The SnapTax Story: A Pioneering Example of Corporate Innovation by Gabe Cornejo

Tax forms can get super complex and annoying to deal with. This article is an excerpt from the Shortform summary of “The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries. Shortform has the world’s best summaries of books you should be reading. Known previously as “food stamps,” the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) can help you pay for food if you have a low income.

  1. Once you’ve finished entering all your information—a process that takes about 10 to 15 minutes no matter which app you’re using—you can file your taxes.
  2. This year, SnapTax is available for all states AND for both iPhone and Android mobile phones.
  3. You can download SnapTax for free in the Apple App Store and Android Market and pay an introductory price of $14.99 when you are ready to e-file your return.
  4. He reads broadly, covering a wide range of subjects including finance, management, health, and society.

The iPad version offers the option of taking a photo of your W-2, after which TurboTax will attempt to scrape your wage and tax information and automatically enter the data in the appropriate TurboTax fields. While this feature works well, it’s always a good idea to double check the data—especially with W-2s that have many fields filled—as sometimes information ends up in the wrong places. If you’re an iPad user, filing taxes on your tablet is no different than filing taxes on your Mac. TurboTax 2013 and the
H&R Block app both provide access to all the features of the desktop versions of their related desktop apps, with some subtle differences. TurboTax is a standalone iOS app, while the H&R Block app connects to H&R Block’s Web-based tax filing tool. In fact, if you attempt to log into H&R Block’s Web portal while you are using the iPad app or vice versa, you will be automatically logged out of the other app.

Guide to Filing Taxes on Mobile Phone or Tablet

Builds trust for your clients, makes things easier for you. We make receiving and sharing documents easy and safe with a secure document portal and a beautiful interface. Gone are the days of emailing documents or spending hours on the computer answering questions. Clients can give you everything they need in 3 minutes or less.

How to Find Your Tax Refund

SnapTax was a groundbreaking startup that aimed to simplify the tax filing process by automating the collection of information. With over 350,000 downloads in the first three weeks of its nationwide launch, SnapTax quickly became a significant success story. Both the
H&R Block 1040EZ and
TurboTax’s SnapTax app make quick work of your basic tax filings and they do so in almost exactly the same fashion. Intuit Inc. is a leading provider of business and financial management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses; financial institutions, including banks and credit unions; consumers and accounting professionals. Its flagship products and services, including QuickBooks®, Quicken® and TurboTax®, simplify small business management and payroll processing, personal finance, and tax preparation and filing. ProSeries® and Lacerte® are Intuit’s leading tax preparation offerings for professional accountants.

File taxes from your iPhone with SnapTax

Tax apps for your smaller handheld devices are geared toward users who are likely to only file the 1040EZ. You can watch Intuit’s demo video below, though it doesn’t show real footage of the app in-action. Intuit demonstrated an earlier version for me a few months ago, and I an attest that the scanning part, at least, works as smoothly as promised. Discover how Intuit’s innovative product disrupted traditional offerings and paved the way for corporate entrepreneurship. It’s been integrated into the main TurboTax mobile app.

Otherwise, either of these two apps will be enough to meet your basic tax filing needs. But one surprising find was the Intuit table in the corner. From there, you can review the information, answer a series of questions, see what kind of refund you (hopefully) have coming to you, and then file your state and federal tax returns directly from your iPhone.

It was an internal project at Intuit, a giant public company that makes finance tools like Quicken and Turbotax. When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. To apply for SNAP, contact your state or local SNAP office. Depending on your state, you may be able to apply online, in person, by mail, or by fax.

SnapTax makes it easy to prepare and file simple tax returns via an iPhone mobile device. Available exclusively for California residents and using advanced optical character recognition software, SnapTax allows taxpayers to prepare and file their federal and state returns from their iPhones. Taxpayers simply snap a photo of their 2009 W-2, answer a few basic questions, review their tax information and click “send” to submit and e-file, all within a matter of minutes. When it comes to filing taxes on your iPad, TurboTax is king. By offering the same features and functionality as the desktop application, it’s guaranteed to help you get your taxes filed on time and without hassle. For EZ filers who file state tax forms, H&R Block 1040 EZ offers a slight advantage as it charges less to file those forms than SnapTax does.

Instead of building a complete product and shipping a giant package, the startup decided to release a barebones version. It only processed the simple 1040EZ tax return, and it only worked for California. It was barebones in features, but enough to prove that people wanted the app. Once your return is complete SnapTax displays your final information—how much you owe or what your refund will be—and offers you the option of filing your return using the app.

But, like the company’s acquisition of Mint, this seems like a way for the finance software giant to try to reach a young, tech-savvy audience. In conclusion, creating an “island of freedom” can be a key ingredient in the success of a small start-up. It provides the team with the resources, support, and flexibility they need to take risks, experiment, and innovate, which can lead to breakthrough products and successful outcomes. By embracing the principles of the Lean Startup, start-ups can take their innovation to the next level and achieve success in a competitive and rapidly changing marketplace. The Lean Startup method has been applied to numerous startups and has been proven to be effective in helping businesses get to market quickly and efficiently.

Lightning-quick access to documents, cutting-edge AI data extraction, and a beautiful user interface will make filing returns a breeze. Last year, SnapTax was limited to CA residents with an iPhone only and quickly achieved a 4 star rating in the Apple App Store. Avery Ryder, a 21-year-old college student and the first person to file a return using the app shared his reaction.

If you own an iOS device, it may be all you need to settle up with the taxman. Both H&R Block and Intuit offer apps for the iPad, iPhone or iPod touch that, depending on your needs, will do the job and do it well. https://turbo-tax.org/ will be available in the App Store in mid-January (once the IRS opens e-file) for $9.99, which includes federal and California state preparation and e-file. To get the most out of SnapTax’s innovative OCR capabilities, we recommend using it with the iPhone 3GS. Also, check out what others like TechCrunch are saying about SnapTax so far.

Recipients spend their benefits (provided on an electronic card that is used like an ATM card) to buy eligible food in authorized retail food stores. SNAP is the largest program in the domestic hunger safety net. At the time of this review, some features in the H&R Block were not available. For example, you’re supposed to be able to snap a photo of your W-2 so data can be imported automatically, but this tool had a “Coming soon” image in place of the button you’d use to take the photo. If supported by your payroll company, you can easily import your data using your company’s employer ID or enter the data by hand. snaptax is an excellent option if you file a basic tax return, but if you want to avoid paying the app’s filing fees you are better off using Intuit’s Web app instead.

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