TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans from Filing Taxes for Free

Re:TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans from Filing Ta... by untog on Thursday October 17, 2019 @10:08AM (#21282191)

I'm just imagining applying this principle more broadly. Perhaps before every meal I could be forced to calculate the number of calories in each item, total them up and submit them. Maybe before every car journey I could fill out an estimate of the wear and tear on the tyres, gearbox and suspension, and record that in a big log book of car events.

Doesn't seem like a particularly useful way to approach life, to me.

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Re:TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans from Filing Ta... by pfranz on Thursday October 17, 2019 @03:06PM (#21285348)

The technique is actually used a lot in diets and budgeting. Manually writing down everything you pay for helps you to notice that taxi you take every day or how often you "splurge" for coffee. Same with calories and that afternoon or midnight snack.

But forcing it just wastes everyones time, adds red tape, and additional bureaucracy they purport to rail against.

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Re:TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans from Filing Ta... by abugheratwork on Thursday October 17, 2019 @02:01PM (#21284720)

> Perhaps before every meal I could be forced to calculate the number of calories in each item, total them up and submit them.

That's called Weight Watchers. The general principle was pretty effective for me. Most people don't keep a log of wear and tear on their car, but we definitely operate airplanes that way. That also seems pretty productive to me.

But yeah, it's not the only way to operate. I don't really like the idea of putting more responsibility on people in order to "raise awareness". I take that to really mean someone would like everyone to be more upset about taxes, and would like to make them less convenient to increase upsetness.

[ Parent | on HN ]