Re: OT Filing for free vs Free File, was Re: Simple software for a scanner … LIDE 700F)
On Tuesday, March 10, 2020 05:12:43 AM Curt wrote:
> On 2020-03-10, Gene Heskett <gheskett@shentel.net> wrote:
> > But I didn't know there was a free filing system, Block sure isn't
> > advertiseing it, I think they much prefer to keep on charging me around
> > $300 to put their stamp on it. so I may investigate it, thanks for the
> > heads up.
>
> This sums up the situation in the USA IMO:
>
> https://www.propublica.org/article/filing-taxes-could-be-free-simple-hr-blo
> ck-intuit-lobbying-against-it
>
> “Let’s call the so-called Free File Alliance what it really is — a
> front for tax prep companies who use it as a gateway to sell expensive
> products no one would even need if we’d just made it easier for people
> to pay their taxes,” said Warren in a statement to ProPublica. Warren’s
> office put out a report on the issue last year that repeatedly cited
> our coverage.
>
> No member of the hoi polloi in the Gallic regions uses or requires an
> external software company to do their taxes, nor does anyone I know or
> whom I've ever known here pay the least centime to get them done (not
> rubbing shoulders much with any millionaires as part of the 99); the
> French equivalent of the IRS (the "fisc") provides free, official
> software online, pre-filled for the taxpayer. And *they* calculate what
> you owe, if anything. You just fill in the numbers, if they're not
> already filled in for you.
>
> At any rate, the H & R Blocks et. al. obviously have a vested,
> mercantile interest in keeping the entire process bewilderingly
> complicated, as well as exclusively within the domain of the private
> sector.
Which is pretty much the same situation for medical insurers in the US.
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