“Every time you see a TurboTax ad, remember,” Elizabeth Warren* recently tweeted, “they’ve spent millions of dollars lobbying to make the tax-filing process as difficult and time-consuming as possible. All to protect their bottom line. But now the IRS is testing out a truly free Direct File option.”
Every time you see a TurboTax ad, remember: they’ve spent millions of dollars lobbying to make the tax-filing process as difficult and time-consuming as possible. All to protect their bottom line. But now the IRS is testing out a truly free Direct File option.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) February 12, 2024
So what? It’s Congress, charged with writing tax code, that has spent decades making filing both difficult and time-consuming. TurboTax only exists because Congress has created a byzantine code.
Moreover, tax preparation outfits are lobbying to oppose the federal government using taxpayer dollars to put them out of business. If TurboTax were lobbying against flattening or simplifying our byzantine code, I would be appalled myself. In this case, they’re lobbying against the efforts of a deranged apparatchik to nationalize another industry.
Warren not only wants the government to write tax code, enforce tax code, and withdraw taxes from your paycheck, she wants to file your taxes, as well. It is a guarantee that any government program created to “prepare” taxes would evolve into a government program that cuts the citizen out of the process completely. Our withholding system is bad enough. We don’t need salaried workers even more disconnected
