How much of those time savings and costs are beeing moved from the employee to the employer? How much simpler is it for the companies?
Filing Taxes in Japan Is a Breeze. Why Not in the US?
31–40 of 279 posts
Re: Filing Taxes in Japan Is a Breeze. Why Not in the US?
#32I don't know when the slogan of the Dutch tax authority, "We can’t make paying taxes pleasant, but at least we can make it simple" was introduced, but in my view it has been supported in three different ways: 1) a simplification of the tax rules - mainly by reducing the number of exceptions and tax deduction rules, 2) filing the tax forms digitally - they started with desktop applications, and now the main focus is o…
It is still no krentebol to work with taxes in NL. Better than most places but if you have a company it still is way too much red tape. I am very much for paying taxes and I would not even mind overpaying if it were a lot simpler. Here in Spain it is hell: I know why it is that but it makes not declaring far more attractive so we Dutch did something right. Still it is way too much hassle, especially for the small amo…
My experience with business taxes is very limited (just simple revenue taxes), so that could be a lot more complicated in many cases indeed. There are still sufficient numbers of accountancy and tax firms in NL, so it can't be simple in all cases. I was referring to personal income and property taxes.
Re: Filing Taxes in Japan Is a Breeze. Why Not in the US?
#33I don't know when the slogan of the Dutch tax authority, "We can’t make paying taxes pleasant, but at least we can make it simple" was introduced, but in my view it has been supported in three different ways: 1) a simplification of the tax rules - mainly by reducing the number of exceptions and tax deduction rules, 2) filing the tax forms digitally - they started with desktop applications, and now the main focus is o…
UK equivalent: "Tax doesn't have to be taxing". The UK web filing system is also pretty good (part of the GOV.UK project), although if you're in a nice straightforward salaried job you won't have to use it at all.
Re: Filing Taxes in Japan Is a Breeze. Why Not in the US?
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're saying this like inefficient government institutions can't harm business
They can, but the goal is to make people hate said institutions so much that they elect people who limit the institutions power to the absolute minimum necessary. Inefficient institutions cause lots of small pains, extremely efficient, overly powerful ones nationalize your oil and gas industry because they can.
Inefficiency and powerlessness are not at all the same thing, as the US's various police services demonstrate on an ongoing basis.
The inefficiency of the court system also makes it more, not less, of an imposition.
Re: Filing Taxes in Japan Is a Breeze. Why Not in the US?
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're saying this like inefficient government institutions can't harm business
They can, but the goal is to make people hate said institutions so much that they elect people who limit the institutions power to the absolute minimum necessary. Inefficient institutions cause lots of small pains, extremely efficient, overly powerful ones nationalize your oil and gas industry because they can.
Are... are you alright, sir?
Re: Filing Taxes in Japan Is a Breeze. Why Not in the US?
#36I don't know when the slogan of the Dutch tax authority, "We can’t make paying taxes pleasant, but at least we can make it simple" was introduced, but in my view it has been supported in three different ways: 1) a simplification of the tax rules - mainly by reducing the number of exceptions and tax deduction rules, 2) filing the tax forms digitally - they started with desktop applications, and now the main focus is o…
Point 1 may be a goal of the dutch Tax Administration but all those exceptions and subsidies (toeslagen) are mandated by politics so there is only so much they can do about it. In fact the dutch tax system is actually hugely complicated by the sheer amount of interdependent exceptions and subsidies. So I'm really surprised they use the Netherlands as example.
Re: Filing Taxes in Japan Is a Breeze. Why Not in the US?
#37I don't know when the slogan of the Dutch tax authority, "We can’t make paying taxes pleasant, but at least we can make it simple" was introduced, but in my view it has been supported in three different ways: 1) a simplification of the tax rules - mainly by reducing the number of exceptions and tax deduction rules, 2) filing the tax forms digitally - they started with desktop applications, and now the main focus is o…
[deleted]
Re: Filing Taxes in Japan Is a Breeze. Why Not in the US?
#38Belgium is interesting. The forms are really complicated, but luckily largely prefilled forms for most (salary and pension income, mortgage related deductions, ...).
Apart from the complexity, the problem here is the extremely slow return of what the government owes you.
For 2016 income: * filing between 20170426 - 20170630 * final calculation by post ~20171101 - ~20180401 * return of overpaid amount ~20180101 - ~20180601
The Belgian revenue service almost always overcharges on obligatory prepayments. Refunds happen only at the end of the process. That means an ordinary Belgian citizen gives a free loan to Belgian government for ~12-18 months.
Re: Filing Taxes in Japan Is a Breeze. Why Not in the US?
#39“We can’t make paying taxes pleasant, but at least we can make it simple.”
I actually don't mind paying taxes, because I can see around me every day that the money is mostly put to good use. I can imagine if I lived in a place where there were little or no public services, bad public schools, bad infrastructure, five digit annual college fees, polluted tap water, power with frequent blackouts or brownouts etc, I'd be pissed off with my tax bill too.
Re: Filing Taxes in Japan Is a Breeze. Why Not in the US?
#40"Hey, we here at The Government would like to make your experience paying taxes less painful. Hence forth, we're just going to take whatever amount we think is accurate, and you don't have to do anything! Just trust us!" Politely sir, take one giant step back from that and your beachfront property in Arizona, and diddle your own face. Now, serious answer? Because EVERYTHING about the US Government is intentionally de…
There's zero correlation between efficient taxing and corrupt governments.
The "we want to break government so that people don't trust it" shit doesn't make sense. Why not opt for a good government that you can reasonably trust, and do away with the anxiety and potential harm a shitty government causes?
It's like saying you don't wear your seatbelt because the fear of dying makes you drive more carefully.