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What would it cost the US government to buy out the major tax prep providers? The IRS could then provide free tax estimates to a large percentage of filers, a

What would it cost the US government to buy out the major tax prep providers? The IRS could then provide free tax estimates to a large percentage of filers, and hire many former tax prep workers as IRS agents.

bombcar 3y ago
Intuit is like $125 billion and has many other divisions besides TurboTax. People just don’t care enough (a state like California could make it illegal to charge for e-filing, for example, but they don’t).
- jkaplowitz 3y ago
  The government wouldn't have to buy the rest of Intuit. They could just buy the parts necessary for filing US federal income tax returns. Intuit can't actually say no if the government is willing to use the eminent domain power. Yes, just compensation would constitutionally have to be paid, but it would be just compensation for what the government purchased, not for all of Intuit. If somehow this isn't upheld in court (though I think it would be), they could pre-arrange one or more buyers for the rest of Intuit and use the money to be paid by the other buyers for those divisions to fund what would initially be a purchase of all of Intuit. To save even more money, I wonder if they could even take a page from real estate law where easements for public benefit are sometimes purchased either through the free market or via eminent domain. Under this theory, they wouldn't even have to purchase full ownership of whatever's necessary for US filing purposes, they'd just need to purchase an easement transferring to the federal government Intuit's right to charge US citizens and resident noncitizens for US federal income tax filings via TurboTax, as well as the right to deny these groups TurboTax's US federal income tax filing services. And then the federal government would decline to exercise these two transferred rights. But yeah, I have no idea if the easement idea would hold up in court, and in any case I doubt the government would be politically willing to use eminent domain against Intuit despite indisputably having the right to do it.
nonethewiser 3y ago
The only thing that would make Intuit worse is if they were a division of the IRS.
kelnos 3y ago
I think a broader issue is that, after the purchase, those decently-well-paid Intuit employees would now be paid according to federal government salary bands, and many of them -- likely many who are critical to the operation of the company -- would quit and find a better-paying job.

bombcar 3y ago

Intuit is like $125 billion and has many other divisions besides TurboTax. People just don’t care enough (a state like California could make it illegal to charge for e-filing, for example, but they don’t).

jkaplowitz 3y ago
The government wouldn't have to buy the rest of Intuit. They could just buy the parts necessary for filing US federal income tax returns. Intuit can't actually say no if the government is willing to use the eminent domain power. Yes, just compensation would constitutionally have to be paid, but it would be just compensation for what the government purchased, not for all of Intuit. If somehow this isn't upheld in court (though I think it would be), they could pre-arrange one or more buyers for the rest of Intuit and use the money to be paid by the other buyers for those divisions to fund what would initially be a purchase of all of Intuit. To save even more money, I wonder if they could even take a page from real estate law where easements for public benefit are sometimes purchased either through the free market or via eminent domain. Under this theory, they wouldn't even have to purchase full ownership of whatever's necessary for US filing purposes, they'd just need to purchase an easement transferring to the federal government Intuit's right to charge US citizens and resident noncitizens for US federal income tax filings via TurboTax, as well as the right to deny these groups TurboTax's US federal income tax filing services. And then the federal government would decline to exercise these two transferred rights. But yeah, I have no idea if the easement idea would hold up in court, and in any case I doubt the government would be politically willing to use eminent domain against Intuit despite indisputably having the right to do it.

nonethewiser 3y ago

The only thing that would make Intuit worse is if they were a division of the IRS.

kelnos 3y ago

I think a broader issue is that, after the purchase, those decently-well-paid Intuit employees would now be paid according to federal government salary bands, and many of them -- likely many who are critical to the operation of the company -- would quit and find a better-paying job.