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posted by martyb on Monday April 29 2019, @04:38AM   Printer-friendly
from the death-and-taxes dept.

Ok Google, please ignore this free tax filing code so we can keep on screwing America: TurboTax and H&R Block find robots.txt to hide in plain sight

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.


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  • (Score: 2) by Pav on Monday April 29 2019, @11:55PM (17 children)

    by Pav (114) on Monday April 29 2019, @11:55PM (#836449)

    It seems the powers that be are much better at politics than you are.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday April 30 2019, @03:32AM (16 children)

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday April 30 2019, @03:32AM (#836510) Journal

    I'm not trying to be "good" at anything. And you still haven't shown any cause of misfortune that goes beyond the voters' own responsibilities. Guess you can't be bothered...

    --
    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
    • (Score: 2) by Pav on Wednesday May 01 2019, @04:17AM (15 children)

      by Pav (114) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @04:17AM (#837072)

      Dictatorships LOVE elections... they often have them. The "voters" did what they thought was their duty... and when they were denied a legitimate win with Bernie they f**ked over the establishment with Trump (giving the Trump true believers the false impression they have more electoral power than they do). The "voters" are starting to realise they've been disenfranchised... they're going to try once more. Already Bernie has more money than the rest of the Democratic party combined, and significantly over 1 million volunteers already signed up... again, more than the rest of the Democrats combined. He'll of course be denied again (through superdelegates), even if he chose to run as an independant (via the electoral college). That's just a necessary step to make most people finally realise they're living in a dictatorship.

      • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday May 01 2019, @04:33AM (14 children)

        by fustakrakich (6150) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @04:33AM (#837074) Journal

        He'll of course be denied again (through superdelegates), even if he chose to run as an independant (via the electoral college).

        If he wins enough votes in enough states he will win the electoral college also. Nobody is required to vote for either party. Every two years the House could be swept can of all incumbents. Until the chance is taken, it is impossible to know if voting really works. It's just something that has to be done to prove me right or wrong. Until then we are farting into the wind. The blame passing must stop.

        --
        La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
        • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday May 01 2019, @04:36AM

          by fustakrakich (6150) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @04:36AM (#837076) Journal

          *sheesh!*

          One more time, in case it matters:

          Every two years the House can be swept of all incumbents.

          --
          La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
        • (Score: 2) by Pav on Wednesday May 01 2019, @06:09AM (12 children)

          by Pav (114) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @06:09AM (#837093)

          Pffft... One could clean sweep and still get rolled by "faithless electors" in the electoral college... look up what they are. Faithless electors have changed presidential results often enough in recent years. This is why the Bernie people elected to try to take over the Democratic party rather than start a new party or go independant... that's the only way not to be rolled by faithless electors. Regarding taking over... then theres the Democrat superdelegate thing to overcome. Bernie won, but Hillary had the super delegates. Game over. As for clean sweeping the party... that SHOULD have happened, but voters were cheated again. Tim Canova is just one example, but he's notable because he was loud about the cheating, and knew his rights because he is a law professor, and fought in the courts. He easily won in pre-election polling. He tried to get in first as a Democrat, then in the main election as an independant... was blatantly cheated in a number of ways BOTH TIMES, and provably so. There were 70 emails from the Wikileakss DNC emails with some pretty damning evidence, and there's even video of cheating. And there were no consequences despite favourable court rulings. There was even a judge too afraid to rule on the case, so he recused himself for dubious reasons. Despite winning in court there were no consequences for cheating... None.

          • (Score: 2) by Pav on Wednesday May 01 2019, @06:36AM

            by Pav (114) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @06:36AM (#837100)

            BTW, for anyone who's interested... here's Tim Canova [youtube.com] taking the lid off the sorry story himself.

          • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday May 01 2019, @03:40PM (10 children)

            by fustakrakich (6150) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @03:40PM (#837318) Journal

            Faithless electors have changed presidential results often enough in recent years.

            No, they followed the majority of votes in each state. Everybody is already aware they don't have to, and yet they still accept the results. You gotta make a better case. You gotta show where the voter has a gun to his head and forces him to vote republican/democrat, or prove a fraudulent count. If you do, I will be suitably impressed!

            --
            La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
            • (Score: 2) by Pav on Wednesday May 01 2019, @10:26PM (9 children)

              by Pav (114) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @10:26PM (#837569)

              You're RIGHT... I've seen the light. I checked Wikipedia... it's always best to assume it's lying... and I could therefore ignore [wikipedia.org] the (sourced) Wikipedia propaganda that 10 electors voting against their states wishes in 2016 alone. And Vox [vox.com] is the height of journalistic integrity! I can therefore accept their otherwise strange assesment that Broward Countys election supervisor was just incompetent for destroying ballots multiple times preventing recounts, even during litigations relating to vote rigging, transporting (and losing) ballots without the required security measures etc... Tim Canova's vote numbers were uniformly 5% in every single demographic across the board... wow... that was certainly a coincidence, but we can't accept his assertion that this (and the huge polling discrepency) proves rigging. 2018 showed us how polling companies are actually just guessing results... those election integrity activists are fools for getting excited about exit polls differing from results across the country well beyond the margin of error (well into the double digits). Ha! Margin of error... there's nothing scientific about the polling agencies guesses! The DNC was right to cancel exit polls in the last few states - they really did hire incompetent guessers! I bow to your wisdom for seeing through the propaganda!

              • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday May 01 2019, @10:46PM (8 children)

                by fustakrakich (6150) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @10:46PM (#837579) Journal

                The majority does accept it, the fraud, everything, with a 95% reelection rate. Whaddya gonna do??

                What do you want to change that won't require people to vote on it?

                --
                La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
                • (Score: 2) by Pav on Wednesday May 01 2019, @11:03PM (7 children)

                  by Pav (114) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @11:03PM (#837587)

                  That's not up to me. I guess we'll find out when the voters are cheated (again) despite the electorate being a lot more switched on to the cheating and media bais. My guess is that things will get ugly, and the outcome is uncertain. Some [youtube.com] saw this coming a long time ago... (video link to Naomi Wolf's talk on her book "End of America" where she outlines the ten steps that all dictatorships born from democracies take).

                  • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday May 01 2019, @11:50PM (6 children)

                    by fustakrakich (6150) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @11:50PM (#837601) Journal

                    That's not up to me.

                    Well, you're either part of the majority, or you're not.

                    Some saw this coming a long time ago

                    We saw it in '68, and many times since. Nothing comes of it. Republicans and democrats still win. Reelection rates remain stable. The electorate wants a piece of that cheating and bias, all looking for preferential treatment. The government reflects that. The decline continues. Nobody's fault but our own. Yes, it will get ugly. Despite all our great powers, we are leading ourselves into a very dark age. What's disappointing, it's all happening for the denial of our own failures.

                    --
                    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
                    • (Score: 2) by Pav on Thursday May 02 2019, @01:53AM (5 children)

                      by Pav (114) on Thursday May 02 2019, @01:53AM (#837637)

                      So your answer is voting independant in the completely-legit-and-not-rigged (despite evidence to the contrary) general election?

                      • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday May 02 2019, @02:31AM (4 children)

                        by fustakrakich (6150) on Thursday May 02 2019, @02:31AM (#837649) Journal

                        When 95% of the voters vote for the status quo, it's hard to find where the fraud is. I mean, between the factions in the monolith, sure plenty of it, but there is still insufficient demand to correct it. To conduct a real test of the system, a sufficient number of people have to vote outside the limits they imposed on themselves. Then we will know if there is real fraud. I don't give a damn what goes on between republicans and democrats. That's just thieves stealing from thieves, or from the famous movie, *assassins accusing the assassins*. I can't get too upset about it if nobody can be bothered. I just do my thing, and let people accuse me of "wasting my vote" or "supporting Trump"... What else can I do?

                        --
                        La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
                        • (Score: 2) by Pav on Thursday May 02 2019, @03:31AM (3 children)

                          by Pav (114) on Thursday May 02 2019, @03:31AM (#837665)

                          Cheating an independant who would have won = voters not voting outside the two party duopoly. That's some wicked zen eastern philosophy tai-bo you've got going on there. :-O

                          • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday May 02 2019, @05:31AM (2 children)

                            by fustakrakich (6150) on Thursday May 02 2019, @05:31AM (#837682) Journal

                            :-) You couldn't be more off. From publicly available physical evidence people aren't voting for independents. The numbers are right there in black and white. There is nothing difficult about this. You haven't proven otherwise. If independent votes really aren't being counted, we got a real story, but there's too little demand from the voters for more transparency. I do demand, but am not getting, paper ballots, along with electronic tallies for rapid feedback. In many things (like voting for non aligned candidates) I'm in the tiny minority, no use in complaining about it. But it is dead simple to see where the problem comes from. And the excuses I'm getting only serve to clarify exactly what I'm talking about. Hardly matters, next year's results will be the same as last year's, plus or minus a few percentage points. Still can't blame anybody but the voters who make it so. Every two years they squander the chance to make real history. The ant mill continues.

                            --
                            La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
                            • (Score: 2) by Pav on Thursday May 02 2019, @09:02PM (1 child)

                              by Pav (114) on Thursday May 02 2019, @09:02PM (#838121)

                              Despite disappearing ballots, and grossly different exit polls your understanding is... that people are voting according to the official numbers, and against the independants and insurgent Democrats that virtually the entire media and political apparatus have been canvasing against? (Well, except for certain media like eg. Ed Schultz, who was sacked from MSNBC for covering Bernie). Yes, of course! The majority were never in danger of votin independant or insurgent. Thanks for setting me straight.

                              • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday May 03 2019, @12:50AM

                                by fustakrakich (6150) on Friday May 03 2019, @12:50AM (#838217) Journal

                                The people accept it. What can I do? Tell you the truth, I just don't care any more. People will do what they want. It's none of my business. I'm only responding to the complaints.

                                --
                                La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..