SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
The United States' tax-filing software industry actively prevents search engines from discovering their free-filing versions, it has been discovered, adding further criticism to an industry that drives Americans toward unnecessary paid-for products.
Internet users, incensed at efforts by the tax filing software market to legally lock-in their business model, have been digging into the actions of Intuit and competitors including H&R Block and discovered that the webpages for their free tax filing software has code to stop search engines like Google from linking to or indexing to it. It is, of course the robots.txt file that is used by webmasters to indicate where it doesn't want search engine robots to look. Typically this is used to stop search engines from accidentally gathering confidential information. It is a sort of honor system that has been in place since the early days of the internet.
[...] The IRS has agreed not to develop free software for its own systems so long as the software industry offers free versions for anyone earning under $66,000 a year or anyone receiving an income tax credit. Over time however, the power dynamic between the IRS – which has increasingly been starved of funds – and the software industry – which has grown rich from charging tens of millions of Americans every year to navigate the overly complex US tax system - has flipped.
That dynamic blew up earlier this year when it was revealed that a tax reform bill due to become law made it illegal for the IRS to develop software for its own systems. Previously it had been a voluntary agreement that the IRS was in charge of. Following a public outcry, the IRS's general counsel said that his understanding of the new law is that the IRS can terminate the entire Free-File system and design its own direct-file product if its provides 12 months' notice. But that assurance has failed to mollify critics who say the software tail has started wagging the tax dog.
[...] Intuit uses the name "free" and also loads its non-free product websites with SEO terms that someone looking to file for free will type in, in order to direct people to paid-for editions. Unless you land on the right webpage – the one for Free File – there is literally no way to find the TurboTax free edition; it will always loop back to a paid-for version. Which is why Intuit and TurboTax go to such lengths to stop people from landing on the Free File versions of their software.
Read TFA if you want to build up some rage.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bradley13 on Monday April 29 2019, @08:24AM (7 children)
Why does tax law have to adapt to your living situation? For example, what is it about owning a house than entitles you to an extra tax deduction? Your mortgage interest payment is no different from the other guy's rent payment.
Flat tax on all income, single (generous) deduction to prevent the tax from being regressive, done. Include every form of income - salary, bonuses, dividends, inheritance - everything that represents a transfer of value to an individual, with no distinction whatsoever. By eliminating all special deductions, the resulting tax rate will be a lot lower than current rates. Sure, there will be winners and losers - that's unavoidable anytime you change any tax law.
The long-term benefits would be huge: eliminating an entire, utterly unproductive sector from the economy. All those tax consultants are nothing more than participants in a giant "broken windows fallacy".
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 29 2019, @11:00AM (1 child)
"Your mortgage interest payment is no different from the other guy's rent payment." Utilities & Property tax. I have to set aside another $200/month for property tax on top of the mortgage payment. Utilities are another $300/month. Renters don't pay some utilities or taxes.
My mortgage is paid off now so I'm only paying the Utilities & Property tax, and no Nazi landlords to deal with is a bonus.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 29 2019, @11:49AM
The renter pays utilities and property tax through the inflated cost of rent. Do you think the landlord just sucks it up and eats the difference everytime a new bond measure increases the local property tax? Also, why should the federal govenrment be subsidizing the State and Municpal tax revenue? The tax code should be designed to generate the revenue required to fund the goverment, not pick winners and losers in the market place. Obviously the politicians have shown they cannot be trusted with this power and a flat tax removes their ability to do so while actually fulfilling the obligation of equality under the law.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 29 2019, @11:02AM (2 children)
So my 401k, which is supposed to suffer a lower tax burden once I start withdrawing from it, will now be taxed at the same rate as when the deductions occurred? Since (luckily) it has increased in value over the years, should I be taxed on the increased valuation each year, or only when I start withdrawing?
Also, are you going to tax social security payments at the same rate as regular income (or as you say "everything that represents a transfer of value to an individual, with no distinction whatsoever")? My SS plus my 401k stipend will probably exceed your flat deduction, so retirement accounts will no longer have any benefit over other forms of saving or investing (you'll be taxing all short term and long term capital gains at your flat rate as well).
Lastly, eliminating charitable deductions will have a severely negative affect on nonprofit organizations (if your tax law even lets them exist).
You're right that there will be winners and losers. High salaries will be winners, but low salaries, interest income & dividends, and retirees will be losers.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by EEMac on Monday April 29 2019, @01:44PM (1 child)
Removing fancy income-hiding schemes like 401(k) and charitable deductions is _exactly the point_ of a flat tax. Who benefits most from those schemes? Hint: it isn't poor people.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 29 2019, @09:48PM
> Removing fancy income-hiding schemes like 401(k) and charitable deductions is _exactly the point_ of a flat tax. Who benefits most from those schemes? Hint: it isn't poor people.
Huh? Often the charitable deductions go (almost) directly to poor people, through a wide variety of NGOs. Of course there are NGOs with big salaries for the managers, but it's possible to avoid those with a little research, and give to cost-effective charities that actually help people in need.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 29 2019, @09:26PM
1) How do we ensure we get all income from all people? There are a lot of rich people who have a lot of clever accountants, and have things like offshore bank accounts.
2) Is it morally fair for the descendants of Hilton (selecting a politically neutral-ish example other billionaires) to be able to live in the lap of luxury for tens-to-hundreds of generations?
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Tuesday April 30 2019, @03:02AM
Because we want to encourage pro-social behavior, like buying a house, starting a family. In comparison, Japan (and increasingly Western countries like the US) are seeing decreasing rates of home ownership and traditional families (marriage, kids).
Of course, you may disagree with the premise, that owning a house and starting a family in said house is something we should be promoting, but that's why mortgages are deductible.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!