neidu3Mar 13

I just finished doing my 2025 taxes

https://sh.itjust.works/post/56745869

I just finished doing my 2025 taxes - sh.itjust.works

Spent 10 minutes with my SO, moving our shared deductions between us to see which distribution resulted in the lowest amount of taxes. Turns out that the tax authorities are pretty good at what they do, as the best distribution was what they’d already prefilled. Despite having very different income, no matter how we moved the numbers, the numbers at the bottom didn’t change in a manner where the total would result in a higher refund. So we both ended up filing our taxes with no changes to the prefilled values.

Show threadRhynoplazMar 13
Since we’re on the topic, this year I quit using turbo tax, and tried freetaxusa. It’s just as easy, they found me a bigger refund, and it’s a LOT less expensive to file.
Show threadneidu3Mar 13

I never quite understood wtf is up with how the US tax system somehow includes a filing cost. I’d love to learn more, but I suspect it’d get me way too excited for this community, and not even in a good way.

All the relevant numbers should already be registered somewhere. Pulling them into a prefilled form should be trivial.

Show threadbamboo

You would think that’d be the case… The tax system doesn’t include the filing cost, private companies charge the fees and lobby the IRS to intentionally not make the process simple and free for Americans.

Further reading: www.propublica.org/series/the-turbotax-trap

The TurboTax Trap

ProPublica has long detailed how Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, and other companies have worked against making tax preparation easier and less costly.

ProPublica
Mar 13 at 6:47pmWeb
Show threadneidu3Mar 13

That triggered me enough to attempt proper use of emojis: 🤯

I would show a screenshot of how I do my taxes, but then I’d doxx myself, my family, and my employer.

Show threadbambooMar 13
But as an American we’re free to decide which tax company is going to take our money, and also free to not have an accounting degree and mess up some math and then get audited. You can’t put a price on freedom. /s