Why do you have to file a tax return when the government knows everything about you? Simple. Someone is making a lot of money from it. A lot of someones actually. While business owners might need an accountant to prepare their taxes, the vast majority of citizens don’t. Yet, for some reason, we all do.
This video explores the perversion of American tax law in service of a handful of corporations and a boatload of CPAs.
Photo credits
Income tax refund by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Pix4free
Franchise by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Pix4free
Marco Verch, Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30478819@N08/45180115654
Mike Mozart, Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeepersmedia/15816360393
Tony Webster, Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/diversey/50235108761
Ajay Suresh, Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajay_suresh/51788715359
Elliot Brown, Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ell-r-brown/4629390834
Bart Everson, Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/editor/7973704928
Sources
How Intuit kneecapped California’s ReadyReturn program: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/business/24digi.html
Intuit’s lobbying expenditures: 1998-2022: https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?cycle=2022&id=D000026667
How TurboTax hid its FreeFile page from search engines: https://www.propublica.org/article/turbotax-deliberately-hides-its-free-file-page-from-search-engines
TurboTax’s fake military discount: https://www.propublica.org/article/turbotax-military-discount-trick-troops-paying-to-file-taxes
The attempt to ban the IRS from doing your taxes: https://www.propublica.org/article/congress-is-about-to-ban-the-government-from-offering-free-online-tax-filing-thank-turbotax
https://www.propublica.org/article/congress-scraps-provision-to-restrict-irs-from-competing-with-turbotax
The cost of tax filing: https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2018/07/18/tax-filing-congress-irs-000683/
Intuit’s lobbying history: https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free
Intuit’s Lobbying against the Tax-paying Simplification Act (2016): https://www.nbcnews.com/business/taxes/turbotax-h-r-block-spend-millions-lobbying-us-keep-doing-n736386
Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound
Outro song: The Blackest Bouquet, Leonell Cassio
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