BillBrasky Memorial Political Chat Thread

[ConnorEl]

Robin Hood in reverse…yep.



Lol @ our political stab at a solution. I mean, why not just cap the fees? Freedumb?

Full disclosure…I love my credit cards. No fees or interest for me, lots of cash back.

 

[myDeaconmyhand]

Robin Hood in reverse…yep.



Lol @ our political stab at a solution. I mean, why not just cap the fees? Freedumb?

Full disclosure…I love my credit cards. No fees or interest for me, lots of cash back.

From my understanding there is an argument that cash back rewards cards are driving inflation for everyone because the rewards are drawn from increased processing fees those card companies charge to vendors, and vendors pass those fees onto everyone. That’s why some politicians are pushing legislation to make those rewards programs illegal.

 

[ConnorEl]

No doubt I’m getting several thousand dollars a year of “free” money that’s probably originating largely from less “fortunate” folks.

 

[ConnorEl]

Swipe fees are set by the Visa and Mastercard networks, which dominate the market for processing credit cards. Fees in the U.S. are eight or nine times as high as those in Europe, says Stanford finance professor Chenzi Xu.

 

[2&2 Slider To Leyritz]

Collecting taxes is necessary, not required to be seen as a screwing.

Collecting taxes that are properly calculated as owing is necessary. Directing the proper or improper calculation one way or the other can be a screwing.

 

[2&2 Slider To Leyritz]

Most people don’t have a need for complicated returns. Should be a simple and free way to file their taxes IMO.

You can always pay for software or cpa services if you have something not straightforward going on.

There is. Fill out the free form and mail it in, as has been the case for decades. If you want to give everyone a credit for the postage stamp on their taxes, that could work to solve the "free" problem.

But introducing an automated program that can skew the intake, application, and calculations one way or the other is ripe for screwing. If someone is filling out the free online interface, how do they know whether or not they have something not straightforward going on? That is kind of the point.

 

[06deacon]

So 2&2’s argument is that an automated filing service provided by the irs will absolutely be purposefully designed to screw people over and skew their results so they’ll pay more than they should. Ohhhkay.

 

[2&2 Slider To Leyritz]

using your market position to literally deceive people into paying you for a free government service is the definition of screwing. Being found guilty of deception and then using racial justice concern as a defense for it is just 3 levels beyond screwing.

Again - is your position that the IRS is not trying to screw people, regardless of color?

Addressing your tangential point, everyone has always had the right to prepare their own taxes.

 

[Frosty]

So 2&2’s argument is that an automated filing service provided by the irs will absolutely be purposefully designed to screw people over and skew their results so they’ll pay more than they should. Ohhhkay.

Especially when whatever methodology is applied will be a matter of public record and HEAVILY scrutinized

 

[ConnorEl]

There is. Fill out the free form and mail it in, as has been the case for decades. If you want to give everyone a credit for the postage stamp on their taxes, that could work to solve the "free" problem.

But introducing an automated program that can skew the intake, application, and calculations one way or the other is ripe for screwing. If someone is filling out the free online interface, how do they know whether or not they have something not straightforward going on? That is kind of the point.

So a paper form can’t be available electronically for free?

Seems like it’d be a more efficient system for everyone.

 

[ConnorEl]

So 2&2’s argument is that an automated filing service provided by the irs will absolutely be purposefully designed to screw people over and skew their results so they’ll pay more than they should. Ohhhkay.

Especially when whatever methodology is applied will be a matter of public record and HEAVILY scrutinized

Yep

 

[DeacHead]

Tax calculations and rules are simple to code and most importantly test. If there's some error in the IRS software "screwing people", it would be pretty easy to detect and retail competitors would certainly expose those bugs if they existed.

 

[ConnorEl]

Yep

 

[06deacon]

idk why the stupid IRS screwing people assertion is even in here, other than 2&2 using it to defend ACTUAL screwing by intuit and others. Just weird.

 

[myDeaconmyhand]

But introducing an automated program that can skew the intake, application, and calculations one way or the other is ripe for screwing. If someone is filling out the free online interface, how do they know whether or not they have something not straightforward going on? That is kind of the point.

I don’t know if you’re being obtuse here is from genuine ignorance or trolling. The IRS introduced a free filing program 5(?) years ago for people with less than 73k reported income. A handful of major return companies heavily advertised themselves as portals to the free service, so that returners could easily bring over their previous filing data to the free IRS service. Instead of merely acting as a portal, these companies portals were designed very deceptively and confusingly to prevent people from using the free IRS filing service, and force the users to unintentionally file with a paid service. This practice was deemed so egregious that Intuit was sued in a massive civil suit and forever to pay 100s of millions of dollars. Now that their previous deceptive practices have been deemed illegal, they are using lobbying and propaganda to undermine trust in the free IRS portal, so that low income users will pay for their return service (which will just use the fucking IRS portal!)

 

[2&2 Slider To Leyritz]

Tax calculations and rules are simple to code and most importantly test. If there's some error in the IRS software "screwing people", it would be pretty easy to detect and retail competitors would certainly expose those bugs if they existed.

Uhhh, what? So what explains the millions and millions of pages of revenue rulings, revenue procedures, and cases at every level of every jurisdiction arguing over said tax calculations?

 

[2&2 Slider To Leyritz]

So 2&2’s argument is that an automated filing service provided by the irs will absolutely be purposefully designed to screw people over and skew their results so they’ll pay more than they should. Ohhhkay.

That is literally their entire current purpose.

 

[06deacon]

“Literally” is not the word you’re looking for.

I think what you mean to say is “My hot take opinion is that’s their entire current purpose” so folks can dismiss it accordingly

 

[2&2 Slider To Leyritz]

“Literally” is not the word you’re looking for.

I think what you mean to say is “My hot take opinion is that’s their entire current purpose” so folks can dismiss it accordingly

No, it is the word I'm looking for. Have you dealt with them recently? They have hired a bunch of idiots with minimal understanding of the tax code whose sole purpose is to extract the highest settlement possible, regardless of underlying accuracy.

 

[PhDeac]

No, it is the word I'm looking for. Have you dealt with them recently? They have hired a bunch of idiots with minimal understanding of the tax code whose sole purpose is to extract the highest settlement possible, regardless of underlying accuracy.

Settlement?