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> Companies like Intuit have lobbied an industry into existence Did they lobby an industry into existence, or did they beat the government at providing value t

by bdzr 3y ago

> Companies like Intuit have lobbied an industry into existence Did they lobby an industry into existence, or did they beat the government at providing value to their own esoteric system by 15 or more years, and then lobby to keep their standing? I don't doubt the company is awful, but they're as popular as they are for more reasons than lobbying. At the time, they made one of the worst annual experiences fairly pain free. I never understood the idea that the government ought to write their own e-filing software when others already exist, and quite affordably so; I usually get free tax filing from some TurboTax competitor (last year it was CashApp).

rcxdude 3y ago
Well, there's also a faction in the government who will protest against taxes by making paying them as painful as possible. It's not just lobbying by the companies which benefit from filling the gap deliberately produced by this.
chris_wot 3y ago
The government paid them to provide this service.
csallen 3y ago
> I never understood the idea that the government ought to write their own e-filing software when others already exist This is the most baffling take I've read on this subject. The IRS are the ones we're submitting our tax forms to in the first place. Why on earth shouldn't they have their own e-filing service for the information they're requesting from us? Plus they already have a ton of data on everyone's income and taxes paid throughout the year, so they can largely pre-fill these forms for us, saving us time and preventing mistakes. Why on earth wouldn't we want that?
- Macha 3y ago
  And they also largely do _do_ these calculations, so they can threaten you with legal liability if you're too far off their calculated value.
matkoniecz 3y ago
> Did they lobby an industry into existence Yes, they managed to outlaw providing such service by government. For reference, Poland and many other countries have such system without such parasites like TurboTax (people with complex situations still have accountants or special software)

by bdzr 3y ago

rcxdude 3y ago

Well, there's also a faction in the government who will protest against taxes by making paying them as painful as possible. It's not just lobbying by the companies which benefit from filling the gap deliberately produced by this.

chris_wot 3y ago

The government paid them to provide this service.

csallen 3y ago

> I never understood the idea that the government ought to write their own e-filing software when others already exist This is the most baffling take I've read on this subject. The IRS are the ones we're submitting our tax forms to in the first place. Why on earth shouldn't they have their own e-filing service for the information they're requesting from us? Plus they already have a ton of data on everyone's income and taxes paid throughout the year, so they can largely pre-fill these forms for us, saving us time and preventing mistakes. Why on earth wouldn't we want that?

Macha 3y ago
And they also largely do _do_ these calculations, so they can threaten you with legal liability if you're too far off their calculated value.

matkoniecz 3y ago

> Did they lobby an industry into existence Yes, they managed to outlaw providing such service by government. For reference, Poland and many other countries have such system without such parasites like TurboTax (people with complex situations still have accountants or special software)