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Comment by bni | Hacker News Reader

As a European I don't understand why this company exists at all.

It's worth pointing out that TurboTax is just one of their products... even if it went away overnight, they'd still have a lucrative business publishing QuickBooks. It is basically the standard in small business accounting software in the US, and a majority of small businesses probably use it, pay an outside accountant that does, or both.

In the past? Because they make a mostly non-digital system digital and convenient. Currently? Corruption. At least for the TurboTax part of Intuit.

There are multiple similar companies in many European countries, even though the government provides (often somewhat basic) tools to file taxes. A large percentage of citizens in the Germany and Austria use paid software because it's more comfortable, same in the UK and Poland. But yes, it would be better if that was not the case, like in Scandinavia.

Maybe you, as an infinitely wise European, can explain this page: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/self-assessment-c...

Those are accounting packages that can submit your tax return for you automatically based on your figures.

You don’t have to use them, there’s a free electronic form. But it’s easier if you’re using an accounting system to just plug the numbers straight in.

Congratulations, you now magically seem to understand what TurboTax is.

>You don’t have to use them, there’s a free electronic form.

If only the IRS also had a free fillable form you can use: https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/free-file-fillable-form...

The vast majority of people in the UK don't have to fill out a self assessment because their tax situation is simple and handed by their employers. For the people who do have more complicated tax arrangements, the process takes like 10-15 minutes on the HMRC portal and importantly it's free.

So all these commercial software offerings for SAs exist just for fun? I guess I just don't understand why these exist. Europeans have yet to explain this adequately.

Can you show me the free option that existed in HMRC's portal for non-domiciled statuses? I can only find websites that contradict your point:

https://www.dtaxfiler.co.uk/blog/residence-remittance-sa109

>You will need to use commercial software that supports the SA109 form (such as DTax Filer), You cannot submit the SA109 form through HMRC’s free online service. . If you do not use compatible software, you will need to print and post your tax return instead.

Clearly they're lying and you should correct them post-haste.

1) Because in the US your employer doesn't withhold tax at the correct rate - they withhold tax at whatever rate you tell them to (this is just a down payment). Places like banks don't withhold taxes at all. So, the US system forces everyone to file taxes (as long as your income is over some very minimal level).

2) Because in the US once your finances get remotely complex, filing taxes is a horrible experience, so most people are willing to either pay for someone else to do it for them, or for software like TurboTax to help do it themselves.

In order to create enough loopholes for their wealthy clients, the politicians have made the tax rules so complicated that very few people have confidence that they understand them.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040gi.pdf

This is the primary reason that Americans hate paying their taxes.

Same as Russian. The state provides all needed software for filling documents related to taxes. It's been so for at least 15 years, most likely longer.

Accounting still exists in Europe, it turns out. Tax preparation/filing software is only about 25% part of Intuit's business.

Has anyone in these comments ever heard of QuickBooks?

Everything in the US is done to make money, for someone.

Education. Healthcare. Prisons. Even filing taxes is a profit centre for someone.

It’s not a very successful country. It’s a very successful business.

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