people don't even itemize, but I can still do everything in an afternoon. Unless you have a particularly gnarly tax situation (own a business, exercising stock options, etc) it may be doable to take care of it yourself and save $500. Even if that $500 is a write-off :)
- mjevans 8y ago
  90%+ don't itemize because, we tried it, some of us for a couple years, and realize that we've been spending 10s or even 100s of hours of time keeping records, feeding them in to the tax software and then get told... Taking the standard deduction (all your work, charitable donations, and other itemizable items still don't cross this threshold). It's really annoying that taxes are even the way they are, it's all just a huge, convoluted mess. For something like 95%+ of the US the government already knows your earnings (W2/etc), banking (INT-whatever), and any brokerage/etc stuff. The only reason the IRS doesn't send a pre-filled out form that says "this is what we believe is owed to whom, - please pay / cash the check, or fill out taxes manually to report where you think we missed data" is PRECISELY because HR Block and Intuit (Turbo Tax) lobby for complicated taxes and no government automation.
  - Rebelgecko 8y ago
    Yeah, it'll definitely depend on your personal situation. When I itemized last year I think I only need to grab 3 documents (W-2 which of course I already had, 1098 with my mortgage interest + property tax, and a charity receipt). If you're itemizing for medical bills or if you donate to many different charities I can see how the paperwork adds up. Maybe you already know this, but the "prefilled form form the IRS" is similar to how a lot of countries do their taxes. From what I've heard the US uses tax writeoffs to influence people's behavior more than other countries do, so I wonder if that approach would lead to fewer people taking certain deductions.
  - smkellat 8y ago
    Things generally not known by the government: deductions & credits you are eligible to take, any changes to your marital status, changes to your address. Often your government cannot find you, has no idea if you're still single/married/widow, and doesn't have the data for credit eligibility. Besides, you're also assuming perfectly accurate reporting of all data elements on income reporting documents by all payers and employers. We don't even have that now. It is a nice idea but in practice it would just overcomplicate things. Changing up the Internal Revenue Code is a better way forward.
NickM 8y ago
I started using Free File Fillable Forms. It's a refreshingly simple site run by the IRS that lets you fill out all the standard tax return forms in your browser and file them directly. It helps with a few small things, like doing basic math for you e.g. when a particular row is supposed to contain the sum of several other rows, but that's pretty much it. At the end of the filing season, they delete all accounts and data contained on the site, so I mean technically somebody could still hack them I suppose, but at least the attack window is much smaller than in the case of something like TurboTax where they store all your data forever. The first time around, it's a little bit of a pain to figure out what forms you need to attach and such, but it's really not that hard if you read the instructions for the forms and just follow the directions. If you're doing something complex like running a business and dealing with depreciable property or calculating AMT, it gets a little hairy, but even then I've generally been able to figure things out by just reading through the free publications that the IRS puts up on the web. I also like the sense of deeper understanding that I get from seeing how everything is being calculated, instead of just answering a bunch of questions and then having an algorithm spit out a number for my refund.
- somacert 8y ago
  Not run by the irs. whois freefilefillableforms.com Domain Name: FREEFILEFILLABLEFORMS.COM Registry Domain ID: 1532523225_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com http://www.godaddy.com Updated Date: 2017-12-12T17:27:56Z Creation Date: 2008-12-11T19:53:30Z Registry Expiry Date: 2019-12-11T19:53:30Z Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC Registrar IANA ID: 146 Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@godaddy.com Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: 480-624-2505 Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited Name Server: DNS1.QUICKEN.COM Name Server: DNS2.QUICKEN.COM Name Server: DNS3.INTUIT.COM Name Server: DNS4.INTUIT.COM DNSSEC: unsigned URL of the ICANN Whois Inaccuracy Complaint Form: https://www.icann.org/wicf/ https://www.icann.org/wicf/ You are sending your data to Intuit. Personally, I am a bit pissed that the IRS, a government organization with the sole purpose of collecting taxes, has no method for me to submit my tax return to them via the internet.