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How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013)

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Re: How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013)

#221
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The United States has a complicated tax code because it attempts to make things more "fair" for some people. Some of these are things people like, such as deductions for people with children, paying mortage, etc. Some are more dubious.

The UK has a similarly simple tax system as New Zealand. Taxes are taken out of pay every month, and that's it. Every individual gets assigned a tax code, and that tax code defines how much is taken from your pay. That tax code takes in to account how many kids you have etc. etc. The UK tends to approach tax deductions in a different way, preferring to subsidise stuff up front instead, so you never have to remember t…

Do you get any kind of deduction for giving to non-profits/charities? I give about 12-15% of my gross income to non-profits/charities every year and get a generous tax deduction for doing so. The other thing that tends to be complicated with my taxes is selling stocks. How does the UK handle things like that?

Re: How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013)

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why would anyone oppose a simple system like this? Because you want to make people angry and upset at least once a year at the government? Because you want to remind people that taxes are something the government takes, instead of letting them think of taxes as money they never earned to begin with. I love paying my taxes, but if you think taxes are bad (and lots of people do), then the current U.S. system makes to…

You... love paying taxes?

[deleted]

Re: How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013)

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why would anyone oppose a simple system like this? Because you want to make people angry and upset at least once a year at the government? Because you want to remind people that taxes are something the government takes, instead of letting them think of taxes as money they never earned to begin with. I love paying my taxes, but if you think taxes are bad (and lots of people do), then the current U.S. system makes to…

You... love paying taxes?

I'm an immigrant. I consider it a blessing to be able to do so.

Re: How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013)

#224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair question and I dislike this sort of thing as much as anyone. And of course such an opening comment means there is a "but..." coming. What you're asking for is to criminalize certain petitions of government. So how do you choose whom to discriminate against such that they cannot petition their government in regards to law making without, at the same time, simply institutionalizing the viewpoints of the other side…

I think "only solution" is far too strong. It seems to me there are two sorts of lobbying: positive sum informing of legislators, and zero/negative sum jockeying for societal advantage. We want to keep the former and minimize the latter. So my proposal is: 1. Make all paid lobbying illegal. Make corporate donations to candidates, campaigns, and parties illegal. Eliminate revolving doors. Strongly limit individual don…

So questions to your proposal:

1) You make corporate political donations illegal, but that's pretty specific to a single class of interest group. What about those that regularly act in opposition to corporate interests, such as unions, environment groups, consumer groups? Your point 2 seems to imply they would be included, but why are you specific here as to the prohibition? Or do you propose to treat different association of people preferentially and on what basis?

2) Again you're specific to certain kinds of interest groups but this time leave out corporations when granting permissions. Again, do you have favored classes of associations of people?

3) How do you police such a thing? How do police communication through surrogates or the thousand other ways creative individuals seeking rent or hoping for regulatory capture will bypass "communications with the outside"? Isn't this the sort of creative thinking that caused problems with McCain/Feingold and the like? If you accept greater regulatory involvement from the state, the greater the rewards to those that can gain the ear of the regulator. Risk/reward continues to skew to creative evasion.

4) What makes a neutral group neutral, and, in some way, can there ever be such a thing? Don't get me wrong, I don't know of any instances of the CBO outright gaming information, or releases, etc. for clearly political purposes (nor have I studied the question). However, CBO Director is still appointed by the politicians. What if one political interest group captures congress and decides to politicize the CBO since they can't get sufficient outside support for their position under your proposal? Do you politicians like Trump would do such a thing? Even if we put those sort of hand-wavy humans-are-humans arguments aside, elected politicians are ultimately beholden to their constituents regardless of the CBO position; CBO says we spend recklessly on the military (or if then that sort of thing) a big military district politician will very much ignore that advice. I expect your funds for increased staffers results simply in increased "independent" research supporting whatever position a given politician wants to hold for whatever reason.

Unfortunately, I still think I'm on the right track and that just about any solution that doesn't somehow require the political class, their staff, and families to be quarantined into some forced monasterial existence cutoff from the outside world, seems corruptible.

Re: How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013)

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You... love paying taxes?

I'm an immigrant. I consider it a blessing to be able to do so.

I equate this to the first time I paid my own rent. I loved it. I was paying my own money for my own place and it felt awesome. It seems crazy to love paying rent but there was a period of time where I did.

Re: How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013)

#227
post #160
post #97

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…

It's almost that simple in the US if your situation is that simple. What happens in NZ if you make $400 selling vintage cabbage patch dolls on eBay? What if you earned $1k in returns on your investment account? What if you are renting your place out on Airbnb? If all you have is a simple income in the US, then the 1040ez is a single page and you can file it for free online if you make under a certain amount. You can…

I'm in Japan, not NZ, but the system here is similar to what grandparent described.

In over 10 years here I have never needed to do anything more than to sign a couple of forms provided (and pre-filled-in) by my employer, once a year.

If you make only the equivalent of U$400 in extra income, there's no need to declare it. I think the cap is around U$2000.

If you own a standard investment account, your broker will automatically levy taxes on your dividends and capital gains (rates are the same, BTW). You can still open a different type of account if you want to pay the taxes yourself. But if you're just investing for retirement and going buy-and-hold-forever there's little reason to do so.

Re: How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013)

#228
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So in other words, the free market has produced a pile of jobs that we don't really need? Lobbyists get paid money to get politicians to supply a deduction as a line item on some obscure form, which increases red tape, which requires a need for a free market service, the revenue from that service in turn goes to feed more lobbying for more red tape. This is basically collusion, using the worst aspects of the free mar…

So in other words, the free market has produced a pile of jobs that we don't really need? Lobbyists get paid money to get politicians to supply a deduction as a line item on some obscure form Politicians protecting an industry through action or inaction, no matter if its lobbyists or others suggesting that they do, isn't the free market.

Oh boy, I really want to hear how you think the "Free Market" solves this problem.

Remember kids: If it's broken, apply Free Market liberally to the affected areas.

Re: How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013)

#229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You... love paying taxes?

I'm an immigrant. I consider it a blessing to be able to do so.

I'm an immigrant. I consider it robbery to be intimidated by force into paying taxes.

Re: How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013)

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an immigrant. I consider it a blessing to be able to do so.

I'm an immigrant. I consider it robbery to be intimidated by force into paying taxes.

Not to be rude but why'd you immigrate then? It's not like taxes just started happening recently.
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