[IP] Re: Bush's IRS Wants to Make Your Tax Returns Public

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

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From: John Levine [johnl@iecc.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 1:20 PM
To: David Farber
Cc: Lars Poulsen
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:   Bush's IRS Wants to Make Your Tax Returns Public

>Nobody should be surprised at this. Frankly, I have been suspicious
>ever since I saw "free online tax-preparation" offered on the net.
>It is obvious that if an address of a homeowner is worth $5 to
>marketers, then a complete form 1040 is worth at least $50.

It is my impression that the main impetus for the free online tax prep
is to sell people overpriced refund anticipation loans, a variant of
payday loans.  My local credit union offers free tax prep in person,
to deflect people from the H+R Block refund loans and to encourage
people to put their refunds in savings accounts and build some assets.

Selling the info to marketers is gravy.

Regards,
John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://www.johnlevine.com, ex-Mayor
"More Wiener schnitzel, please", said Tom, revealingly.

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