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> A direct-to-IRS e-file system is wholly redundant and is nothing more than a solution in search of a problem," said Rick Heineman, a spokesman for Intuit, the

> A direct-to-IRS e-file system is wholly redundant and is nothing more than a solution in search of a problem," said Rick Heineman, a spokesman for Intuit, the company behind TurboTax. "That solution will unnecessarily cost taxpayers billions of dollars and especially harm the most vulnerable Americans." Extraordinary that he could say that sentence with what I assume was a straight face.

pcurve 3y ago
Just a paid shill with no credibility. Reminds me of David Lereah who was the spokesperson for National Association of Realtors during the biggest housing bubble who claimed there was no bubble.
- toomuchtodo 3y ago
  He could do this job poorly from the beach collecting a check until moving on to the next corporate behemoth needing to shovel dreck to the masses. I encourage him to do so while the policy ratchet gets pulled forward and IRS gains this capability. Just look the other way while the lives of 150 million+ taxpayers gets improved ever so slightly.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
mttjj 3y ago
Exactly. I read that statement and now I think I need to go to the ER because I strained my eyes from rolling them so hard. I'm curious what he means by this solution harming vulnerable Americans. Are they the same vulnerable Americans that TurboTax tricked into paying for their product after enticing them in with promises of "completely free filing"?
- anaganisk 3y ago
  Nah, it's the shareholders and execs of TurboTax and the likes. How are they supposed to afford another Yacht.
RajT88 3y ago
On some counts, he is not wrong. It will cost taxpayers billions of dollars. Those billions of dollars will be well spent, and may be a net 0 cost for taxpayers after the savings on eFiling. This is a revocation of the license to print money by the tax prep industry.
- dartharva 3y ago
  "Billions of dollars"??
- digging 3y ago
  I am always intensely skeptical of the phrase "cost the taxpayers" when presented as a pure loss. It is almost always the opposite. It's like saying "Exercise costs a person energy and nutrients." Well, no shit, but you get more value out of it than you input in the form of burned calories and muscle strain.
  - throwaway4220 3y ago
    Really well put. It costs the taxpayers trillions of dollars to support the United States.
- whiplash451 3y ago
  Billions of dollars is a massive overestimate. It will indeed cost dozens of millions, but billions? Come on. We're not building the F-35 here.
  - DigiDigiorno 3y ago
    Look up the cost of the healthcare.gov website project* People complain about government contractor costs for a reason *Last I checked it was north of a billion in 2014 dollars
    - toomuchtodo 3y ago
      Great example. It was the genesis of the US Digital Service and 18F. Complaints are valid, but so should be recognition that the government took rapid action to course correct. Promises made, promises kept. https://www.usds.gov/report-to-congress/2016/healthcare-dot-gov/ https://www.usds.gov/report-to-congress/2016/healthcare-dot-... (US Digital Service: Stabilizing and Improving HealthCare.gov) https://archive.is/Boysy https://archive.is/Boysy (Washington Post: White House launches ‘U.S. Digital Service,’ with HealthCare.gov fixer at the helm) https://www.usds.gov/report-to-congress/2016/projects/ https://www.usds.gov/report-to-congress/2016/projects/ https://www.itdashboard.gov/reports https://www.itdashboard.gov/reports And a project close to my heart as an identity/auth wonk: https://login.gov https://login.gov
foobarian 3y ago
"A fence around the chicken coop is wholly redundant and is nothing more than a solution in search of a problem," said Sly the Fox. "It will unnecessarily cost the farmer thousands of dollars and especially harm the most vulnerable chickens."
- noisy_boy 3y ago
  More like an escape door in the coop; the big-government-hating, freedom-loving chickens still can choose to stay in the coop.
latchkey 3y ago
> Rick Heineman https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickheineman/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickheineman/ https://theorg.com/org/intuit/org-chart/rick-heineman https://theorg.com/org/intuit/org-chart/rick-heineman
omginternets 3y ago
Yes, TurboTax is indeed redundant.
FpUser 3y ago
>"Extraordinary that he could say that sentence with what I assume was a straight face." If you can not lie and twist the facts you will not become politician / spokesman / etc.
jcranmer 3y ago
There are about ~160 million people who need to file taxes each year. TurboTax for each year costs something like $40-150 depending on how complex a version you need. If it costs billions of dollars to role out a free system that's as good as TurboTax, that'll still pay for the cost of TurboTax or similar software within a few years at the longest.
- bradleyjg 3y ago
  Much better options than TurboTax already exist. I don’t know that a new one, even written by the government, will make a huge dent.
- adventured 3y ago
  Just for reference sake in this thread, TurboTax has around 40 million users each tax year. Around half of taxpayers use tools to file on their own. So they have around 1/4 of personal filings, and half the do-it-yourself market. Most of Intuit's business is sheltered from the hit it will take when the IRS completes this system. They'll probably lose a couple billion in sales off the top (out of $13.6 billion the past four quarters). You could probably take away 3/4 of their entire individual tax prep business and their overall business would still be larger than it was in 2020. I'll be interested to see if it pops the bubbly valuation the stock is carrying (~60 times earnings).
riazrizvi 3y ago
Straight face? Easy. Everyone has to pay the rent, this guy is no exception.
rc_mob 3y ago
all Republicans and a few corporate Democrats will still fall in line and do what he says.

pcurve 3y ago

Just a paid shill with no credibility. Reminds me of David Lereah who was the spokesperson for National Association of Realtors during the biggest housing bubble who claimed there was no bubble.

toomuchtodo 3y ago
He could do this job poorly from the beach collecting a check until moving on to the next corporate behemoth needing to shovel dreck to the masses. I encourage him to do so while the policy ratchet gets pulled forward and IRS gains this capability. Just look the other way while the lives of 150 million+ taxpayers gets improved ever so slightly.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

mttjj 3y ago

Exactly. I read that statement and now I think I need to go to the ER because I strained my eyes from rolling them so hard. I'm curious what he means by this solution harming vulnerable Americans. Are they the same vulnerable Americans that TurboTax tricked into paying for their product after enticing them in with promises of "completely free filing"?

anaganisk 3y ago
Nah, it's the shareholders and execs of TurboTax and the likes. How are they supposed to afford another Yacht.

RajT88 3y ago

On some counts, he is not wrong. It will cost taxpayers billions of dollars. Those billions of dollars will be well spent, and may be a net 0 cost for taxpayers after the savings on eFiling. This is a revocation of the license to print money by the tax prep industry.

dartharva 3y ago
"Billions of dollars"??
digging 3y ago
I am always intensely skeptical of the phrase "cost the taxpayers" when presented as a pure loss. It is almost always the opposite. It's like saying "Exercise costs a person energy and nutrients." Well, no shit, but you get more value out of it than you input in the form of burned calories and muscle strain.
- throwaway4220 3y ago
  Really well put. It costs the taxpayers trillions of dollars to support the United States.
whiplash451 3y ago
Billions of dollars is a massive overestimate. It will indeed cost dozens of millions, but billions? Come on. We're not building the F-35 here.
- DigiDigiorno 3y ago
  Look up the cost of the healthcare.gov website project* People complain about government contractor costs for a reason *Last I checked it was north of a billion in 2014 dollars
  - toomuchtodo 3y ago
    Great example. It was the genesis of the US Digital Service and 18F. Complaints are valid, but so should be recognition that the government took rapid action to course correct. Promises made, promises kept. https://www.usds.gov/report-to-congress/2016/healthcare-dot-gov/ https://www.usds.gov/report-to-congress/2016/healthcare-dot-... (US Digital Service: Stabilizing and Improving HealthCare.gov) https://archive.is/Boysy https://archive.is/Boysy (Washington Post: White House launches ‘U.S. Digital Service,’ with HealthCare.gov fixer at the helm) https://www.usds.gov/report-to-congress/2016/projects/ https://www.usds.gov/report-to-congress/2016/projects/ https://www.itdashboard.gov/reports https://www.itdashboard.gov/reports And a project close to my heart as an identity/auth wonk: https://login.gov https://login.gov

foobarian 3y ago

"A fence around the chicken coop is wholly redundant and is nothing more than a solution in search of a problem," said Sly the Fox. "It will unnecessarily cost the farmer thousands of dollars and especially harm the most vulnerable chickens."

noisy_boy 3y ago
More like an escape door in the coop; the big-government-hating, freedom-loving chickens still can choose to stay in the coop.

latchkey 3y ago

> Rick Heineman https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickheineman/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickheineman/ https://theorg.com/org/intuit/org-chart/rick-heineman https://theorg.com/org/intuit/org-chart/rick-heineman

omginternets 3y ago

Yes, TurboTax is indeed redundant.

FpUser 3y ago

>"Extraordinary that he could say that sentence with what I assume was a straight face." If you can not lie and twist the facts you will not become politician / spokesman / etc.

jcranmer 3y ago

There are about ~160 million people who need to file taxes each year. TurboTax for each year costs something like $40-150 depending on how complex a version you need. If it costs billions of dollars to role out a free system that's as good as TurboTax, that'll still pay for the cost of TurboTax or similar software within a few years at the longest.

bradleyjg 3y ago
Much better options than TurboTax already exist. I don’t know that a new one, even written by the government, will make a huge dent.
adventured 3y ago
Just for reference sake in this thread, TurboTax has around 40 million users each tax year. Around half of taxpayers use tools to file on their own. So they have around 1/4 of personal filings, and half the do-it-yourself market. Most of Intuit's business is sheltered from the hit it will take when the IRS completes this system. They'll probably lose a couple billion in sales off the top (out of $13.6 billion the past four quarters). You could probably take away 3/4 of their entire individual tax prep business and their overall business would still be larger than it was in 2020. I'll be interested to see if it pops the bubbly valuation the stock is carrying (~60 times earnings).

riazrizvi 3y ago

Straight face? Easy. Everyone has to pay the rent, this guy is no exception.

rc_mob 3y ago

all Republicans and a few corporate Democrats will still fall in line and do what he says.