<story><title>Good Riddance, TurboTax. Americans Need a Real ‘Free File’ Program</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/19/opinion/intuit-turbotax-free-filing.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rym_</author><text>In 2019 I filed my (Dutch) taxes on my phone, while I was on a bus somewhere in the north of Argentina after previously having traveled for 20 something hours. It took me about 15 minutes to check if the numbers from the government were correct (they were) and I was done. Americans are being duped by these predatory companies.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>GuB-42</author><text>Same in France.&lt;p&gt;But I am going to play devil&amp;#x27;s advocate here, did you get the &amp;quot;best deal&amp;quot;?&lt;p&gt;It all comes down to deductibles. In France, the &amp;quot;one click taxes&amp;quot; option assumes 10% of your salary is deductible, which is often a good deal but sometimes, it may actually be more, especially if you have a long commute. The government app won&amp;#x27;t help you with that.&lt;p&gt;It may not help you with incentives too. For example, you may get some tax rebates if you did some work to improve the energy efficiency of your house, what exactly you can declare? And charities, loans, etc... A good accountant may help you save a significant amount with all these details.&lt;p&gt;Tax software are like a middle ground between simple, no brainer, government issued &amp;quot;one click&amp;quot; tax filling and hiring a professional accountant. Note that in France, most self-employed people hire an accountant, proper tax filling can be a minefield if you are not an employee.&lt;p&gt;And by the way, that&amp;#x27;s Intuit&amp;#x27;s argument. That it is used to justify its evil deeds is a thing, but the argument itself is not without merit.</text></comment>
<story><title>Good Riddance, TurboTax. Americans Need a Real ‘Free File’ Program</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/19/opinion/intuit-turbotax-free-filing.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rym_</author><text>In 2019 I filed my (Dutch) taxes on my phone, while I was on a bus somewhere in the north of Argentina after previously having traveled for 20 something hours. It took me about 15 minutes to check if the numbers from the government were correct (they were) and I was done. Americans are being duped by these predatory companies.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>brezelnbitte</author><text>The reason your taxes are simpler though is because the Dutch government doesn’t use the tax system to implement policy like the US does. The US Congress uses the tax system to influence social policy as well as to deliver benefits for specific groups and industries. And over time all of these legislative additions have turned a simple revenue raising system into a complex mess of deductions and credits.&lt;p&gt;Now I am not defending turbo tax’s predatory actions in the past but it’s not complicating the tax system just taking advantage of it being complicated.</text></comment>