4.6 • 8.7K Ratings
🗓️ 13 April 2022
⏱️ 10 minutes
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Few clichés are as well-worn, and grounded in reality, as the dread many Americans feel towards doing their taxes and the loathing they have for the IRS. But as much as the process is despised, relatively little is known about how it could be improved. Pro Publica's Jessica Huseman said that's largely because tax prep companies keep it that way. Brooke spoke to Huseman in 2017 about what an improved system might look like and how tax prep companies work to thwart any such changes.
One of the primary roadblocks to change, said Huseman, is an organization called the Free File Alliance, a public-private partnership whereby private tax companies agree to provide a free service for most Americans in exchange for the IRS not offering any such service itself. Brooke spoke with Tim Hugo, Executive Director of the Free File Alliance, about whether it is really the best way to help American taxpayers.
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0:00.0 | Last week, the company Intuit got into a little trouble with the law. |
0:06.8 | The Federal Trade Commission is suing Intuit the company behind TurboTax. |
0:11.1 | At issue is the company's claim to offer free tax preparation products. |
0:15.3 | The FTC calls that claim misleading because most people are not able to use the free products |
0:20.2 | being offered. |
0:23.1 | Like the 99 cents store, once you unfile taxes nothing seems to cost as little as advertised. |
0:29.6 | Perhaps the true crime here is that people can file taxes for free, but nobody seems to |
0:35.0 | know it. |
0:36.6 | Every year around this time, that is to say tax time, messages pop up in our Twitter |
0:41.2 | feed referring to a story we did a few years back on tax filing, it's become something |
0:46.2 | of a PSA. |
0:48.2 | Why? |
0:49.2 | Because filing taxes is a fraught business, so it makes sense we turn to our saviors, |
0:55.0 | companies like Intuit or H&R Block who say they're more than ready to step in, save the |
1:00.5 | day, save us money and simplify our lives. |
1:04.4 | Your life is busy, growing, we might say it has layers. |
1:09.1 | That means tax complexity. |
1:12.2 | We get it and we're on it. |
1:15.6 | They do get how complex the tax system is because their business model is based on it |
1:20.1 | staying that way. |
1:21.5 | Jessica Hussman, editorial director of both feet, says that when tax prep companies aren't |
1:27.0 | helping you through our overwhelming tax systems, firms like Intuit, which makes turbo tax, |
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