Suitably Flip

A Good Day For H&R Block

Earlier today, Treasury Secretary designate Tim Geithner discussed his years-long failure to pay certain self employment taxes for 2001-2002 during his Senate confirmation testimony:

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) asked: "Did you use tax software to prepare your taxes?"

Geithner: "Yes, I did."

Grassley: "Which brand of tax software?"

Geithner: "I will answer that, but I want to say I take full responsibility....It was TurboTax."

This elicited chuckles from the gallery.  Nervous chuckles, perhaps.  I wonder how many of them use (or now, perhaps used to use) TurboTax to prepare their own returns.

Update: TurboTax responds.

“Each year, millions of Americans use TurboTax to accurately prepare and file their federal and state tax returns,” Dan Maurer, senior vice president and general manager of TurboTax, said in a statement late this afternoon. “The software helps taxpayers report their income and find the deductions and credits they’re entitled to claim. TurboTax, and all software and in-person tax preparation services, base their calculations on the information users provide when completing their returns. TurboTax also has built-in error-checking tools that routinely catch common taxpayer mistakes. Federal law and our own privacy policy prohibit us from discussing specifics of any customer’s return.”

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A Good Day For H&R Block

Earlier today, Treasury Secretary designate Tim Geithner discussed his years-long failure to pay certain self employment taxes for 2001-2002 during his Senate confirmation testimony:

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) asked: "Did you use tax software to prepare your taxes?"

Geithner: "Yes, I did."

Grassley: "Which brand of tax software?"

Geithner: "I will answer that, but I want to say I take full responsibility....It was TurboTax."

This elicited chuckles from the gallery.  Nervous chuckles, perhaps.  I wonder how many of them use (or now, perhaps used to use) TurboTax to prepare their own returns.

Update: TurboTax responds.

“Each year, millions of Americans use TurboTax to accurately prepare and file their federal and state tax returns,” Dan Maurer, senior vice president and general manager of TurboTax, said in a statement late this afternoon. “The software helps taxpayers report their income and find the deductions and credits they’re entitled to claim. TurboTax, and all software and in-person tax preparation services, base their calculations on the information users provide when completing their returns. TurboTax also has built-in error-checking tools that routinely catch common taxpayer mistakes. Federal law and our own privacy policy prohibit us from discussing specifics of any customer’s return.”