3 ms·

I used to send my tax information directly to Massachussets via their own free platform. Sometime around 2016 they discontinued it and told me to go beg someon

I used to send my tax information directly to Massachussets via their own free platform. Sometime around 2016 they discontinued it and told me to go beg someone for free service, or pay turbotax (seriously). They told me only 2% of state filers used the website. Question-- why should I have to pay for them to tell me what I owe them? If running the platform is so much money, donate to an open source consortium who will maintain it forever for a rational price.

selimthegrim 7y ago
Louisiana has a very good platform from an instate contractor. Oregon OTOH IIRC just gives you some forms you can type into. I guess given the Cover Oregon thing I shouldn’t be surprised.
- quaquaqua1 7y ago
  Oracle committed one of the largest frauds ever, $150m to not deliver what they said they would deliver, while deliberately misleading Oregon govt with statements like "it's 70% done, just give us money!"
- hakfoo 7y ago
  Arizona has semi-automated PDFs. They'll generate a large 2D barcode of the data and perform some addition, but the one most critical calculation in the form, looking up the relevant tax amount from taxable income and filing status-- is "read these tables and formulas on a seperate screen and do it yourself."
pkaye 7y ago
Same thing in California. I read they discontinued the free platform because of low use.
- clintonb 7y ago
  Seems like a chicken-egg problem. Having been a resident of CA for nearly two years, I remain amazed by the poor UX of pretty much every online system operated by the government. FTB, BART, DMV. They are all horrible! I am not surprised the usage is low. The systems are all painful to use. I would love if CA established a department along the lines of 18F (https://18f.gsa.gov/ https://18f.gsa.gov/) or USDS (https://www.usds.gov/ https://www.usds.gov/) to improve these systems.

selimthegrim 7y ago

Louisiana has a very good platform from an instate contractor. Oregon OTOH IIRC just gives you some forms you can type into. I guess given the Cover Oregon thing I shouldn’t be surprised.

quaquaqua1 7y ago
Oracle committed one of the largest frauds ever, $150m to not deliver what they said they would deliver, while deliberately misleading Oregon govt with statements like "it's 70% done, just give us money!"
hakfoo 7y ago
Arizona has semi-automated PDFs. They'll generate a large 2D barcode of the data and perform some addition, but the one most critical calculation in the form, looking up the relevant tax amount from taxable income and filing status-- is "read these tables and formulas on a seperate screen and do it yourself."

pkaye 7y ago

Same thing in California. I read they discontinued the free platform because of low use.

clintonb 7y ago
Seems like a chicken-egg problem. Having been a resident of CA for nearly two years, I remain amazed by the poor UX of pretty much every online system operated by the government. FTB, BART, DMV. They are all horrible! I am not surprised the usage is low. The systems are all painful to use. I would love if CA established a department along the lines of 18F (https://18f.gsa.gov/ https://18f.gsa.gov/) or USDS (https://www.usds.gov/ https://www.usds.gov/) to improve these systems.