创业与商业propublica.org编辑精选
TurboTax 长达 20 年阻止美国人免费报税的斗争
TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans from Filing Taxes for Free
2019 — 2025，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
ProPublica 的调查报道，讲述 TurboTax 的母公司 Intuit 二十年来如何通过游说、暗黑设计（dark patterns）和营销手段，阻挠美国政府推出让纳税人免费、简便报税的方案（如加州曾试行的 ReadyReturn 预填报税）。文章梳理了「免费报税」承诺如何被包装成引流产品，以及监管与立法层面的博弈。
为什么经久不衰：报税季年年重演的结构性利益冲突：一个私企为保住利润，系统性地阻止更简单、更便宜的公共服务落地，而这类调查每次重上首页都推动一轮公众讨论与政策变化。
HN 评论精选
加州政府内部开发者现身说法：免费报税工具因游说压力、缺乏推广和预算而举步维艰。
我是加州免费报税软件 CalFile 的负责人，就是大家在这里一直呼吁的那个项目。我正努力让它更好用、覆盖更多人，比如支持目前还不支持的资本利得申报。但我遇到的阻力有：1）上次有人想搞 ReadyReturn（预填报税），TurboTax 等公司雇了一大批游说者施压，把项目扼杀了。我们内部的人至今还怕引来游说者的注意。2）CalFile 的使用量逐年下降，照这个趋势很快会被砍掉——有了联邦报税结果后，多花点钱顺手把州税也报了要省事得多。而且没人知道 CalFile 的存在，我们没有推广预算。3）连我们这里的人都相信「已经有免费软件了，大家都可以免费报税」这套说法。
mars4rp查看英文原文
I am the developer in charge of CalFile, the free filing software that everyone asks for here for state of California. https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/ways-to-file/online/calfile/index.asp I am pushing so hard to make it better and more useful to more people, like being able to add capital gain that is not currently supported. these are the push backs that I am getting: 1. Last time they tried to do what all of you ask, a ready return. TurboTax and others hired bunch of lobbyist and put so much pressure on people here and killed the project. People are still afraid and don't want to do too much to grab the attention of their lobbyist! 2. Use of CalFile goes down every year and if trend continues, it would be killed in the near future. when you have your Federal return it is much easier to pay a little more and file your state tax with it too. No body even knows CalFile exist because we don't have a marketing budget to promote it. 3. Even people here buy the argument that free software exist and people could file their taxes for free.
巴西由政府提供唯一、免费的官方报税软件，说明「报税必须靠商业软件」并非必然。
对比一下：巴西的联邦税务局提供一个免费、跨平台的 Java 桌面报税程序。界面不算好看，做复杂的股票交易时录入信息很痛苦，但对绝大多数人来说够用了。它还会提示你该用标准扣除还是分项扣除，并算出实际税率。实际上多年来它是申报个人联邦所得税的唯一途径——纸质表格被废除了，因为几乎没人用且错误率很高。
gjvnq查看英文原文
Just for comparison: in Brazil the _Receita Federal_ (IRS equivalent) provides a free multi-platform* Java desktop app for filing your taxes. The UI isn't great* and if you do complex stock trading it can be a pain to add the necessary information, but for the vast majority of people it works just fine. It also shows if it is better to use the standard deduction or the itemized deductions for your particular case and also calculates your effective tax rate. In fact, the Java App has for years been the only way to file personal income federal* tax. The paper forms were abolished because (almost) no one used them and they had a large rate of mistakes. * The Java desktop app runs on Linux, macOS and Windows. (And possibly others) * There is a separate mobile app but I haven't actually used it. * In macOS there was bug in last year's version: it used ctrl instead of command for things like copy and paste. * There is no state income tax in Brazil.
这个话题在 HN 反复登顶，反映其报道持续引发共鸣。
我喜欢 ProPublica 的这组报道，但说真的，这该颁个「HN 最执着话题奖」。过去七个月里就上过这些：TurboTax 二十年阻挠免费报税（211 分，54 分钟前）、TurboTax 对低收入用户涨价（144 分，3 个月前）、国会删除限制 IRS 与 TurboTax 竞争的条款（82 分，4 个月）、听 TurboTax 撒谎以逃避退款（171 分，5 个月）、TurboTax 用「军人折扣」骗军人付费报税（170 分，5 个月）、TurboTax 与 H&R Block 视免费报税为威胁（355 分，6 个月）、TurboTax 在搜索引擎里藏起免费页面（881 分，6 个月）、TurboTax 用暗黑模式诱使你付费（608 分，6 个月）、TurboTax 如何阻挠免费简易报税（2013，462 分，7 个月）。
fedups查看英文原文
I like propublica's reporting on this but geez, this needs an award for one of the top HN obsessions. Within the past 7 months: TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans from Filing Taxes for Free; 211 points -- 54 minutes ago TurboTax to charge more lower-income customers; 144 points -- 3 months ago Congress Scraps Provision to Restrict IRS from Competing with TurboTax; 82 points -- 4 months ago Listen to TurboTax Lie to Get Out of Refunding Overcharged Customers; 171 points -- 5 months ago TurboTax Uses a “Military Discount” to Trick Troops into Paying to File Taxes; 170 points -- 5 months ago TurboTax and H&R Block Saw Free Tax Filing as a Threat; 355 points -- 6 months ago TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines; 881 points -- 6 months ago TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes; 608 points -- 6 months ago How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013); 462 points -- 7 months ago edit: if you _still_ haven't gotten enough TurboTax reporting, there's a great Reply All episode that covers propublica's reporting as well https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/6nhgol
类比：政府把简单事务外包给陈旧私营流程，背后往往是既得利益者。
几周前我在纽约注册了一家 LLC，在线按简单说明操作，非常顺利，一小时内就拿到正式的电子证明，我甚至觉得政府还是有希望的。但几天后我收到一家私营公司的信：除非我付 1000 美元，让 LLC 的名字在两家公立报纸（一家日报、一家周报）上连续刊登六周，否则 120 天后我的 LLC 就得停止在纽约经营。我一查，法律确实这么规定。在这个黄金时代，政府却要求我付钱给一家古老的私营公司，把我刚想出来的名字用油墨印上千遍，再用卡车分发给一群老人，然后被他们扔进垃圾桶。纽约要废掉这条荒谬规定根本不需要什么复杂的税务算法。这流程存在，也许只是因为有一群人在靠它发小财？
r0m4n0查看英文原文
A few weeks ago I started an LLC in New York. I followed all the simple instructions online and the process was actually very straightforward and easy. I had an official digital copy of proof my LLC existed within an hour. I went to sleep with and thought that there is hope for our government. Within a few days I received a letter from a private company informing me that unless I pay them $1000 to publish the name of my LLC in two public newspapers for six weeks, one daily newspaper and one weekly newspaper, in 120 days my LLC would need to cease doing business in NY. I pull out my phone and did a quick online search. Lo and behold, there is a law that says the same. In this golden age, the government has chosen to require me to pay a private archaic company to print in ink thousands of times on paper the silly name of an LLC I just came up with, then proceed to distribute it by truck to a bunch of old people that then proceed to throw it in the garbage. No fancy tax algorithms would be required for NY to simply drop this nonsensical requirement. Maybe this process exists because there are groups of people making a small fortune from it?
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