I’ve been paying for it for years and honestly I don’t regret it. There’s a lot that goes into their software that makes filing taxes really easy. Their site also provides so much help during the filing that I would probably spend hours researching otherwise. It’s not for everyone and yes I agree their taxes are deceiving, but does save me time each year.
The point is that filing taxes is way easier in many other countries, and TurboTax have lobbied hard to stop any changes to the system like that in the US.
In Australia, you just log on to a portal on the tax office web site and most types of income are already in there, pre-filled. You spend a few minutes putting in any deductions or other income, and then it works out if you're eligible for any credits, offsets etc. and you click 'File'. It's free and doesn't generally take me more than about half an hour per year.
why cant the govt build a frigging excel sheet or a website for filing taxes because "THEY MAKE THE RULES" of what goes into a tax software.
This is one of those things that is used by companies to force people into their ecosystem.
in india, the govt makes 4/6 tax returns available to be filed on the govt portal itself. It has a simple workflow based approach, asks you a few questions and in minutes you are done.
Software companies exist alongside them but there is no "bad blood" between the two because they both do the same thing. the software companies products make it easier for tax professionals to keep a record and such but otherwise millions of users just dont bother with paid offerings.
that is a much better alternative than the one US has
I think the issue is less the truth I. Your statement (it’s undeniable really). But more that it’s by design. Intuit lobbies the govt to make the tax system over complicated, and the gov provided tax documents half asses as hell. And then along with few others (H&R Block for example) make a killing by having software that easily navigated the shit hurricane they otherwise would be a tax filing. Hell H&R Block can literally hire part time meth heads and window washers to fill out the forms, while without the software a Bonaire accountant can fuck up a filing.
