91–100 of 279 posts
Overlooked in this article and comments is the influence of one man -- Grover Norquist. 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 k…
Norquist started Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) is a politically conservative U.S. taxpayer advocacy group whose stated goal is "a system in which taxes are simpler, flatter, more visible, and lower than they are today." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_for_Tax_Reform Doesn't sound like you are describing Norquist's organization they way they do in their mission statement. Do you have any references?
Nothing stated in the article supports the claim made above. I believe that's just someone's interpretation in an effort to make certain people they disagree with look bad.
Today I filed taxes in Sweden for the first time. 1. Sign-in from Bank-id at Skatteverket 2. Review pre-populated amounts 3. Digitally sign acceptance filing with Bank-id If I just have one salary from one employer all year round, why should it be more complicated than this?
Skatteverket is a pretty knowledgeable organization though, and quite friendly when you have questions to ask so I recommend giving them a call if you need things clarified. They've helped me out a lot simply by educating me when I've called asking all sorts of dumb questions.
As much as I dislike paying taxes, the process of doing so is anything but inconvenient in Sweden.
> Simplify Tax Filings for Middle Class Americans: Obama will dramatically simplify tax filings so that millions of Americans will be able to do their taxes in less than five minutes. Obama will ensure that the IRS uses the information it already gets from banks and employers to give taxpayers the option of pre-filled tax forms to verify, sign and return. Experts estimate that the Obama proposal will save Americans up to 200 million total hours of work and aggravation and up to $2 billion in tax preparer fees.
[1] https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20080402203402/http://www.b...
It's a breeze in France too. Login to the government website, verify that everything preloaded is correct, add the few things they don't know about and you're done. It's a mess in the US because Turbotax and others make money on that complexity and do lobbying to keep it that way.
> It's a mess in the US because Turbotax Which is odd, because I've used Turbotax (and others) in Canada and it's also been a breeze.
Almost only companies use third-party software here, so the market for tax software is much smaller.
Overlooked in this article and comments is the influence of one man -- Grover Norquist. 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 k…
Withholding was a clever and subtle way for us to never see part of our paycheck so then any tax return we get feels like a bonus when it was actually just an interest free loan to the government.
Another way to look at it.. people here talk about $Xk that they make but it's always pre-tax. Ask the same people what they make post-tax and I'd wager less than a quarter can answer it accurately.
It's a breeze in France too. Login to the government website, verify that everything preloaded is correct, add the few things they don't know about and you're done. It's a mess in the US because Turbotax and others make money on that complexity and do lobbying to keep it that way.
I remember when I lived in the US a few years ago. Everybody told me that I had to go through a professional to fill my tax return as it was just too hard and error-prone. It sounded insane considering my situation was extremely simple. I was also surprised because I assumed the American tax system to be simpler than the French one.
In the end, it wasn't that hard, but I did have to spend some time to find and read the proper documentations. I think in France people are more reluctant to spend money on things they can do themselves, where Americans are more willing to rely on service providers.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
$3k??! How is that possible? I get personal and business taxes done for $200
As another data point, I also pay $2k - $3k / year for help to file taxes in Japan. But I also know many people who just do it themselves. My justifications for paying: - We've done the return ourselves once, but it was stressful to worry about not completely understanding everything and making some expensive mistake. - Service in English. - If tax officials ever wanted to ask me something, they would get responses i…
That's how it is in most countries because they're all different entities collecting.