Elizabeth Warren likes taking and spending your money. But she doesn't like it when you spend your money on things. Like a service that helps you navigate the insane tax code. You know, the one that says you can go to prison for a long time or pay lots of money in penalties if you don't do it correctly.
The focus of her ire right now is TurboTax. Their crime? 'Upselling' willing taxpayers.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) criticized TurboTax on Monday for charging taxpayers for relatively simple tax returns and repeatedly upselling them during the filing process.
Ahead of Monday night’s tax deadline, Warren pointed to an example of a sample taxpayer with a “simple filing situation” who would qualify for the IRS’s new Direct File tool, which is a free pilot program available in 12 states.
However, using TurboTax, the sample taxpayer would pay $133 for filing federal and state taxes and “get upsold or solicited for additional costly services eight more times in the process,” Warren said.
“The TurboTax website attempts to divert taxpayers away from free filing options early in the process – and continues to do so throughout their federal and state tax filings,” the Massachusetts Democrat wrote in a letter to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan.
Taxpayers who use the service have the choice not to select those features. They're adults.
Of course it is.
She is the problem.
And she proves it, every day.
Apparently not.
Solid idea.
There are financial and criminal penalties for not paying taxes correctly. Most people need help doing so.
It's never the government's fault.
It's more fun this way.
Amen.
Weird.
Nope.
Yep. Feckless is a good word to describe her.
That'll show them. Get on this, Lizzy.
TurboTax is not the problem.
We've used government software. Not a good product.
She likes the IRS.