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Re:FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing ... by dguest on Wednesday March 30, 2022 @01:27AM (#30851764)
I know people who have optimized this:

- they fill out their taxes with rough estimates,

- the IRS helpfully corrects their errors, and sends the form back

- they sign the corrected form, send it back

- the IRS accepts the second round.

This is basically the same "pre-filled" workflow as every other developed country. The difference is that we have a first round where you put in a semi-plausible effort to placate the tax preparation lobby.

Has anyone with a normal job (not self-employed, regular paycheck from a company registered with the IRS) ever been fined etc for this?

Re:FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing ... by legalcorrection on Wednesday March 30, 2022 @01:56AM (#30851888)
Beware: if you owe the government money due to your mistakes, you will have to pay penalties and interest.
Re:FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing ... by pm90 on Wednesday March 30, 2022 @02:06AM (#30851952)
The main thing in this strategy is that your estimate is pretty close to the amount owed. So you may overshoot or undershoot, but likely by a pretty small amount, which is likely to make the difference owed small. I guess it could be considered a cost of filing taxes.
Re:FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing ... by dguest on Wednesday March 30, 2022 @02:16AM (#30852012)
How much are the penalties?

If they are charging some absurd (say 20%) interest and you're off by 10k, you might pay them a few hundred in interest if the process is prolonged a month, which is on par with a tax prep service.

Re:FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing ... by kristopolous on Wednesday March 30, 2022 @02:10AM (#30851972)
If you overpay they'll credit you next year. They're pretty lenient as long as your act promptly in good faith