
Tax software companies made $1B charging people who can file for free - paulpauper
https://www.propublica.org/article/turbotax-and-others-charged-at-least-14-million-americans-for-tax-prep-that-should-have-been-free-audit-finds
======
FearNotDaniel
I don't know about the US system other than described in the article, but
based on the UK system, where HMRC (our IRS-equivalent) supplies its own free-
to-use web application, I can think of two possible reasons that third-party
software could be worth paying for:

\- improved usability

\- requiring certain form pages that are not provided in the government's own
solution (HMRC web filing covers most, but not all, use cases - if you fall
under one of the edge cases, as I did last year, you have a choice of filing
on paper - requiring hand calculations, and a much earlier deadline - or
paying for a COTS solution)

------
lowdose
Fear sells.

