Your experience is way different from mine.

I had some very basic "double check" type questions about my very straightforward taxes I threw at the bot because it was handy and it didn't seem to know that it was even related to taxes or tax software and literally directed me to seek out someone who might know about taxes. I then asked it about the weather and it was able to talk freely about that, just seems like they're reselling another model with a different prompt up front or a RAG.

I've been using it out of laziness because I know it will import the previous year. But it is pretty buggy and getting worse, they clearly want you to move off the desktop software.

If you look at the actual generated tax forms, there's a lot of extra pomp around filling out some pretty trivial forms and worksheets. If they cut the desktop software I think I will just move to something like https://www.freetaxusa.com/.

Finally being able to stop paying Intuit $150 every year as a reward for their lobbying against tax code simplification and free e-file is one of the most exciting possibilities for AI imo

I WAS a happy TurboTax customer for over 33 years, until this year when I used HR Block TaxCut to file my 2025 returns. Intuit insisted that only Windows 11 would be supported, for no technical reason whatsoever. I assume they got a payoff from Microsoft for doing this.

So now I see they're laying off 3000 employees and wonder if it has something to do with poor sales of TurboTax because of their lame policy.

> If it stays at arm's length, and if it can "read only", then I am OK with it and actually somewhat pleased with it.

This isn't actually about AI. it's just classic human psychology.

You’ve had a rock-solid workflow for 25 years, so it makes total sense to be cautious and reject features you don't need.

Right now, keeping it at "arm's length" and "read-only" feels safe. But that's usually just phase one. Once that initial trust is established, those boundaries naturally start to melt away. Give it a couple of tax seasons, and you’ll probably find yourself wanting it to take on more of the heavy lifting.

Why pay for tax software? What's wrong with the free tax submission website?

I had a mixed experience with it. I think it has enormous potential but it needs to be more deeply integrated with their system (while staying read only by default, as you said).

Just a quick note that you are also telling a story about how TurboTax could be overstaffed.

Stop being a "happy customer". We shouldn't be paying in the first place.

https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-f...

"happy", I don't understand how any user can be happy using these tools. Begrudging, maybe. These tools don't even need to exist. The government already knows all it needs to know and just needs your signature and a check. The only reason TurboTax exists is because of lobbying.

> I'm a happy TurboTax customer for over 25 years.

I've been using TurboTax for about 20 years now and I am not happy. I hate it with a passion, it has more dark patterns than even LinkedIn and with my basic W-2 tax return with HDHP I managed to hit all their 'know issues' 4 years in a row. They of course offered me to upgrade several times during the 'work flow' to make up for it.

I loathe the existence of Intuit and I still have some hope that a future administration will kill it by having the IRS implement a basic digital product for federal tax filing for the 90% of people who use the standard deduction. Intuit should not exist in its current form in any civilized country, it is a form of cancer which only exists because our politicians are a bunch of greedy fucks.

If you use TurboTax, you are part of the problem.