Moved to @I saw this on another account, but I'm reposting it in order to add alt text.
Finnley Dolfin@usernameswift @tonytins I need an explanation on this because as far as I know filing taxes has existed before TurboTax.
tonytins@FinnleyDolfin @usernameswift TurboTax prevented the government from creating their own easier system.
@tonytins @usernameswift Well, taxes have never been easy. Even the 1040-EZ has all these calculations one needs to do and process a bunch of if/then statements in their head. If they truly were easy then tax preparers wouldn’t exist
curiousbear 🏳️🌈
@FinnleyDolfin @tonytins @usernameswift It’s just, some countries have mostly automated filing systems (I have used 2). The tax collection agency prepopulates the forms with information from your employers and other sources, and you have the chance to manually twiddle things before submission. Complex cases exist, but for 90%+ of the population this is not the case (or at least most of the forms are taken care of automatically).
@curiousbear @tonytins @usernameswift
This still doesn’t explain why we never had a simple return before TurboTax existed if TurboTax’s lobbying is the reason why.
@FinnleyDolfin @tonytins @usernameswift Likely there was a gradual increase in filing complexity over the years while the technology to simplify filing was still developing (as in indicator, Intuit bought TurboTax in 1993). TurboTax was developed in this environment and the money it made was used to try to preserve that environment. I think this article gives a broader idea of their actions: https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free
@curiousbear @tonytins @usernameswift
I know about TurboTax and H&R Block lobbying. But I would assume tax preparers would have benefited keeping tax law complicated long before TurboTax existed.
The other question is if TurboTax and H&R didn’t lobby, would we have the easy way? Knowing our government, probably not.
@FinnleyDolfin Yeah, there’s definitely a lot of temptation going around :) For what it’s worth, I think the US will eventually put a prefilled tax return system or similar in place. These ongoing efforts just need to succeed once and no-one will want to go back.