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by cpinto
4835 days ago
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In Europe taxpayers waste millions with the tax authorities' pre-filled/free filing systems. The major reason for that is that once you have free filing with some data preloaded, human behaviour kicks in and you either spend some time figuring out where to minimize your tax losses (rational economic behaviour) or accept the tax return presented by the tax authorities and go with that even if it means wasting money (irrational behaviour). To give a sense of how big a problem this is, here in the UK a report came out last year that pointed to £12.6B wasted. In Portugal, waste is around €2B if our math is right. (Shameless plug): At http://gosimpletax.com we're actually helping taxpayers save as much as possible with as little friction as possible. We're currently operating in the UK & Portugal and would be great to have your feedback if you're in any of these countries. |
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Regarding your site: The "Learn more" isn't a link. Why not? I don't want to go to your blog, I want a clear statement of what you provide without registering first. I'm not going to register without a very clear idea of what you offer. That I can register for free makes no difference to me when there's no clear statement to explain what I get if I sign up for free, given that the service costs money to use.
Looking at your "pricing" page, I see fear-mongering. "Hours wasted"? Only if your tax affairs are terribly complicated. "Painful and confusing forms"? Only if you failed basic English and arithmetic. I find the UK self assessment (having dealt with the Norwegian one before Norway went "pre-filled"/online) very well designed. "No guidance or help"? The HMRC guides and website are actually very good.
You seem to be positioning yourself for people with lots of money (to be able to save on average 2000,-, given that the average British taxpayer pays somewhere below 4k in income tax and 2.5k NI, and very few pays more than 10k-15k...), who are confused and clueless about the tax system, yet willing to sign up to an online service rather than get face to face time with an accountant...
If that's your intended market, and that actually brings the revenues for you, then your site is well targeted...