While I am a very pleased customer of Intuit for doing my current taxes (since they make the process 1/10 the effort of paper forms), their political pressuring in this case is despicable (if economically understandable) — similar to arguments by politicians that the NWS should only provide data to private firms like Accuweather who will then sell it back to the public.
I suspect my taxes are complex enough that I couldn't just "pull it up and click OK," but getting the basic data in would make a tremendous amount of sense. #ddtb
Reshared post from +Kevin Fox
California has been piloting a tax return program called 'ReadyReturn' where the state pre-fills your tax return based on the W-2s and 1099 it already receives, giving taxpayers a big head start in completing their returns. Who's the biggest opponent? Intuit, who stands to lose a lot of business if doing your own taxes becomes easier.
The worst part is Intuit's official statement when asked about their opposition:
“We’re a California company and actively participate in the political process,” said Julie Miller, a company spokeswoman. “Our position has consistently been that ReadyReturn duplicates what is already available.”
Translation: We provide jobs and we donate to candidates. Making things easier on taxpayers hurts our business, and we'll back candidates who keep taxes confusing.
Ick.
Embedded Link
Digital Domain – On Tax Returns, Why Enter What the I.R.S. Already Knows? – NYTimes.com
Many developed countries, though not the United States, offer tax returns containing data the government already knows.