Why Doing Taxes Is So Hard | Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj | Netflix
Netflix Is A Joke2 HN recommenders · 2021–2024
1.8M views · commentary · dated · Uploaded 2020-06-29
An episode of Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj exposing how tax-prep companies like TurboTax make filing confusing and costly even though many Americans can file for free. It combines comedy with reporting on lobbying and dark patterns.
HN recommends it as an accessible explanation of how Intuit's lobbying and deceptive design undermine free tax filing.
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3 comments from Hacker News
There's a very good Patriot Act episode [1] regarding devious patterns in the US tax industry. In fact the whole show is well worth watching. It's cancelled now, presumably because Netflix felt some heat since every episode stirred/kicked another wasp's nest. [1] [VIDEO]
Pretty much everyone has to pay if you use turbo-tax, the "free" edition is not an IRS free file offering they don't advertise that one. There are very very very limited cases to not be hit by a "surprise" you need to upgrade and pay us from with money from your tax return. A staggering percentage of people who would have eligible to file for free under the IRS program end up paying because of the dark patterns, and the misleading marketing you for whatever reason are perpetuating. 2 years ago 37 Million people filed online who were eligible to use an IRS free file offering and only 6.8% did... [1] [1] [VIDEO] [2] [LINK]
> the government's own system is shit (which is why many people choose to pay) The reason the government's system has historically been terrible is because of lobbying on the part of Intuit (maker of TurboTax) and others. There was a great episode of Patriot Act a few years ago that discussed this: [VIDEO]