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Comment by sillysaurusx | Hacker News Reader

Realistically, how would you do your tax return for free?

Keep in mind that every service worker is terrified of an audit. The cost is much higher when you don’t have resources.

EDIT: I think I didn't phrase this very well. My point was that the average service worker is trained to be terrified of the IRS. These people are already usually paying hefty fines because they missed their returns in prior years. That's why they take the path of least resistance, and just pay someone else as a shield against this.

So it's not particularly surprising that TurboTax has swindled this person out of $600 with their upsells. Nor should she be condemned as a fool. If you were in her shoes, you might do the same thing.

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There are many free filing options for anyone with an average salary from a straightforward W2 source. I went years without paying to file, until I got into freelancing and a higher tax bracket.

Being audited isn't much of a concern if your only source of income is a typical W2 job. The average service worker isn't throwing money around in stocks, crypto, blackjack, and corporate entities.

Even if you toss in a 1099 or two taxes are still mostly straightforward. I’ve always had mine done but it’s mostly only in the last ten years or so that they’ve gotten genuinely complicated.

One time I had a single 1099 form, and I screwed it up badly enough that it took months to resolve, and dozens of hours on my part. Someone who understood the process probably could have sorted it out in minutes.

1090ez, or any of a dozen free-file options? State returns are cheap if not free almost everywhere.

The vast majority of the people who qualify for free tax filing have nothing to audit. The government makes enough money off their deductions, not to mention what they generate having to spend >50% of their income to stay afloat, to overlook a few unreported tips or sneaker sales.

Do you mean the 1040ez, which was discontinued, & no longer a form?

(I agree with the rest of your comment. While I disagree with the parent's perspective, I think the FTC's here is that Intuit's advertising leads people towards their not-free products, instead of the actually free stuff that does exist. I don't think most people have the self-confidence to do the 1040 by hand.)

You're correct, I did mean the 1040ez and was unaware of it's discontinuation.

Maybe look how other countries do it?

Like with your health system, a lot of us are slightly baffled by how broken things are in the US.

Most other countries are comparable to US states rather than all of US. The US is incredibly diverse (in humans and govermental systems) in a lot of ways. So using one system is not easy as in other countries.

I would get rid of the tax return process as the only purpose for its existence is to waste the time of poor people and thus keep the government boot on their face.

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