TurboTax Halts E-filing of State Tax Returns Because of Potential Fraud 119
mpicpp writes with this news from Marketwatch: Intuit, the parent company of TurboTax, has stopped e-filing all state tax returns due to increased suspicion of fraud. The company says it is investigating criminal attempts to use stolen data to file fraudulent returns and claim refunds, after hearing concerns from a handful of states, Intuit spokeswoman Diane Carlini told MarketWatch. After a preliminary examination with security experts, Intuit believes its systems weren't breached, but crooks may have used TurboTax software to file fraudulent returns after stealing identities, she said. Intuit said in a release that "the information used to file fraudulent returns was obtained from other sources outside the tax preparation process." The company called pausing e-filings to states a "precautionary step." Utah, the first state to reach out to Intuit, issued a notice Thursday saying the state tax commission has discovered 28 fraud attempts that "originate from data compromised through a third-party commercial tax preparation software process," as well as 8,000 returns flagged as potentially fraudulent.
I stopped using them years ago (Score:2)
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I liked them a good 10 years ago, simple, easy. then again i was making minimum wage. This year im thinking about trying taxslayer. I like the reviews ive heard from friends who made the switch years ago. anyone else have any good simple do it yourself methods to share?
Besides filling out the forms and mailing them?
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I switched to H&R block also about 10 years ago when they made their asshat move where you could only use their software one time and had to pay more if you wanted to do taxes for your relatives.
I've been very happy with their software... works well with good support.
I use H&R Block (Score:2)
Cheaper than TT, very easy to use, and it works well. Ya I could do it myself but in addition to being a fair bit of paperwork and math (I think about 15-20 pages between federal and state in my case) I don't want to have to look up any rule changes or breaks that might apply to me and the tax software has all that programmed in. I'm way too lazy to do them by hand, and they aren't complex enough to be worth paying an accountant to do for me.
Only downside is they want more money to e-file a state return. No
Tax Scammer version of First Post (Score:2)
If you are going to file under someone else's identity, you have to file first!
Half way there (Score:1)
There needs to be better protection in place to prevent this such as cross verifying the bank account to the actual person doing the filing. It's pretty shitty when 28 false claims can shut down the entire system and ruin it for everyone. Thank you for ruining it for everyone.
Re:Half way there (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Half way there (Score:5, Informative)
Most other first-world countries manage it.
Re:Half way there (Score:4, Funny)
But that would fly in the face of the resilient, independent American taxpayer, used to bootstrapping their entire life up from nowhere. Trained to walk uphill both ways.
Who gets rebates for farming, fishing, insulating, health care, baby sitting, tax preparation, eating right and donating to the religion of your choice (as long as they aren't terrorists).
USA! USA! USA!
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Re:Half way there (Score:5, Insightful)
Strangely it's not actually that issue, as plenty of other countries do their taxes that way.
The problem here (like just about all of our problems) comes from the intersection of business and government. The IRS actually looked in to free tax filing, but Intuit and their fellow companies lobbied hard to get it killed. It turns out Intuit would make a lot less money if the government did our taxes for us, so it's in their best interest to spend lots of money to prevent it from happening.
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Another big reason is that in many (most?) other countries the number of exceptions (deductions, exemptions, etc.) is much smaller, so it is much easier for the government to figure your taxes based on your income reported from the employer. I live in NZ, and I would say the average guy does not file a return. If every scrap of income he made was from a job, or bank interest, or pension payments, or dividends lodged with a bro
So.... (Score:2)
Given this reality, doesn't that ethically justify using only pirated copies of TurboTax to do one's taxes?
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Yes... but you should be doing your taxes with a spreadsheet and a PDF [irs.gov] reader anyway, just because it works better.
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The government gets all that information anyway. why not just have the gov send you a bill/refund every year, and IF you are not happy with the bill/refund, then you can file your taxes yourself.
Corporate welfare.
The IRS is fully capable of doing this, and they even researched implementing just such a system. Lobbyists put a quick stop to that idea every time it comes up. Tax preparation services like H&R Block and online filing services like TurboTax have spent millions and millions of dollars [propublica.org] fighting proposed legislation that would let Americans choose to have the IRS handle their taxes instead of paying a third party. Intuit (parent of TurboTax) has a larger lobbying budget than Apple!
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Intuit spent $820,422 last year on lobbying. As such, the implication that they're doing more than Apple is outright trolling. If you want a better examples to use instead:
Elliot Management (2014): $7,152,149
National Assn of Realtors (2014): $6,324,267
Renaissance Technologies (2014): $3,671,200
Goldman Sachs (2014): $3,026,286
Microsoft (2014): $2,131,252
Exxon Mobil (2014): $1,931,230
Google
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Sorry, I'm a bit sick this weekend and may be misreading you, but are you saying that spending almost ten times as much as Apple on lobbying isn't doing more than Apple?
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easy solution, stop filing taxes. The government gets all that information anyway. why not just have the gov send you a bill/refund every year, and IF you are not happy with the bill/refund, then you can file your taxes yourself. the way we do things is so backwards
That would work so much better if most of our social safety net was;t the tax code. Day care, college education, a significant proportion of health costs (obviously Obamacare, but also the Employer Health Care Exclusion), etc. are all run through the tax code.
Which makes our taxes much more complicated then a place like Denmark, where they just pay for that shit directly and mostly fund the government through a VAT (i.e.: a sales tax).
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or we could do the right thing, eliminate income taxes are we currently know them, and institute a fair or flat tax, thus making the idea of a tax return for an indivi
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It would be more complicated then you think to do this. Americans with very boring tax lives do not get the simple form, so the forms would have to be reworked.
Good luck with Fair Tax or Flat Tax. Obama just proposed ending a tax break I have never seen anywhere outside of an IRS textbook (the 529 deduction, I do taxes three months a year and I've never seen anyone use it, I know how to report it in theory but I could;t tell which button tho click on the software to put it on a return) and got crucified by
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As a guy from Denmark, let me make one small observation:
If your taxes are "much more complicated" than what we have back home, you're thoroughly screwed.
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I don't know about the Danish system as a whole, but the income tax system for individuals is much simpler then the US. For example, there are three different tax forms Americans file (1040EZ with about 15 lines, 1040A with fifths, and the full 1040 with 79 lines). Your income tax is calculated in stages.
First you add up all potential sources of income -- wage income, independent contractor income (which usually has to go on a Schedule C so your software calculates the Self-Employment tax correctly), intere
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BTW: You know that controversy over Obamacare? The way it works is that the federal government set up an insurance market, and even the poorest can afford to buy insurance because of Federal subsidies. You know how they do the subsidy? You tell the marketplace how much you think you'll make. It runs an algorithm for how much you can afford to pay, and then calculates the subsidy necessary for insurance to be affordable.
That subsidy is an income tax credit. Which you have to repay if you got a raise and didn
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While this is a great idea that works in the rest of the world, there is no way it can work here. Our tax system is too screwed up for it to work in the US. Most other countries don't have different taxes for different types of income, tax deferred income, tax deductions, tax rebates, and any number of other things to deal with. It would work for people with very simple tax returns but our system is too screwed up for it to work for most people.
This is the same reason a flat tax would never work in the US.
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easy solution, stop filing taxes. The government gets all that information anyway.
Not true. First of all, you may have accounts outside of the country, which you will need to report. Second, you may have rental income that is not automatically reported. And those are only the first two things I thought of when I read your post.
Oh, and those are Federal only. An example of state taxes that are not automatically reported is the use tax that you have to pay if your state uses it, like California does.
The IRS also doesn't necessarily need to know about your deductions, unless you want yo
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In the UK, you are required to file a return if you have more than £300 of income from offshore investments, or you have rental income. But the vast majority of people manage fine without filing a tax return.
That Is the way it happens here in germany (Score:2)
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The Feds do more cross-checking then the states, so it's harder to just tell Utah "I am totally former Governor John Hunstman, I really really made enough money to owe you $500 in taxes but had $15,000 witheld, and please send all the money to a bank account for Michaleen Czirpinski in Pittsburgh." The example is slightly exaggerated (the state would usually know how much Hunstman paid into the system), but not much.
Ripple Effect (Score:5, Insightful)
You know we have to stop using SSN's for everything. It's time to have a different system. The Anthem hacking is now another example of how vulnerable we are and how we let these companies skate when caught. It's time that PII needs to be held in strictest confidence and with financial penalties awarded to the victims of these stupid attacks. Right now if the FTC slaps them on the wrists and fines them it all goes to the Feds. Fuck that! If I'm a victim of your mishandling of my PII you owe me bitches! Pay Up!
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But the main point is that illegal aliens who have kids in America ARE NOT COMMITTING TAX FRAUD ANYMORE!
They are literally being handed potentially TWENTY biLLION dollars ANNUALLY, just for being here ,ILLEGALLY and having kids they can't afford. All at $6,000 a pop per mother ($2,000 per kid up to 3). TIMES FOUR for the four years they can backdate!
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This is over-hyped BS.
Yes, the amnestied immigrant may get some tax credits, based on his/her newly-aquired SSN. However his/her foreign children won't be able to get a SSN, without which one cannot claim EITC.
So, yes, there are probably a few cases where these large tax credits will be available, but not the vast numbers breathlessly reported.
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Read the article. Several senators are testifying in Congress that you are wrong.
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that blog you linked to quotes this guy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
and, well, he's not exactly a trustable source, given that:
In announcing his Senate candidacy, Sasse expressed strong opposition to the Affordable Care Act (ACA, a.k.a. "Obamacare"), describing himself as "the anti-Obamacare candidate"
so, got any REPUTABLE sources for this?
an 'anti obamacare' guy is not what I would call a trusted source, mate.
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http://news.investors.com/ibd-... [investors.com]
He's on the opposite side of the political spect
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The IRS is *very* clear on this. The children must have SSNs and must have lived in the USA. So, even if they get SSNs for the children, unless the children were actually in the USA for those years, it would still be tax fraud.
Incidentally, you clearly are concerned about the credibility of your original source, becaus
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You're going to have to submit a citation on this. I have already submitted citations on my part, and Senator Rand Paul just said today that illegals can get EITC for foreign national children, by applying for their SSNs in absentia (which *is* totally allowable).
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This isn't WIkipedia. What you have cited are partisan comments by people with an axe to grind, plus misreading (by you) of other quotes. But here is what the IRS says on the topic. [irs.gov]
And for the proposition (I assume yours) that an ITIN is sufficient: No it i [irs.gov]
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Wow, you still believe in Obamacare, even after it's architect bragged that it was a lie designed to fool the gullible America voter? No wonder he felt safe in bragging.
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neocon bullshit website.
yeah, we'll listen to that....
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Strictly speaking this is the way the vast majority of Americans want it.
They want their refunds within days of filing, and since everybody files within the same few months (i.e.: late Jan to Mid-April), and most actually file within the same few weeks (late Jan and easy Feb), that means checking tens of millions identities a day. It would be possible to make a system that could do this, but it would be cost-prohibitive. So they do obvious bullshit error-checking (i.e.: are your W2s as reported the ones the
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BTW: The Feds won't screw you if the mistake is tiny. If you put something on the wrong line, but the answer you end up with is correct, they may make you back-up your claims, but they literally can't screw you. You paid your taxes, on-time, so there's no back-taxes for them to collect, which means the penalty and interest are applied to $0.
If your mistake is small, and it's in the IRS favor, they may fix it and send you a check. Several tax pros I know have neglected to report certain small tax credits (li
Thieves from Asia can file your tax return (Score:3)
Do we need to implement a password system that doesn't include a pet's name for our SSN's verification?
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The worst part is when I was in the military back in the 70's, you were instructed to mark your personal gear. Either etched or written. My gaming books from back then all have my SSN written on the inside cover with my full name should it get lost.
[John]
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Back in the "Good Old Days" Social Security cards were clearly marked as "DO NOT USE FOR IDENTIFICATION"
Sadly, when Emperor Reagan was elected, we forgot all that.
Prior to that, it was illegal to use your SSN for identification, outside of the military.
I think it was the military who pioneered the use of an SSN as an ID.
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Even utilitites and other services require it. :( Also for those Q&As, don't enter real data.
Intuit has a history of ABUSE. (Score:5, Insightful)
Most helpful review: "The Deluxe version does not allow you to file Schedule D or E.
Most helpful critical review: "I hate being gouged, and I hate weasel word explanations even more... I am angry about the deliberate disabling of critical features in TurboTax Deluxe. No Schedules C, D, or E."
The solution? In my opinion, the CEO of Intuit should be fired. Intuit should find a new CEO who will cure Intuit of its long-term abusiveness.
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They are making things right tomorrow by upgrading every Dexluxe owner for free and putting back the features in next year's version. The CEO also gave a very sincere apology.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse... [linkedin.com]
Intuit is NOT making things right! Cost: 4 cents. (Score:5, Informative)
"... returning customers who have already upgraded to Premier or Home & Business, we are continuing to offer $25 cash back through April 20."
Apparently only customers who know about the rebate will get money back; that may be a very small percentage. Many customers paid $30 extra, so Intuit will still make $5 extra for tricking customers. Some customers have automatic extensions of time to file, so they won't get the "$25 cash back", because they will file after April 20.
See this Amazon review: **UPDATE -- IT'S EVEN WORSE** [amazon.com]. Quote: " Even in the high-priced Premier version, Schedule C is crippled -- limited to $100 of deductions in a couple of expense categories. I.e. only good for a tiny hobby business, and maybe not even that. So now having forced me to Premier, even that high priced product is useless to me."
See this story: Citing Tax Fraud Spike, TurboTax Suspends State E-Filings [krebsonsecurity.com]. Quote: "Cyber thieves have long sought stolen credentials for hijacked tax preparation accounts at TurboTax, H&R Block and related services."
Another quote:
"Stolen TurboTax or H&R Block credentials are cheaper and more plentiful that most people probably would imagine. According to the below-pictured well-known seller on the Dark Web forum Evolution Market, hacked accounts currently can be had for
Another:
"Unfortunately for Intuit and its users, calls for the company to support two-factor authentication have fallen on deaf ears so far, at least according to twofactorauth.org, a site that tracks which popular cloud-based services support the added security measure."
Intuit has a LONG history of abuse, of being anti-customer to make more money. Dishonest people don't later become honest, generally. This is an example of that. Dishonest people, when forced to correct their dishonesty, look for other ways to be dishonest.
If Intuit has a capable, strong board of directors, which I doubt, the board should consider getting a new CEO, and firing all the other dishonest people in Intuit top management.
This comment gives only a very short summary of what I consider to be Intuit's anti-customer behavior.
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They are making things right tomorrow by upgrading every Dexluxe owner for free and putting back the features in next year's version. The CEO also gave a very sincere apology.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse... [linkedin.com]
They'll just try it again later.
Re:Intuit has a history of ABUSE. (Score:5, Informative)
They are making things right tomorrow by upgrading every Dexluxe owner for free and putting back the features in next year's version. The CEO also gave a very sincere apology.
They are nowhere close to making it right.
I have been using TurboTax Deluxe for 15+ years without even thinking about it. I have a minimal amount of iOS app income (net about $100/year right now) so I need to file a minimal Schedule C. I bought TurboTax for 2014 a couple of weeks ago and installed it, but was waiting for W-2s, so hadn't entered any numbers yet.
A week and a half ago, Intuit and its CEO sent me e-mail with a "very sincere apology" that explained that I was eligible for $25 towards upgrading. As explained in the e-mail, they were improving the customer experience by removing functionality and it was really being done for customer benefit or something like that. I had no idea what the letter was referring to, so did a search and found that they had disabled Schedules C, D & E in TurboTax Deluxe and there had been a huge outcry.
I thought that they had disabled the wizards that walk you through the forms, but found out that I was wrong when I started entering numbers into TurboTax. I tried to select Schedule C and was told that I needed to upgrade TurboTax and that it would cost $40. Note that Intuit was only offering to reimburse $25 towards an upgrade. At that point, I removed TurboTax from my computer and returned it to Costco and bought competing tax software.
One interesting thing to note is that the product info on the Intuit web page still indicated that TurboTax Deluxe could be used to file Schedule C even though it actually could not.
Yesterday, Intuit and its CEO sent me another e-mail with a "very sincere apology" which explained the they would be reverting TurboTax Deluxe back to the way that has been for years (but, if you had already paid for an upgrade and already filed your taxes, they were still only reimbursing $25, even though the actual upgrade cost could be more). Since I now already have other tax software, I will not be taking them up on the offer.
As I said, I would just buy TurboTax every year without thinking about it and I know a lot of people who did the same. The idea to try and squeeze even more money out of people, resulting in people thinking about whether to buy their product and considering a competitor, has got to be among the worst 'penny-wise, pound-foolish' business decisions ever made.
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So your only complaint now is that you didn't get $40 instead of $25?
I checked on Amazon and Deluxe is $60 and Premier is $75. So it looks like you'd be getting money.
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Due to running my own software business, I have to use the Home & Bussiness version every year, and the price has only gone down over the years. When I first started buying it several years ago, it was usually around $100. Then a couple years later $90... then the last couple years I've bee
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Me, too. TT Home & Business:
2011: $120
2012: $115
2013: $90
2014: $85
2015: $65
TT For Corporations :
2012: $150
2013: $140
2014: $135
2015: $120
Intuit's crooked lobbying (Score:5, Informative)
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It was complicated long before Intuit came into being.
MOD PARENT UP! (Score:2)
"Imagine filing your income taxes in five minutes -- and for free. You'd open up a pre-filled return, see what the government thinks you owe, make any needed changes and be done. The miserable annual IRS shuffle, gone."
Intuit has been paying government officials to try to prevent improvements that would benefit everyone, the article says.
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It really baffles me why the IRS doesn't have a web form for filing taxes. They have all the filed data on what you made. The only explanation that makes any sense is lobbying pressure from the tax filing industry.
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And then there's the other explanation that makes even more sense:
The tax code is so complicated that not even the IRS actually understands it. And if THEY made mistakes on their tax software, they'd be held accountable. If a third party makes mistakes, well, not the IRS' fault you owe extra money this year....
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It's complex, sure, but how complex is it for the vast majority of taxpayers? Most people have pretty standardized and well-understood income sources and deductions.
Before my wife started working a lot of free-lance work, I used to do our taxes by hand (two incomes, two small stock dividends, mortgage, childcare expenses) and one year they said I overpaid and refunded something in the neighborhood of $25, every other year I was dead on and that was just from following the forms and IRS instructions.
I see n
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There are 2,095 negative 1-star reviews on Amazon ... Because, without telling customers, Intuit removed important functions from TurboTax Deluxe.
I find great satisfaction in seeing a company lose customers, brand reputation, and a good deal of money in response to pulling a dick move like this. It gives me the sense that all is right with the world. The H&R Block software is cheaper and is not crippled in the way TurboTax is. My family has abandoned TurboTax, never to return, based on this incident.
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Victim (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Victim (Score:4, Funny)
I wish someone would steal my identity and do my taxes.
(I owe money every year because I don't like giving the government interest-free loans.)
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While it's not fun paying a big lump sum in full each year, I do take satisfaction in knowing I'm not giving the government an interest free loan all year long. And I'm keeping control of my money and only paying them w
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If you've done the data entry for the Federal form on Turbotax, not doing it again is a reason to not bother with Utah's site. Especially since Turbotax does not charge for the state if you've got an EZ.
Of course the number of people who actually have an EZ is much lower then the number of people who think they have an EZ (I actually met a woman with an annuity who thought she had the cheap tax form, sorry lady), and their business model is to lure people into answering a bunch of questions that disqualify
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Add to that Free File Fillable forms for Federal tax return, the IRS' own free filing service. It likewise costs nothing and can be used by many. While not guided, if you know how to do your taxes yourself and can enter the data for electronic filing, there's another reason for many not to not need TurboTax or any other company.
Convenience vs. Security (Score:3)
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Question: How old are you?
I'm 34 and I don't even know what color paper my paystub is. Direct Deposit to a checking account attached to a debit card means I literally haven't seen a pay stub in four years. And I have two jobs. I vaguely recall Home Depots are blue, but I honestly have no fucking clue what color the ones from H and R Block are.
Which means that if you're using that as a security measure you've pissed off a massive section of your customer base.
I agree that if customers valued their security m
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Which means that if you're using that as a security measure you've pissed off a massive section of your customer base.
It's still required by law that the W2 be mailed out, so that's where the payroll company's name (or a ten-digit identifier that's also supplied to the IRS, or any of a number of other security features) could go. For what it's worth, I'm 35 and will always request paper paychecks as long as they're an option.
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It's required by law that there be an option to receive a W2 by mail, not that it actually be sent out. I personally have not been offered a physical copy of a 2 from an employer in years because I made a point of checking the e-everything box. I sincerely hope nobody's tried to physically mail me one, because my address from Feb '11 to Aug of '14 was a Boarding House where some incredibly sketchy people had access to the mail.
You can add all the security features you want, the core problem is that they wil
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There's dozens and dozens of things that the IRS/companies/tax places/etc. could do to make taxes more secure. W2 info is just the tip of the iceberg. In many cases it's actually irrelevant, because you can make the numbers up and file on Jan 20th, but the IRS will not have most W2s until closer to the W2 deadline of the 31st. You've got a decent chance of getting the money and being gone before anyone's the wiser.
As a country, most Americans strongly prefer quicker refunds, which means that any security fe
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Number one, you'd still get people doing their taxes early. Believe me, I work in a tax office and we get people before the first filing day (the 20th this year). Some of them even have a good reason (i.e.: a surprising number of anti-poverty charities require a 1040 to prove you're poor). Moreover if you did this places like my office would probably extend their loan eligibility through the 15th, which means a lot of people who need $500 NOW and can't wait until May would file in January or February.
Number
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And...semi-obsolete already. (Score:3)
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http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2015/02/06/turbotax-state-filings-halted/22979519/
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The power to tax is the power to destroy. When all it takes is the whim of a the legislature to pass a tax...
Of course, this isn't nearly as bad as regulatory organizations that don't even have to pass a bill; executive fiat is all that is required.
Because of this, we'll never see a flat or fair tax in this country.
No need to mention the Operating System involved (Score:2)
Taxact (Score:2)
I always felt frustrated paying over 50 bucks for tax software.
I went to Taxact 8 years ago because of price (22 bucks or so for deluxe state and federal and federal efile, $19 if you buy early). I had tried turbotax and H&R block. They are all roughly equivalent.
The only negative is that they don't seem to import my stocks directly from one of my brokerages.
But it's well worth the avoided hassle of the big names, though.
I'm not avid over tax software, but I like these guys because I think they charge a
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And please carry on using our software for defrauding the Federal government, as they can just print more money as necessary.