5 ms·

For many if not dare I say most TurboTax is among the cheapest because it is free. The fact is if your situation is simple (a W-2 and the standard deduction) t

For many if not dare I say most TurboTax is among the cheapest because it is free. The fact is if your situation is simple (a W-2 and the standard deduction) then you can get away with just about anything. The truth is the IRS doesn't send reports because this country is obsessed with deductions. Your income (which the IRS does know about) is a small factor in the entire equation. Ironically, under Trump's tax cuts, the standard deduction was made a lot larger (while removing the availability of some deductions). This pissed off the people who loved those deductions, but in the end it made the standard deduction applicable to a lot more people. If you aren't taking deductions, then you can just use any of the services for free and don't really need to worry about dark patterns.

rkk3 5y ago
> TurboTax is among the cheapest because it is free Free? Haha in what world?
- bpodgursky 5y ago
  It's free if your taxes are covered by: * W-2 income * Limited interest and dividend income reported on a 1099-INT or 1099-DIV * Claiming the standard deduction * Earned Income Tax Credit (EIC) * Child tax credits * Student Loan Interest deduction basically if you don't sell any assets, have employee stock compensation, or donate a ton of money you can file for free.
  - LynxInLA 5y ago
    Also if you aren't filing your state taxes.
  - rkk3 5y ago
    Pretty much everyone has to pay if you use turbo-tax, the "free" edition is not an IRS free file offering they don't advertise that one. There are very very very limited cases to not be hit by a "surprise" you need to upgrade and pay us from with money from your tax return. A staggering percentage of people who would have eligible to file for free under the IRS program end up paying because of the dark patterns, and the misleading marketing you for whatever reason are perpetuating. 2 years ago 37 Million people filed online who were eligible to use an IRS free file offering and only 6.8% did... [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xQQkzWhMOc&ab_channel=NetflixIsAJoke https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xQQkzWhMOc&ab_channel=Netfl... [2] https://www.propublica.org/article/turbotax-just-tricked-you-into-paying-to-file-your-taxes https://www.propublica.org/article/turbotax-just-tricked-you...
flatiron 5y ago
If you sold a single stock throughout the year you are excluded from all the free tax filing software I’ve seen. A bunch of my income is in RSUs. For us I need a VM to run TurboTax
- bpodgursky 5y ago
  I have filed with all sorts of wild overcomplicated ISO/ESPP/RSU/NSO/etc employee stock compensation and never had to use anything other than the webapp. Why do you need to run the desktop application at all?
- SilasX 5y ago
  I used FreeTaxUSA with a Wealthfront account that had stock trading. Wasn’t charged.
  - mwint 5y ago
    FreeTaxUSA is strangely under-mentioned on these threads. I’ve used it the last couple years with a complex-ish situation. Not a single complaint.
    - irrational 5y ago
      I tried it last year and really liked it.
    - SilasX 5y ago
      I initially tried it because CreditKarma had egregious errors last time, like: 1) Inverting my answer to “have you sold cryptocurrency” on the forms. 2) Silently removing decimal points (changing 8.005 to 8005 shares in the forms) 3) Persisting an entry for income after I tried to delete it and re-enter, with no way to fix it even after talking to support. 4) Having forms with an overlay “do not use”. FreeTaxUSA still refused decimal points in the forms (like in item 2) but at least warned me so I could work around it.
    - nunez 5y ago
      didn’t know about it until i browsed /r/tax
satronaut 5y ago
I remember there was a huge issue among the teachers unions that teachers wouldn't be able to deduct up to 500 dollars anymore for classroom expenses (I may have the number wrong). I was thinking, you teachers should be good at math and realize your deduction being doubled is way nicer than having that classroom supplies deduction. Also, why isn't the school paying for your expenses (but that's a whole separate conversation)
- Spivak 5y ago
  You are thinking about this wrong. When you are in a situation where you take the standard dedication then you suddenly lose the benefit of doing any tax-deductible actions. So teachers across the board were immediately disincentivized from buying school supplies because it’s effectively not tax deductible anymore. I rant about this all the time with charitable donations. Any behavior the government wants to incentivize through tax policy — charitable donations, student loan interest, IRA contributions should be credits that apply in addition to the standard deduction because otherwise there’s no incentive for most people.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - DangitBobby 5y ago
    Are you really suddenly not going to spend $500 on your students because now only $450 of it goes towards goods instead of the full $500? That doesn't really make any sense to me. Especially if the standard deduction grants you an additional $1k that you wouldn't have gotten otherwise.
    - Spivak 5y ago
      By that reasoning there was never even a point to having the deduction in the first place.
      - DangitBobby 5y ago

rkk3 5y ago

> TurboTax is among the cheapest because it is free Free? Haha in what world?

bpodgursky 5y ago
It's free if your taxes are covered by: * W-2 income * Limited interest and dividend income reported on a 1099-INT or 1099-DIV * Claiming the standard deduction * Earned Income Tax Credit (EIC) * Child tax credits * Student Loan Interest deduction basically if you don't sell any assets, have employee stock compensation, or donate a ton of money you can file for free.
- LynxInLA 5y ago
  Also if you aren't filing your state taxes.
- rkk3 5y ago
  Pretty much everyone has to pay if you use turbo-tax, the "free" edition is not an IRS free file offering they don't advertise that one. There are very very very limited cases to not be hit by a "surprise" you need to upgrade and pay us from with money from your tax return. A staggering percentage of people who would have eligible to file for free under the IRS program end up paying because of the dark patterns, and the misleading marketing you for whatever reason are perpetuating. 2 years ago 37 Million people filed online who were eligible to use an IRS free file offering and only 6.8% did... [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xQQkzWhMOc&ab_channel=NetflixIsAJoke https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xQQkzWhMOc&ab_channel=Netfl... [2] https://www.propublica.org/article/turbotax-just-tricked-you-into-paying-to-file-your-taxes https://www.propublica.org/article/turbotax-just-tricked-you...

flatiron 5y ago

If you sold a single stock throughout the year you are excluded from all the free tax filing software I’ve seen. A bunch of my income is in RSUs. For us I need a VM to run TurboTax

bpodgursky 5y ago
I have filed with all sorts of wild overcomplicated ISO/ESPP/RSU/NSO/etc employee stock compensation and never had to use anything other than the webapp. Why do you need to run the desktop application at all?
SilasX 5y ago
I used FreeTaxUSA with a Wealthfront account that had stock trading. Wasn’t charged.
- mwint 5y ago
  FreeTaxUSA is strangely under-mentioned on these threads. I’ve used it the last couple years with a complex-ish situation. Not a single complaint.
  - irrational 5y ago
    I tried it last year and really liked it.
  - SilasX 5y ago
    I initially tried it because CreditKarma had egregious errors last time, like: 1) Inverting my answer to “have you sold cryptocurrency” on the forms. 2) Silently removing decimal points (changing 8.005 to 8005 shares in the forms) 3) Persisting an entry for income after I tried to delete it and re-enter, with no way to fix it even after talking to support. 4) Having forms with an overlay “do not use”. FreeTaxUSA still refused decimal points in the forms (like in item 2) but at least warned me so I could work around it.
  - nunez 5y ago
    didn’t know about it until i browsed /r/tax

satronaut 5y ago

I remember there was a huge issue among the teachers unions that teachers wouldn't be able to deduct up to 500 dollars anymore for classroom expenses (I may have the number wrong). I was thinking, you teachers should be good at math and realize your deduction being doubled is way nicer than having that classroom supplies deduction. Also, why isn't the school paying for your expenses (but that's a whole separate conversation)

Spivak 5y ago
You are thinking about this wrong. When you are in a situation where you take the standard dedication then you suddenly lose the benefit of doing any tax-deductible actions. So teachers across the board were immediately disincentivized from buying school supplies because it’s effectively not tax deductible anymore. I rant about this all the time with charitable donations. Any behavior the government wants to incentivize through tax policy — charitable donations, student loan interest, IRA contributions should be credits that apply in addition to the standard deduction because otherwise there’s no incentive for most people.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- DangitBobby 5y ago
  Are you really suddenly not going to spend $500 on your students because now only $450 of it goes towards goods instead of the full $500? That doesn't really make any sense to me. Especially if the standard deduction grants you an additional $1k that you wouldn't have gotten otherwise.
  - Spivak 5y ago
    By that reasoning there was never even a point to having the deduction in the first place.
    - DangitBobby 5y ago