The IRS already knows what taxes you owe. In most cases they could just send you a bill.
Only true if you have a simple standard w-2 job. With stocks, capital gains, dividends, write-offs, company you need to handle these manually and the government doesn't know your write-offs and all sources of income.
Capital gains and dividends get reported to the IRS.
If nothing else, the IRS could say "here's the info we have, feel free to review and add anything we don't know about".
>Simplify the tax code so anyone can do theirs on an index card. Aim higher. In the UK, your employer informs the government about your wages and HMRC figures out how much you paid and whether it's the correct amount. And if you want you can check the numbers. In other countries it's basically the same but you have to log into the e-government portal to click 'yes, the values you have are correct'. Obviously if your…
Intuit may have gotten to the Canadian government too (or they are just incompetent) because I lived there a few years, and then moved back to the UK and it sort of crazy how simple and easy things are here, especially for people who are only employees. You don't file anything at all if you are an only an employee in the UK.
Not entirely true, there are lots of reasons why you do need to file in the UK as only an employee. See https://www.gov.uk/self-assessment-tax-returns/who-must-send... Although HMRC's self assessment website does make it pretty simple (compared to the US system, at least).
> I honestly laugh at this one. Just exactly which part of information that IRS process is not already in the IRS possession? With that statement -- they really reach out for the dumbest people hearing them out. They won't have data from people who are self-employed. That said, neither does TurboTax so there's no difference here based on their argument, just as you said.
It does make a difference. TurboTax is an app that allows you to enter this info. The whole premise of auto-filed tax return is that you don't need to enter anything. The argument "to be able to file without entering anything you need to either vastly expand what IRS knows about citizens, or to restrict it to a small number of very simple cases" is not refuted by pointing out neither IRS nor TurboTax initially do not…
It's not a very large percentage of returns (around 6.5%) if you credit them with the ability to file all 1040EZs (they probably can't auto-file all the 1040EZs but can probably do most of them).
Serious question: Is it possible for society to criminalize rent seeking behaviors like this? It seems clear that there's no benefit to keeping the status quo tax filing system except for the benefit of tax preparers. What's stopping the US from creating a law that says if a company attempts to lobby for something in bad faith (like the tax example), they will face sanction?
Absolutely. What few people realize is that nations are competing with each other and this is a perfect example of how you can differentiate. However, your options may be limited at present, or you may have "roots" where you are. If I was founding a nation on the water with Peter Thiel, or in space with Elon Musk, you can bet I would advertise quite loudly that this (and for example pharmaceutical price gouging) woul…
I think that's a pipe dream. I once read that true freedom is the freedom to choose where to live, but our world is moving towards closing borders even more, and they were never really open. So I don't think nations compete on that front. Internally local people compete for the ruling opportunity, nations don't compete to attract citizens.
I live in New Zealand. I don't have to file taxes if my income is a standard wage my tax payments are automatic. My employer deducts them from my wage and they are sent to the IRD (Our government tax dept). My student loan and super payments are also automatic. If there is anything wrong then at the end of the tax year I can file to correct things. I also get donations rebates, this is a one page form that lists all…
U.s. govt uses tax code to incentive behaviors. We have 1040ez which is almost as simple as the NZ system if citizens don't want or have any deductions.
This really has nothing to do with the topic, every country uses tax codes in that way we just have a simplified system to calculate and pay taxes in other countries
the deep cynicism here is how people think Turbo tax is doing a pubic service by making taxes easier and cheaper, that's how effective their marketing is. Convince the public there is a problem that only said company can solve.
Paying TurboTax $59.99 is cheaper than going to H&R Block and paying a tax preparer $169
It takes a lot more time with Turbotax than H&R Block or even just handing stuff over to a regular accountant who does tax preparation. The obscenity of paying $1000 for small business tax preparation was not moderated by the even more obscene alternative of spending four days with TurboTax (or any other software for that matter).
But at least TaxAct is a small company that's been around for about as long as TurboTax and I think their business model is far more ethical than Intuit, who are doing the absolute worst thing by basically legally bribing elected officials to keep tax preparation complicated enough that they are a going concern.
Same old same old: show me a doctor who doesn't want you to be sick. Show me a lawyer who doesn't want you to get in trouble with law. Show me a priest who doesn't want you to sin. It just blows my mind up to what degree TurboTax will go with this!
I have never met a doctor (and I think I know a higher-than-average amount of doctors) who wants people to be sick.
But there are diseases where there is a debate over whether someone is "sick" and should be treated. E.g. slow-spreading cancers that likely won't kill you or cause symptoms until after you are dead. Procedures such as whole-body scans frequently turn up issues that would likely never be a problem.
There are doctors who push these things that are of questionable medical efficacy, but definitely put money in their pockets.
Serious question: Is it possible for society to criminalize rent seeking behaviors like this? It seems clear that there's no benefit to keeping the status quo tax filing system except for the benefit of tax preparers. What's stopping the US from creating a law that says if a company attempts to lobby for something in bad faith (like the tax example), they will face sanction?
Intuit may have gotten to the Canadian government too (or they are just incompetent) because I lived there a few years, and then moved back to the UK and it sort of crazy how simple and easy things are here, especially for people who are only employees. You don't file anything at all if you are an only an employee in the UK.
Not entirely true, there are lots of reasons why you do need to file in the UK as only an employee. See https://www.gov.uk/self-assessment-tax-returns/who-must-send... Although HMRC's self assessment website does make it pretty simple (compared to the US system, at least).
Thanks for the link and correction. Most of these apply to people who have income other than employment, but a couple of them affect employees only (such as those collecting child benefit). I think there's a huge difference how the UK handles this where having to file for an employee is usually an exception rather than a rule whereas every single employee in Canada must do this paperwork.