Filing Taxes in Japan Is a Breeze. Why Not in the US?

[0] https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf

Edit: People who are contractors / not employees have to remember to set aside a portion of their income that the employer would take out automatically for them.

> We have that [a employer withholding system] in Australia, and it definitely simplifies the process for workers at the end of the year.

We have that in America too, only it complicates our tax forms.

When filling out your Form 1040s, under "Payments" you fill field 64 "Federal income tax withheld from Forms W-2 and 1099" from your employer-provided W-2's field 2 "Federal income tax withheld" (ignoring fields 4 and 6, "Social security tax" and "Medicare tax" withheld.) And of course, any 1099-Rs with federal income tax withheld must also be attached to your tax return...

You can ask your employer to adjust your withholding - if you owe too much money (more than $1000 and more than 10% of your total yearly taxes?) come tax time, you'll have to pay an additional penalty. If you paid too much already, the government can wire it back to you, or apply it to next year's taxes.

> Personally, I've always liked the idea of a 'standard deduction'

We have this in America, it's great - mine was "only" $6300 this year (single, no dependents). On the other hand, there are deductions for everything from mortgages to electric vehicles (expiring after this tax year), which can add up quick. Fortunately I'm not there... yet...

I got lucky this year: Only 5-6 forms to mail.

He runs an extremely influential organization that administers a sort of purity pledge that, for most Republican candidates for Congress, is necessary to sign in order to avoid being primaried.

He has decided that making taxes easier to do would make people more okay with tax increases, and so he has decreed that support for the kind of systems other countries use is a violation of this pledge. His excuse is that such a system would effectively slightly increase taxation by preventing people from getting away with taking erroneous deductions. This excuse is obvious, total bullshit.

Grover Norquist wants taxes to be painful because he wants people to dislike government and the concept of taxation in general. Thus, Republicans in Congress must take the same opinion or risk having their purity stamp revoked. Thus, no reforms get passed.

Perhaps this is one area Trump can do some good; certainly he's much less beholden to the traditions that bind the old guard (for better or for worse).

For example, it pre-fills some data but omits obvious stuff like my first name and email address which are highly unlikely to have changed since last year?

Some non-relevant sections can be ignored but others need you to enter 0.00.

Also, if there is an error in the electronic filing, so your return is not submitted, good luck on finding what that error was because they aren't going to tell you.

And, lastly, the switch from the old style site to the new could be handled better, like all in one go instead of randomly switching you between the two.

I imagine that they will also tell you if you need pay more for the same reason, but that's never happened to me.