It’s tax time. Wouldn’t it be nifty if you could download your return pre-completed with the data your employers and financial institutions have already sent to the government? Review it, edit it, upload it, and be done with it!
California does it, and it’s a real money saver. They say it costs $2.59 to process a paper return; 34 cents to process a “ReadyReturn.” Funny thing, though. The state only spends $10,000 to promote it.
The meagerness of the funds allotted for the ReadyReturn program reflects the strength of its political opponents, [state controller John] Chiang said. The most vigorous opposition comes from companies that sell tax-preparation software, “principally, Intuit,” he added.
INTUIT, which publishes TurboTax, does not dispute this description.
“We’re a California company and actively participate in the political process,” said Julie Miller, a company spokeswoman. “Our position has consistently been that ReadyReturn duplicates what is already available.”
With companies free to buy up more and more of our government, we should get used to that kind of corporation-speak.