[danielweber]

TurboTax found several thousand dollars for me in a fairly complicated tax situation that I was completely not expecting and would never have realized on my own. Even some CPAs I've talked to have said "oh, really?" They've bought some tremendous goodwill from me with that. I'm probably sticking with them forever.

[d3ad1ysp0rk]

This is the exact anecdote for why Intuit would want to keep tax law complicated.

[danielweber]

How do you think carryover losses of subchapter S corporations should be handled to make them easier?

[SeanDav]

The idea is to make it easier for the average person. Those involved with subchapter S corporations are probably not amateurs and are not the target audience.

[ams6110]

Taxes are easy for the average person. A basic 1040-A, and certainly 1040-EZ (these two cover most taxpayers), are not difficult to do on paper if you can read and have a little patience.

I'm not defending Intuit here, by the way. But most people don't need what they are selling.

[snarfy]

You cannot itemize a 1040.

[ams6110]

True, you need the full 1040 return for that, but most people don't have enough deductions to itemize -- that was my point. The average tax return is a 1040A or 1040EZ with the standard deduction. Those are easy.

[danielweber]

I wasn't arguing against that. Rather against the conceit that my tax situation must be the result of people conspiring to keep things complicated, when the big thing (that got me thousands of dollars) was probably something that cannot really be simplified much further. Yet TT found it for me when lots of CPAs just didn't understand it.

[nightski]

In my mind move to a consumption tax with pre-bate (aka FairTax) and remove corporate income taxes altogether.

[rpmcmurphy]

I have a moderately complicated tax situation. Own property. Some investments. Occasional AMT hit for options. TurboTax handles all of this well. I am happy to pay $100 where before I could easily spend ten times as much on a CPA. That said, they really should allow auto-file for people with simple returns.

[larrywright]

Quite a few accountants that I know use TurboTax to file for their customers.