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I gave FTuasa a go after seeing it mentioned here a lot. Unfortunately it seems the investment part is very manual compared to TurboTax. I have a couple of robo

I gave FTuasa a go after seeing it mentioned here a lot. Unfortunately it seems the investment part is very manual compared to TurboTax. I have a couple of robotrader , brokerage accounts etc. on TurboTax it’s a few clicks and that’s imported, FTusa is tediously transcribing numbers off dozens of forms that I have no idea if I’m doing it right. I reluctantly gave money to TT again.

dublinben 3y ago
This is not tax advice: If your brokerage reports all of your trades to the IRS, which they likely are, then you can just enter a summary. You don't need to grant access to your outside accounts and import anything.
- starik36 3y ago
  Right, I've always just entered the summary. However, that process is manual and requires scouring the forms for correct info. With TurboTax, it lets you integrate into the brokerage and just sucks down the info.
  - mminer237 3y ago
    Your 1099-B should give you all the info right on the first page in a table.
    - starik36 3y ago
      Not really because FreeTaxUSA asks questions about whether there are state specific bonds that have already collected taxes, whether the investment qualifies as a foreign investment, etc... That requires digging in a bit.
      - mminer237 3y ago
        Foreign taxes are lines 7 & 8 on the summary. A brokerage account shouldn't have state bonds, and I thought those were in line 12, but I can see how that would be more confusing.
    - xtracto 3y ago
      A tangential comment given your mention of whatever 99 B form: Every time HN discussion about US taxes comes, I imagine a sizeable group of users from developed country watch in amusement the craziness that the IRS makes its taxpayers go through to charge them money. I know in Mexico and Chile everything is highly automated. In Mexico 50%+ of working class dont have to do ANYTHING, as whatever tax stuff needed is submitted by their employer. Come on US... that we in Mexico have better automation for this is inconceivable. We look up to you for lots of things, particularly technology.
      - Uvix 3y ago
        1099-anything, by definition, doesn't come from an employer. They're for other sources of income (brokerage sales, interest, etc.). The US would need to vastly simply the tax code - remove all the various tax breaks for dependents/spouses, remove the progressive taxation scale, etc. - before it could be successfully automated.
        Analemma_ 3y ago
        I don't think this is true. For pretty much everyone except either small business owners or the very wealthy with exotic assets, the government already gets all the forms it needs to calculate all your taxes (employers send W-2s, brokerages already send 1099s, your bank sends your mortgage statement to calculate things like mortgage interest deductions, etc.). There's no reason it can't be automated for 9 out of 10 people.
        xtracto 3y ago
        I've got REITs. I've got pension investment. I've got a house I'm getting interest off of, I've got stock, both Mexican and US (TQQQ and chill!), and I work at a company earning enough to HAVE to go into the Mexican IRS portal do do my taxes "manually" (I.e. my employer cannot do it for me). With all of that, I just get into SAT page, ask it to fill up everything with the data they already collected, review it, and agree on the $$$ they will give me back (yay mortage!). It CAN be that simple. that's what systems are for: to automate complex processes. Computers excellent at it. All
      - 3y ago
- dalyons 3y ago
  Entering summaries for a bunch of accounts is tedious too. I’m happy to upload pdf statements too, they could scrape those.
gavinhoward 3y ago
Relative a of FreeTaxUSA employee here. I'll let her know. She cares about UX.
- starik36 3y ago
  This is a complaint on Reddit during tax time every single year. I would be surprised if no one at FreeTaxUSA heard of it.
  - gavinhoward 3y ago
    Interesting. Unfortunately, from the way she talks about it, the kind of people that FreeTaxUSA hires would probably not be on Reddit most of the time. Anyway, I let her know.
- junar 3y ago
  Personally, my pain point is the mail-in Form 8453 that comes with the "summary" option. I'd wish for a PDF upload option instead. At least two competitor products have this capability: [1] https://www.form8949.com/tto-e-file-attach-work-around.html https://www.form8949.com/tto-e-file-attach-work-around.html [2] https://www.taxact.com/support/21598/2022/e-filing-attaching-a-scanned-pdf-document https://www.taxact.com/support/21598/2022/e-filing-attaching...
- aojdwhsd 3y ago
  Are there any details about their tech stack you can share? I know they're using Java (there were pages ending in .jsp when I filed my taxes through them) but that's about it.
  - gavinhoward 3y ago
    Not really. The .jsp pages are all I've seen. Sorry.
- MobileVet 3y ago
  Also give her a high five and thank her! FreeTaxUSA is fantastic, even with the limitations.
carabiner 3y ago
Totally agree. A huge benefit of TT is the automated importing and parsing of forms, both for speed and accuracy in doing taxes. Without that connectivity, FreeTax USA is not much different from just filling out the IRS official pdf's.

dublinben 3y ago

This is not tax advice: If your brokerage reports all of your trades to the IRS, which they likely are, then you can just enter a summary. You don't need to grant access to your outside accounts and import anything.

starik36 3y ago
Right, I've always just entered the summary. However, that process is manual and requires scouring the forms for correct info. With TurboTax, it lets you integrate into the brokerage and just sucks down the info.
- mminer237 3y ago
  Your 1099-B should give you all the info right on the first page in a table.
  - starik36 3y ago
    Not really because FreeTaxUSA asks questions about whether there are state specific bonds that have already collected taxes, whether the investment qualifies as a foreign investment, etc... That requires digging in a bit.
    - mminer237 3y ago
      Foreign taxes are lines 7 & 8 on the summary. A brokerage account shouldn't have state bonds, and I thought those were in line 12, but I can see how that would be more confusing.
  - xtracto 3y ago
    A tangential comment given your mention of whatever 99 B form: Every time HN discussion about US taxes comes, I imagine a sizeable group of users from developed country watch in amusement the craziness that the IRS makes its taxpayers go through to charge them money. I know in Mexico and Chile everything is highly automated. In Mexico 50%+ of working class dont have to do ANYTHING, as whatever tax stuff needed is submitted by their employer. Come on US... that we in Mexico have better automation for this is inconceivable. We look up to you for lots of things, particularly technology.
    - Uvix 3y ago
      1099-anything, by definition, doesn't come from an employer. They're for other sources of income (brokerage sales, interest, etc.). The US would need to vastly simply the tax code - remove all the various tax breaks for dependents/spouses, remove the progressive taxation scale, etc. - before it could be successfully automated.
      - Analemma_ 3y ago
        I don't think this is true. For pretty much everyone except either small business owners or the very wealthy with exotic assets, the government already gets all the forms it needs to calculate all your taxes (employers send W-2s, brokerages already send 1099s, your bank sends your mortgage statement to calculate things like mortgage interest deductions, etc.). There's no reason it can't be automated for 9 out of 10 people.
      - xtracto 3y ago
        I've got REITs. I've got pension investment. I've got a house I'm getting interest off of, I've got stock, both Mexican and US (TQQQ and chill!), and I work at a company earning enough to HAVE to go into the Mexican IRS portal do do my taxes "manually" (I.e. my employer cannot do it for me). With all of that, I just get into SAT page, ask it to fill up everything with the data they already collected, review it, and agree on the $$$ they will give me back (yay mortage!). It CAN be that simple. that's what systems are for: to automate complex processes. Computers excellent at it. All
    - 3y ago
dalyons 3y ago
Entering summaries for a bunch of accounts is tedious too. I’m happy to upload pdf statements too, they could scrape those.

gavinhoward 3y ago

Relative a of FreeTaxUSA employee here. I'll let her know. She cares about UX.

starik36 3y ago
This is a complaint on Reddit during tax time every single year. I would be surprised if no one at FreeTaxUSA heard of it.
- gavinhoward 3y ago
  Interesting. Unfortunately, from the way she talks about it, the kind of people that FreeTaxUSA hires would probably not be on Reddit most of the time. Anyway, I let her know.
junar 3y ago
Personally, my pain point is the mail-in Form 8453 that comes with the "summary" option. I'd wish for a PDF upload option instead. At least two competitor products have this capability: [1] https://www.form8949.com/tto-e-file-attach-work-around.html https://www.form8949.com/tto-e-file-attach-work-around.html [2] https://www.taxact.com/support/21598/2022/e-filing-attaching-a-scanned-pdf-document https://www.taxact.com/support/21598/2022/e-filing-attaching...
aojdwhsd 3y ago
Are there any details about their tech stack you can share? I know they're using Java (there were pages ending in .jsp when I filed my taxes through them) but that's about it.
- gavinhoward 3y ago
  Not really. The .jsp pages are all I've seen. Sorry.
MobileVet 3y ago
Also give her a high five and thank her! FreeTaxUSA is fantastic, even with the limitations.

carabiner 3y ago

Totally agree. A huge benefit of TT is the automated importing and parsing of forms, both for speed and accuracy in doing taxes. Without that connectivity, FreeTax USA is not much different from just filling out the IRS official pdf's.