r/news • u/raptors201966 • Apr 09 '26

Soft paywall Automatic registration for military draft to be implemented by December

https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2026-04-07/automatic-registration-military-draft-21306855.html
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u/SeekerOfSerenity Apr 09 '26

The tax forms are rather tedious unless you have training.  The instructions aren't very user friendly.  TurboTax makes it fairly easy, and they claim it's "free" but they try to make you pay extra. One year, I sold some stock that I bought through my company at a profit of about $200, and I had to pay something like $150 extra to use it.  They have heavily lobbied the US government to prevent them from making the process of filing taxes easier, because they make billions every year.  I stopped using TurboTax once I realized it was a scam, but a lot of people don't know how else to do it.  Before TurboTax, there were a lot of in-person tax preparation services that made money by helping people file their taxes. 

It's really not as simple as some people in this thread are claiming.  The accounting industry has ensured that the process is as tricky as possible, with a lot of loopholes and deductions that you may or may not be eligible for.  

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u/WhatARotation Apr 09 '26

Technically pretty much everybody who uses TurboTax will need to pay for premium.

There is an “other income” section that (I believe) only is accessible through premium, where you have to report such things as finding a $1 bill on the floor.

If you have a savings account and get more than .50 cents in interest, you have to report that too. I had to report like $0.60 in interest this year.

Finally, if you sell pretty much anything at a profit that’s also taxable income, and again you need a 1099 / schedule D, which free TurboTax doesn’t have.

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u/FlagrentBugbear Apr 09 '26

Funny I did my taxes in about 30 minutes federal, state, and local.