TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes

Re:TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to F... by mdorazio on Monday April 22, 2019 @03:15PM (#19721892)

It's a bit more complicated than that. For example, rental income and capital gains on sales of property or owned items don't typically have reported forms associated with them. But for probably 90% of tax filers, the IRS should already have everything it needs and know the exact amount owed.

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Re:TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to F... by godelski on Monday April 22, 2019 @03:21PM (#19721945)

That's fair, but I think if it works in 90% of cases that's a huge win. And it seems like it'd be pretty easy to close that gap (with multiple solution methods).

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Re:TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to F... by mdorazio on Monday April 22, 2019 @04:01PM (#19722301)

100% agree. A simple "here's what we think you owe" postcard for 90% of people and a "we think you might have unreported income based on your bank transactions - please fill out a full 1040" for the other 10% would be a massive improvement over today's system.

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Re:TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to F... by behringer on Tuesday April 23, 2019 @02:16PM (#19731309)

Right now the system is that everyone gets a "we think you might have unreported income" and I don't see any problem with that.

What I don't understand is why we can't have the IRS running their own tax prep website. The government seems to be capable of running other websites just fine.

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