Why Doing Taxes Is So Hard | Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj | Netflix
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN recommends it as an accessible explanation of how Intuit's lobbying and deceptive design undermine free tax filing.
What it is
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.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2021 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec lazyweb · 2021-06 · on “Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit”
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] [this video]
Recommends michaelmior · 2024-01 · on “IRS Free File is now available for the 2024 filing season”
> 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: [this video]
Cites rkk3 · 2022-02 · on “Ask HN: How does TurboTax get away with dark patterns?”
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] [this video] [2] [LINK]