Comment by mvdtnz
7 months ago
USA doesn't need a TurboTax competitor (of which there are many - I worked for one which struggled in the US market). It needs reform. TurboTax should be unnecessary.
7 months ago
USA doesn't need a TurboTax competitor (of which there are many - I worked for one which struggled in the US market). It needs reform. TurboTax should be unnecessary.
I agree that TurboTax should be unnecessary. And if you want to make it unnecessary by simplifying the tax code, go for it. In the meantime, we should have a free and efficient direct-to-IRS method of paying taxes that doesn't rely on paying extra fees to a middleman.
That reform needs to be a lot more substantial.
What I read in the article is an account of corruption on a staggering scale, permeating the democratic foundations of the US.
This is perfect being the enemy of good.
Being able to file taxes is ideally a public good.
For private enterprise, the benefits are to encourage more complex tax laws, and to add MORE challenges that they can intermediate.
The incentives for governments are to get it done easily, cheaply and at scale, without differentiation between users.
Plus we know how this is done globally. We even know that tax filing is intentionally made as painful as possible to ensure American voters hate filing taxes even more.
I think you misunderstood my point, which was that abandoning direct file (which is good) because what the system really needs is reform, is allowing that desired reform (the "perfect") to be the enemy of that good solution.
These things are not mutually exclusive. I agree that simplifying the tax code would be a good thing. But I don't think it's any more likely in a world without Direct file than in a world with it.
No it's not. We already have good alternatives to turbotax.
They are all private businesses which have to make money somehow. Refusing to host a good free public system because it would be more perfect to simplify the system is literally perfect being the enemy of good.
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