Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015) • Hacker News Board

Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)

#51

Post by kartan » Mon, Aug 13, 2018, 5:32 PM UTC

I have paid taxes in Sweden and Spain. In both countries, I get a preliminary tax form with all my data. If I don't want to change anything I just need to go online. Click Accept. And pay with my credit card the difference between what my employer pays to the government monthly and the total, around 100$. It is very efficient.

I have the feeling that apart from lobbying USA loves to hate taxes. To make paying taxes overly-complicated adds to that feeling. When you only need to pay 100$ at the end of the year after one or two clicks (or you can get a paper copy mailed to your home and pay at the bank) makes it less painful.

Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)

#52

Post by ghouse » Mon, Aug 13, 2018, 5:32 PM UTC

Most of the rest of the world does this.

If you only have W-2 or 1099 income, the government already has all of the data necessary to complete your taxes using standard deductions. If you have other income, itemize, or have other circumstances, you can continue doing your taxes as is.

It is curious that some proponents (in the US) of lowering taxes intentionally make taxes more complicated so as to make people more opposed to taxes in general.

Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)

#53

Post by jkaplowitz » Mon, Aug 13, 2018, 5:32 PM UTC

Karishma1234 wrote: post #40

As a rule of thumb I would not trust IRS to do my taxes but I am happy if they send me a draft and I have to just sign or make corrections.

In every country I'm aware of where the government does your taxes, you have exactly that option to accept (whether explicitly or through inaction) or to correct. I don't know anywhere that forces you to accept the government's calculation without a chance to provide your own.

Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)

#54

Post by Karishma1234 » Mon, Aug 13, 2018, 5:32 PM UTC

rndmize wrote: post #9

13 million in lobbying over five years to prevent more efficient tax filing for an entire nation and protect your business model. Sounds like an amazing deal for a company with 5 billion in revenue. I'm consistently amazed at just how little money it takes to buy off the government effectively.

It is not that simple and there are deeper issues. If buying out politicians was easy Google and Amazon would have easily raised H1B cap by now. Just like in immigration there are multiple forces at play in taxation too.

The powerful anti-tax group (which I support) is against this simplification problem. We believe making it simple would also make it simple to raise taxes and people will not realise how much money they are paying to the government. This reduces government's accountability in spending.

I think IRS must send us a bill each month and we must write a check to pay it. It is both simple and also people feel the pinch of paying taxes thus supporting measures to reduce taxes over time.

Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)

#55

Post by jklein11 » Mon, Aug 13, 2018, 5:32 PM UTC

jonnycomputer wrote: post #41

forgotmypw wrote: post #10

I stopped filing my taxes starting in 2011 for 2010. I had always hated the process, but in 2010 I had switched jobs several times, and had misplaced one of the stubs mailed by an employer. I have almost always worked as an employee, not a contractor or business, so I did not owe money--they probably owed me. I decided that rather than get the couple hundred bucks I would receive as my return, I will forgo the stupid…

In 2017 the minimum employment income required to file was $10,400 for an individual under 65. No laws need necessarily have been broken.

Can you show me the source for this? My understanding was that the $10,400 was the minimum taxable amount of income, not the minimum required to file.

Edit: looks like I was wrong. That number matches what turbo tax is saying[1]

1. https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/irs-tax-return/does-eve...

Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)

#56

Post by volkk » Mon, Aug 13, 2018, 5:33 PM UTC

stephengillie wrote: post #3

I'm annoyed that there is no simple system for the IRS to tell me what I owe, and let me pay or dispute. Instead, we play this game where the IRS provides a bunch of complicated documents, I guess which ones to fill out and submit, then wait 3 years to see if I was randomly chosen to see if I was correct. So it's very easy to make a mistake for dozens of years, then suddenly be penalized at random. It's the worst kin…

> It's the worst kind of selective enforcement - random enforcement.

Very similar to the way police behave w/ regards to speeding tickets. Set extremely low speeds that don't make sense on highways. Allow most people to go 10-15 above. But then also sometimes choose random people to screw over when it's the end of the month and they need to hit their quotas.

Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)

#57

Post by mbrumlow » Mon, Aug 13, 2018, 5:33 PM UTC

YES! I WOULD!

It should be they prep it, and I can verify and dispute it if I think they did it wrong.

Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)

#58

Post by ada1981 » Mon, Aug 13, 2018, 5:33 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #28

forgotmypw wrote: post #10

I stopped filing my taxes starting in 2011 for 2010. I had always hated the process, but in 2010 I had switched jobs several times, and had misplaced one of the stubs mailed by an employer. I have almost always worked as an employee, not a contractor or business, so I did not owe money--they probably owed me. I decided that rather than get the couple hundred bucks I would receive as my return, I will forgo the stupid…

> I guess you could call it civil disobedience Willful failure to file is a felony [1]. [1] https://www.irs.gov/irm/part25/irm_25-001-007

Not exactly.

>> Willful failure to file a tax return is a misdemeanor pursuant to IRC 7203. In cases where an overt act of evasion occurred, willful failure to file may be elevated to a felony under IRC 7201. <<

Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)

#59

Post by nightski » Mon, Aug 13, 2018, 5:33 PM UTC

scott_s wrote: post #26

chatmasta wrote: post #6

“Your taxes” is such an overloaded term that it’s almost comical to refer to it as if it means the same thing for everyone. There is basically one straight-forward case where the IRS preparing taxes makes sense: that of full time employees whose only income is from their job which issues W2s. For everyone else — which includes: - People working multiple part time jobs - People with non-standard investment portfolios…

Most people have boring taxes. For those people with interesting taxes, they can do them themselves or pay someone else to do them. For the exceptional cases, this is what they already do. Arguing against something that simplifies an act for most people by pointing out that it doesn't apply to everyone does not make sense to me. I think it's almost important to keep in mind that the IRS already does your taxes. If wh…

If you have boring taxes this isn't a problem anyways. It's extremely simple to file if all you have is a W2. It can be done in about 10-15 minutes without any special knowledge.

Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)

#60

Post by phonon » Mon, Aug 13, 2018, 5:33 PM UTC

ritchiea wrote: post #39

rndmize wrote: post #9

13 million in lobbying over five years to prevent more efficient tax filing for an entire nation and protect your business model. Sounds like an amazing deal for a company with 5 billion in revenue. I'm consistently amazed at just how little money it takes to buy off the government effectively.

It's not just that, anti-tax zealot Grover Norquist has outsized interest on the right and he gets republicans to sign a pledge to not raise taxes, and if they violate the pledge Norquist raises money and campaigns against them. The problem is, the pledge also requires signees also do not support legislation to make paying taxes easier. The radical anti-tax groups are so anti-tax that they see making it easier to pay…