I’m a math wiz (by the standards of most people’s math ability, I’m not claiming to be the next Euler) and taxes confuse the crap out of me. I know plenty of people who are smart and patient and just throw it to a professional service/preparer/software because it’s not intuitive. I tried to show a friend of mine who had a super easy 1040EZ filing how simple it is to use the H&R Block App which I had used earlier this year to e-file. I figured it might relieve some of her stress levels around filing herself.
What I noticed is that the apps punish you if you qualify for EIC, taking money from people who really need it. My friend made so little she had zero taxable income. She would have had a decent chunk of change deducted from her overpayment and credit by e-filing with H&R or any other service. My filing was completely free, despite the fact that I made much more than her. In talking to others, there seems to be a trend that people who qualify for EIC and really need the money as soon as possible are exploited by these tax-prep services and end up getting nickel-and-dimed because they are generally either less financially sophisticated or less confident about their ability to navigate their returns.
In the end I just did her return for her on paper and sent it in the old-fashioned way. But there are numerous legitimate arguments for simplifying the tax preparation process.
One final note: When the fuck did the Internet completely forget what ad hominem means? This has gone from a pet peeve of mine to the realization that there’s a broader problem.
It started with people complaining about it loudly like tattling schoolchildren whenever they were insulted. That was bad enough: Calling you an idiot because your views are wrong isn’t ad hominem. Saying your views are wrong because you’re an idiot is ad hominem.
But now, we’ve completely lost sight of the usefulness of knowing this is a fallacy. Donald Rumsfeld is a horrible person. He can be a horrible person and still be right. This is the definition of the ad hominem fallacy, to argue or insinuate that someone is wrong because of their status, as opposed to actual veracity of their argument.
