Timothy Geithner, Unlikely TurboTax Spokesman
Timothy Geithner is one of 42 million Americans who prepare their own taxes online - and now he might be the most popular. Except in the case of Geithner, the Treasury Secretary-designate, it seems he didn’t follow the directions.
At his confirmation hearing Wednesday, Geithner admitted to more than $40,000 worth of mistakes on his tax returns from 2001 to 2004 while he worked for the International Monetary Fund. Geithner says it was an innocent mistake.
When Senator Chuck Grassley asked him what program he used to prepare his taxes, he answered, “I’ll answer that question, but I will say these are my responsibilities, not the tax software’s responsibilities, but I used TurboTax to prepare my returns.”
The chamber crowd laughed in response. 
TurboTax is the popular software sold by Intuit (INTU), the business and financial management company that also sells Quicken and Quickbooks. Intuit is the clear market leader in do-it-yourself tax-preparation. Although Intuit may not have found Geithner’s admission funny, well, any press is good press.
Intuit sold about 6.5 million copies of its boxed TurboTax software last year, which is about 80% of the market for federal tax return software, according to the company. H&R Block (HRB), Intuit’s main rival, owns the other 20% with its TaxCut programs.
Intuit was founded in 1983. TurboTax followed 10 years later when it acquired the program’s creator, Chipsoft. With TurboTax, the company offers a product that appears to be recession-proof. Even in hard times, the IRS is merciless and impatient: You can’t postpone filing tax returns and if you've lost your job, the agency still demands you pay your taxes on time. In a recession, too, people seem more likely to prepare their own taxes rather than pay a preparer.
Because the tax code changes yearly, users of TurboTax must buy new software to keep up, providing a steady revenue stream for Intuit. The tax code now runs more than 60,000 pages; about 500 changes were enacted last year alone.
Intuit is in an enviable position as the industry leader in a stable and growing market. Users of TurboTax have stayed with the software because it's easy to use and ensures year-over-year consistency in their filings. Indeed, with Intuit’s stock trading near its 52-week low, this seems like a situation where a solid company has been tossed out with the bathwater.
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Can't we do better than this with a population of nearly 300 million?
It allows various powers that be to manipulate and game the system for personal or corporate gain. This gives your favorite Congress person a reason to exist and lots of influence and power if he/she can get your pet project supported by a tax credit, particularly if it's refundable.
There are plenty of good political and social reasons to grant tax credits or exemptions, which give political and legal cover to the thousands of wrong reasons. In my view, the complex tax structure encourages political corruption.
He came off as an arrogant and cynical equivicator; which means he will fit in Washington like a thumb in a glove.
How can appointing and confirming a man who knowingly cheated on his taxes, and who presided over the credit default swaps and lax enforcement of regulations at the New York Fed, instill confidence in the markets?
This is yet another slap in the face to the average wage earner and taxpayer who has been responsible and paid their taxes.
And they wonder why money has left the market...
It's great if you want to see where and how all of your money is being sucked in by the various taxes. In other words, try and learn the tax system.
But it's like any other program, "Garbage in, garbage out"
The testimony looked very bad for Mr Geithner. He either was ignorant, or liked to game the system.
After being mostly out of equities since October of 2007 and against my best judgment, I had been considering getting back in to a small degree in the hope that in a very tiny way I would be supporting our new President.
Even if his tax cheating was an honest mistake (I don't believe that for a moment and I doubt any of the Senators on the committee do either) how can they hope to restore confidence in the system by appointing someone who because he cheated will now become poster boy for the greed and corruption that got us where we are. No one is that smart or indispensable. Most of us were already disgusted with the bank bailouts and the socialism for the rich that has taken place under Bush and with the approval of the Democrats in charge of Congress.
This proves to me that our government is out of touch with the average citizen and our needs. This appointment alone may cause the undoing of the Obama Presidency before it had a chance to begin. How could he do this? What idiots gave him this advice?
its just all smoke and mirrors...he is a thief...and will probably be another paulson
and this guy will head the treasury after the paulson debacle? sure why not?
they are all criminals
i got charged $.04 penalty from the 'great' state of illinois for being $20 short on estimated taxes from an accountant error.
and you should have read the almost obscenely threatening letter i got
They don't seem to understand that the more they do - the more damage is done to confidence in the markets.
The responsible people of America are not stupid.
We know we are being robbed and bent over by government and business. The social contract has been broken. Decades of telling responsible people to trust the markets and believe in government (choose your side) is now recognized as the swill of pigs.
Everyone I know is in cash as much as possible and putting any IRA or 401 K contributions anyplace besides equities or the market. Baby boomers are looking back 20 years and realizing that the 5-6% fixed return fund looks better than anything in the market; why in God's name would we put it back into the casino? Let the 20 year old's do that, if they have anything left after buying an iPhone, iMac, iPod and paying their apartment rent, car lease, and credit card interest (what's in your wallet?).
Trust will NEVER be restored by robbing the taxpayer, punishing the responsible, and rewarding the culpable, which is exactly what they are doing.
Has anyone tried to enter some version of Mr Geithner's income for the 2 years and see if Turbo Tax does not report a problem?
Has anyone tried to enter some version of Mr Geithner's income for the 2 years and see if Turbo Tax does not report a problem?
