Justice Department Is Scrutinizing Takeover of Credit Karma by Intuit, Maker of TurboTax (propublica.org) 28
The Department of Justice is scrutinizing Silicon Valley giant Intuit's $7 billion takeover attempt of Credit Karma, an upstart personal finance firm that became a competitor when it launched a free tax prep offering that challenges Intuit's TurboTax product. From a report: The probe comes after ProPublica first reported in February that antitrust experts viewed the deal as concerning because it could allow a dominant firm to eliminate a competitor with an innovative business model. Intuit already dominates online tax preparation, with a 67% market share last year. The article sparked letters from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., urging the DOJ to investigate further. Cicilline is chair of the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee. Government lawyers worry that allowing Intuit to snuff out a promising startup could harm American consumers seeking free tax prep options, according to a June memo from the company side that describes Intuit's legal strategy, which was obtained by ProPublica. The government is particularly interested in "the influence that Intuit's purchase of Credit Karma will have on consumer tax preparation platforms and [the] software market," according to the memo. Further reading: Inside TurboTax's 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans From Filing Their Taxes for Free.
No Thanks! (Score:5, Insightful)
I've used Credit Karma to file taxes for a couple years - it's actually free, not some TurboTax BS where they just wait until the end to tell you that you need to pay. This looks a lot like Intuit taking out the competition
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In your situation, why use TurboTax? If you are comfortable doing your own taxes and filling out the IRS's forms then there is zero reason to give any money to Intuit.
Re: No Thanks! (Score:2)
I donâ(TM)t get it. How is tax prep not free? You can get the forms right off the IRS website along with the booklet and file your taxes accordingly. California has the same thing with the FTB here. In other states do you have to use a preparer?
Re: No Thanks! (Score:5, Informative)
You don't HAVE to, but good luck doing it on your own. I'm not a dumb person, but I've tried filling my taxes out without a tax prep software, and I've never felt dumber in my life. Granted, if you are a single filer with no expenses it's pretty easy. Have kids? A spouse? Potentially deductible expenses? Two jobs? A side business? Good luck! Oh, and if you fuck it up you'd better be prepared to take a good ol' dry humping from the IRS. You aren't paying to fill out forms, you're paying for expertise to make it "easy" to make sure you have the right forms with the right numbers on them. It's akin to asking why your company pays a programmer, when all of the docs are right there on the Internet for free.
I'm not saying it's a good system, but it's what we have.
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This form [irs.gov] is quite simple and the instructions [irs.gov] are 108 pages, and are quite comprehensive. Most of the sections don't even apply to most people. It can be done in a weekend, unless you have a complex tax assessment with multiple types of incomes and multiple types of deductions. Most people don't.
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$250 for someone else to do my taxes is well worth the weekend of frustration it would take me. The biggest issue is the instructions are not written in a way that is easy to interpret. They make me extremely paranoid about doing something wrong.
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It can be done in a weekend
There
Re: No Thanks! (Score:4, Insightful)
Some of the side stuff is easy. 2 kids? Write down "2", remember to keep your medical receipts if you have a chance of it being large enough to start being deductible. That stuff is basic taxes really. That hard part is when you get to stuff that is either confusing or laborious. As in; line 53 part j asks you something in words you don't recognize, you look at the instructions document you download from IRS and after reading it you are more confused than when you started. Or for laborious, it wants you to write down every single one of your capital transactions during the year, including the 250 that your mutal fund did on your behalf (though this has been simplified.
I've had deductible expenses almost forever. Even with 1040EZ. your first dollar sent to a charity is deductible. But that's not hard on a tax form. Add it up, stick on line X, and subtract from line Y. Mortgage deduction? Put it on line Z. It only gets hard when the rules get hard - add to line Z unless you have points, and subtract real estate taxes paid on line 132c, rental properties require a separate form, and cap your deduction because someone wanted to fund tax cuts for everyone else but you.
The tax prep software greatly simplifies things. "Did you sell a house?" Hmm, I should check the yes box if I did and I'll let it figure out what forms I need. Some stuff the tax prep is shitty at, like not having a way to enter or track RSUs. Making every little thing have a slightly different tax rate makes this painful. And my investments have NEVER been able to be imported online, and even the W-2 doesn't work most of the time. Plus the $30 to file for state online, really really stupid but I bit the bullet this year rather than stand in the post office covid catching line.
And yet, it could be simplified. Not with a flat tax bullshit, but by allowing actual simplification. Have the financial institutions mark down a single number that can be entered directly on a form, without going through further to figure out which is a foreign transaction, tax defered bond in some states, wash sales, blah blah. Get rid of stupid rules about penalties if I didn't withold enough, just make tax due at the end of the year with never a quartly payment requirement (sheesh, I'd rather have the jail time than be required to do quarterly taxes on my own). Filling out a W-4 is complicated when it should be trivial. For retirement savings just subtract $X from your investment income before taxes start, then no more IRA or whatever. Everytime the government claims it is going to make things simpler it never actually happens. It has been rumored that Intuit lobbies heavily against tax simplification.
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How is tax prep not free?
Because Intuit spends millions on lobbying and campaign donations.
You can get the forms right off the IRS website along with the booklet and file your taxes accordingly.
The "booklet" has 70,000 pages.
There is no plausible way for even a tax professional to know all of the tax code. Even the pros need interactive software to guide and inform.
There are only two companies that I passionately hate, yet still use their products because I have no choice: Microsoft and Intuit. The only reason I use Microsoft is because Intuit's business tax software only runs on Windows.
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How is tax prep not free?
Because Intuit spends millions on lobbying and campaign donations.
And don't forget that most of the time the software already has most of the information already filled out for you from the IRS. So it would be easy for the IRS to offer their own system if not for the fact that Intuit and others lobbied Congress to the point where the IRS is not even allowed to offer tax filing software. Rent-seeking at it's finest.
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Yep. You'd be amazed at how fast the IRS can say "hey, the numbers you submitted don't match the numbers we have" if you manage to screw up data entry when doing your taxes. Sometimes this even works in your favor, they'll send you something saying "hey, we think you owe less than you said you did" and then if you agree you just sign it and send it back.
Basically, the IRS already has all your data, and all your information filled out. The only reason you should need to file is to cover deductions that the I
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I went with H&R Block for taxes. Intuit is a little bit simpler in some areas, but basically it's the same thing. I dropped Intuit with a lifetime boycott after they tried that buillshit making everyone with a mortgage deduction buy the TurboTax Pro instead of TurboTax Plus. They did apologize, but does mean they deserve my trust.
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Damn straight Bob!
I punted them for life as well. They have pulled shenanigans multiple times over the years - every time they think everyone has forgotten the last time.
They do not learn, and I, like you, do not forgive. Never trust these guys.
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You must be a low wage grunt. Taxes for many are very complicated and prep software is very useful. The cost is very small, it doesn't matter.
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> How is tax prep not free?
Trump recently rescinded a prohibition on the IRS offering a tax filing website like TurboTax but something like that will take them years to build, and if Trump is voted out it's not going to happen anyway.
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In many states, you can't E-file directly with the state and instead you have to go through a third party like TurboTax to E-file. This is one of the business models of the tax prep industry - sucker you in with a free (or "free") federal file, then make their money by charging for filing the state return.
I instead E-file for free using Free Fillable Forms for the federal return, and since my state doesn't allow me to directly E-file with them, I file a paper return.
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That's *exactly* what it is. Intuit, along with Adobe, are the 800-pound gorillas of their respective industries (finance, graphics) and by hook or by crook, they're determined to keep the status quo. It will be a cold day in hell before I'll use QuickBooks for my small business. Why the hell should I pay $200 for some slick and pretty software that Gnucash essentially does as well for free? Same thing for Adobe. With alternatives like the Affinity s
Intuit already uses some shady tactics. (Score:3)
Re:Intuit already uses some shady tactics. (Score:4, Insightful)
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So, you're a fast food burger squisher? Tax prep software very useful for those with complicated tax returns and the cost is next to zero.
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That's the whole reason right there that makes the industry shady. They lobby hard to make tax returns unnecessarily complicated, then sell you the solution for the problem they helped create. I disagree about the cost being next to zero, but I suppose that's relative.
Trash the ancient (Score:1)
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