I honestly find America's tax system to be one of the most bizarre things about the country, TurboTax shenanigans being part of that.
Every year around this time I'm reminded how lucky I am to have at least a somewhat sane and pain-free taxation system here in AU. Me filing a tax return involves bringing a folder of receipts, a page of notes, and handing them over to my accountant who charges me about $120 (tax deductible) the end result of which is I normally get a small refund from the ATO a couple of weeks later.
For me, in AU, it's as easy as 30 minutes filling in information in a government web application, namely myGov. Information which is, for the most part, prefilled for me.
myTax is written by the Australian Taxation Office and is fairly simple and effective. It adopts a really simple design where you begin by ticking some boxes about your income sources and deductions, and then you only see the options relevant to you.
Tax returns competed via this method are back in less than a month. Probably half the people I know do their own tax returns for free.
Every year around this time I'm reminded how lucky I am to have at least a somewhat sane and pain-free taxation system here in AU. Me filing a tax return involves bringing a folder of receipts, a page of notes, and handing them over to my accountant who charges me about $120 (tax deductible) the end result of which is I normally get a small refund from the ATO a couple of weeks later.