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There's nothing moral about it. The profitability of the tax prep industry depends on taxes being hard to file. Lack of official free e-file is regulatory captu
by nerdponx 2y ago
There's nothing moral about it. The profitability of the tax prep industry depends on taxes being hard to file. Lack of official free e-file is regulatory capture. Any associated blather about making taxes cumbersome to keep people mistrustful of taxes is a fig leaf, as is this case with most "conservative" viewpoints.
- scarab92 2y agoWithout evidence that the Trump administration cares about protecting the tax prep industry, this is just a conspiracy theory. Heck, the Trump admin wants to get rid of income tax entirely, so they're hardly the natural allies of the tax prep industry.
- chowchowchow 2y agoThey are because they have an interest in keeping tax filing difficult and unapproachable, to keep public animus against taxes at its maximum. Coincidentally this is 100% in alignment with the tax prep industry whose entire existence is based on products which solve and handle the complicated tax situation.
- HeuristicsCG 2y agoAs he said, conspiracy theory
- olalonde 2y agoYou're wrong: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1888326592096547245 https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1888326592096547245 https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1886092387098796499 https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1886092387098796499 https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1858872775395426553 https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1858872775395426553 https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1873796626223161603 https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1873796626223161603 https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1861824194113343870 https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1861824194113343870
- nerdponx 2y agoReforming the tax code and eliminating loopholes is orthogonal to making it easier to file. Closing loopholes doesn't hurt Intuit and H&R Block.
- olalonde 2y agoSimplifying the tax code makes it easier to file.
- nerdponx 2y agoThe 1040 is already really easy to fill out for most people. But you can't just go on the IRS website e-file using the W2 that the IRS already received.
- chowchowchow 2y agoThought experiment: taxes for everyone are $1 but you have to climb to the top of an icy glacier to place a single dollar bill in a collection box. Is it easy to file these taxes?
- olalonde 2y agoNo and hence, it wouldn't be considered "simplifying the tax code".
- chowchowchow 2y agoEveryone pays $1 and $1 only is not simple enough? Can’t please some people.
- ProcNetDev 2y agoNone of those tweets are about tax prep. They are about him personally wanting to pay less taxes. If Elon wanted he could fund an opensouce alternative to Turbotax. I am willing to bet 1k that Intuit's 2024 TurboTax Online and other Consumer Group revenue of $4.4 billion will remain above 4B in 2025.
- majormajor 2y agoThe balance of actions taken by the Trump administration suggests it generally is in favor of doing whatever people who suck up enough and donate enough money want. The history of lobbying on behalf of the tax prep industry is easy enough to find. Is drawing a line through Trump's well-professed love of sycophants and people who make him money and that lobbying and motivation, to their current actions, so far fetched to you? I think taking a wait-and-see approach to things like "Trump wants to get rid of income tax entirely" would be wise until we see where the implementation ends up. In the meantime lets talk about what has actually been done to date.
- Vilian 2y agoThe fact that you need to pay to file taxes it's so distopic that only USA could have invented it