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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)

#351

Post by tracker1 »

Gustomaximus wrote: post #324
ruleabidinguser wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why precisely is having the worlds largest military bad? Do you think it doesnt add any value? It seems theres a lot of people outside of America who'd like to see it shrunk for very bad reasons. Why not keep the military and solve our problems without it? We need it to be safe now, and until we've already solved our problems, we'll still need it. Obviously it doesn't always work well and it definitely causes problem…

The bad is there is an opportunity cost of dollars spent. And the US could likely still dominate global firepower rankings at half the current spend, meanwhile this saving could significantly improve the education or health system with that money. Or reduce the tax burden on people. Or simply bank it to reduce the debt and burden of repayment for future years. Lots you could do with hundreds of billions.

Education, absolutely.. it'd be a drop in the bucket regarding healthcare, without IP reform.

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

#352

Post by jedberg »

mb_72 wrote: post #344

I have experience as a tax payer in Estonia (employee only) and Australia (employee and business owner). In Estonia I login to my bank with my citizens ID card, click through a few screens ... and my tax return is done. All the financial information supplied by my employer to the government is immediately visible and checkable, not to mention donations made to tax-deductable organisations is also immediately visible.…

> But ... yeah ... in Estonia it just rocks. The ID-card based functionality for banking, digital signatures, tax ... just awesome.

That's what happens when your head of state has a computer engineering degree and used to work on databases before going into politics. :)

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

#353

Post by c22 »

lorenzorhoades wrote: post #333
Gustomaximus wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bad is there is an opportunity cost of dollars spent. And the US could likely still dominate global firepower rankings at half the current spend, meanwhile this saving could significantly improve the education or health system with that money. Or reduce the tax burden on people. Or simply bank it to reduce the debt and burden of repayment for future years. Lots you could do with hundreds of billions.

Some people would disagree with you. I believe military and defense spending should actually be one of the only role of governments. Leave healthcare and education to industry. Let the free market decide the curriculum, teachers salaries, and come up with innovative ways of teaching. I see no reason Khan academy shouldn't be allowed to teach our children. Since when did it become common place to allow a government to…

I don't believe there are systems that can't be gamed. Given that assumption it's probably better to decide policy based on actual results. In places where social programs are abundant you have fewer suffering individuals, it seems healthier to count that as a win and not get hung up on the (truly rather small) percentage of people potentially gaming the system.

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

#354

Post by tracker1 »

PeterStuer wrote: post #335
krisroadruck wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You... love paying taxes?

I have no problem with taxes, just with the ways they are being spent.

I have a problem with the rate, collection and spending of taxes. I'd love to see us move away from property and income taxes... Income taxes are at least technically a tax on trade though. I'm not quite sure what the answer is, to be honest. I've just seen so much waste, it sickens me.

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

#355

Post by em3rgent0rdr »

chasing wrote: post #234
krisroadruck wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You... love paying taxes?

Yes. I love paying taxes. Not because I like having less money in my bank account, but because I understand what paying taxes represents.

If people in general "loved" paying taxes, then taxation could be replaced with a voluntary system. It is precisely the fact that the people who love paying taxes are a minority that coercion has to be used.

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

#356

Post by vxNsr »

tuna-piano wrote: post #270

I haven't read a legitimate argument against the IRS calculating taxes automatically, but here it is. The more invisible taxes are to the individual person, the less they think about that money (and the higher taxes can go without them complaining too much). Rent feels expensive because every month you write a check for rent. However, for many people, taxes are a much bigger expense than rent. But taxes don't feel as…

While I agree with the sentiment of what you said, my rent comes out to about 3 times my monthly tax deductions.

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

#357

Post by tracker1 »

cderwin wrote: post #337
wbl wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should I have to pay $100 to file my taxes?

HR Block is free if you just file a 1040, the "professional" version is $40. If you're paying $100, either you are seeing a tax professional in person or you are vastly overpaying. Presumably you would only meet with a tax professional if your situation is significantly more complicated than most.

I pretty much have to pay the higher amount for preparation, lest I end up in a legal quagmire over the few thousand I earn on the side a year via 1099 income. I can handle the EZ form, but the stuff for business expenses and income become interesting to say the least.

Although I guess it could be worse... I generally have extra taken out of my regular paycheck so I don't have to make quarterly payments. But it's just guesswork for the most part, as I just don't know where things will be precisely. Some years, I'm happy not owing anything, or at least much (I've owed the state a couple times), Other years I get more back than expected.

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

#358

Post by tracker1 »

wallace_f wrote: post #205
jjeaff wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>if you make $400 selling vintage cabbage patch dolls on eBay? This hurts my head to think about. According to CNN, 20% of large corporations pay almost nothing in corporate taxes.[1] 1 - http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/13/pf/taxes/gao-corporate-taxes...

In fairness most corporations shouldn't be paying taxes... their investors and customers do though. Also, corporations shouldn't have legal "personhood" or rights to invest in political agendas either. Also, corporate owned property that is unutilized or underutilized should probably be subject to forfeiture for better use.

But that's because I feel that corporations should be mostly about collective ownership and protection from direct liability. It shouldn't be a carte blance.

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

#359

Post by TwoBit »

ruleabidinguser wrote: post #285
SpaceRaccoon wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, funding a $600 billion military industrial complex [0]. Just think, your complete yearly taxes were probably almost enough for a single JDAM [1] which was then dropped on Iraq, in a war where 13% of all civilians were killed directly by US-led forces [2], and many more in the chaos that ensued from the invasion. But you love it. [0] - https://www.nationalpriorities.org/campaigns/military-spendi... [1] - https://…

Why precisely is having the worlds largest military bad? Do you think it doesnt add any value? It seems theres a lot of people outside of America who'd like to see it shrunk for very bad reasons. Why not keep the military and solve our problems without it? We need it to be safe now, and until we've already solved our problems, we'll still need it. Obviously it doesn't always work well and it definitely causes problem…

I disagree that we need as much military as we have now, in order to be safe.

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

#360

Post by kingosticks »

ajeet_dhaliwal wrote: post #140
kingosticks wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Or if fortunate to earn over £100k! But I do totally agree with you. And it does seem the obvious way of doing things. The recent changes to the personal allowance are another example of trying to keep the common case simple.
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