创业与商业propublica.org
H&R Block 与 Intuit 游说反对简化报税（2017）
H&R Block and Intuit Lobbying Against Simpler Tax Filing (2017)
2017 — 2022，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
这篇2017年ProPublica调查报道梳理了H&R Block和Intuit如何通过游说反对更简单的美国报税方式，尤其是政府预填税表和免费申报等改革。文章的核心指控是：靠报税复杂性赚钱的公司，正在阻挠能让纳税人省时省钱的方案。它把报税问题从个人麻烦提升为公共利益与商业游说的冲突。
为什么经久不衰：它揭示了报税流程背后长期存在的游说和商业利益博弈，今天美国报税依然复杂，因此这篇调查仍有现实意义。
HN 评论精选
游说是合法腐败；丹麦预填税表已运行多年，多数工薪族够用。
游说是富人合法绕过民主的一种方式。它是合法腐败，对民主的危害不亚于非法腐败。丹麦使用预填税表已经二十多年，如今是在线的：登录后查看税额，必要时修改。对非雇员仍不必要地复杂，但对90%只拿工资、只有普通扣除的人来说还算可接受，尽管很难核查税务部门算得对不对。
flexie查看英文原文
Lobbying is a way for the rich to legally shortcircuit democracy. It’s legal corruption and as bad for democracy as the illegal counterpart. In Denmark we have had prefilled tax forms for I don’t know how many years. More than two decades. Nowadays its online. You log on and see your taxes and edit when necessary. It’s still unnecessarily complicated if you are not an employee, but for the 90 percent who receive salary as their only income and only have ordinary deductions it’s somewhat bareable although it can be hard to check if the tax authorities calculated the tax correctly.
应区分受保护的请愿、有偿游说合同和贿赂送礼。
应当区分三件事：游说活动本身受第一修正案保护，属于向政府请愿申诉；花钱雇他人游说，过去似乎曾属非法（来源未注明出处，希望法律史更熟的人核实）；给议员送礼，若存在权钱交易则违法。
afarrell查看英文原文
There is a useful distinction to be made among three things: - The activity of lobbying, which is explicitly protected by the 1st amendment as petitioning the government for a redress of grievances. - Contracts to pay someone else to engage in lobbying, which apparently used to be illegal[1]. - Giving gifts to legislators, which is illegal if quid-pro-quo. [1] My source is https://priceonomics.com/when-lobbying-was-illegal/ though that does not itself cite any sources. I'd love if someone more familiar with legal history could comment on its accuracy.
荷兰预填表覆盖90%以上，数字提交97%，商业服务只用于复杂情况。
荷兰多年来一直这样做：登录税务局下载预填税表，工资/所得税、银行存款和房贷都已填好，对90%以上的人完整。剩下10%可补充或更正税务局可能不知道的信息（如海外资产或比特币），然后数字签名提交。自己操作很容易，97%数字提交、3%纸质。商业报税服务主要用于复杂情形，多为会计师和税务专业人士使用。
Maarten88查看英文原文
In the Netherlands we have had this for years. You login with the tax agency and download a pre-filled tax form. Wages and Income Tax is pre-filled, as are Bank savings and morgages. The pre-filled form is complete for over 90% of people. The 10% for who it is not can add or correct things that our IRS may not know correctly (i.e. foreign holdings or bitcoins). You then digitally sign and submit it. It's quite easy to do yourself and I think most people here do (couldn't find a percentage). I could find that 97% is submitted digitally, only 3% is on paper. We do have commercial offerings, those are used for the more complex scenario's, mostly by accountants and tax professionals
Credit Karma用免费报税获客推销贷款，可能可行并冲击两大报税公司。
奇怪文章和评论还没提到 Credit Karma 的报税方案，它是真正免费的。其策略大概是用免费报税获取用户和数据，再用来推销贷款产品。我认为这是可持续且政治上可行的免费报税路径；预计约五年内 Credit Karma 会抢走 TurboTax 和 H&R Block 很大一块市场。
naftaliharris查看英文原文
I'm surprised the article and comments haven't mentioned CreditKarma's tax solution yet, which is (actually) free. [1] Presumably their strategy is to take the users and data they get from offering free tax filing and use them to advertise lending products. I think that's a sustainable and politically feasible way to get free tax filing, actually; I expect that in ~5 years Credit Karma will have eaten a big part of TurboTax and H&R Block's lunch. [1] https://www.creditkarma.com/tax
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