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

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

#151

Post by dionidium »

ryanianian wrote: post #121
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…

> The IRS have all the data Not..entirely true. My 2016 taxes were professionally done, but we somehow forgot to include one of the something-something-1099 forms from a brokerage firm. The brokerage reported some RSU stock-sells to the IRS but didn't report the cost-basis, and so the IRS assumed the cost-basis was $0 and thus taxed the full sale as income (effectively double-taxing all the RSUs). They just sent a ta…

> Not..entirely true.

Obviously. You should read categorical statements like this one as, "The IRS [often and in many of the most common cases] have all the data."

That's a generally-applicable, useful, mental substitution that saves us from unnecessary and constant waffling and equivocation in everyday conversation.

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

#152

Post by repiret »

ghouse wrote: post #52

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 o…

If by 1099 you mean 1099-MISC, which is what I think most people mean when they say "1099 income" without an additional qualifier, then the IRS almost certainly has no idea what detections are available to you, and there may be taxable things that they don't know about either.

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

#153

Post by jonny_eh »

volkk wrote: post #56
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.

Cops don't set speed limits.

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

#154

Post by usaar333 »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #141
nightski wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I have "boring" taxes with many stock transactions. This is not simple to file.

Stock transactions make your taxes very not boring. Pub 550 (https://www.irs.gov/publications/p550) is one of the most complicated areas of personal income tax.

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

#156

Post by dyarosla »

cortesoft wrote: post #119
Coding_Cat wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Set extremely low speeds that don't make sense on highways. Allow most people to go 10-15 above. I doubt people really speed because the limits have been set too low and the people know better what is an ideal speed limit. I think people_think_ they know better what the speed limit is, and/or reason "well if 60mph is okay, 75 mph can't be that bad, I'm barely speeding and I'm in a rush". At least, that's the attitud…

I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding about how people drive. People don't look at a speed limit and then drive 15 over; they drive the speed they feel comfortable with, regardless of the speed limit. Studies have shown this: Q. Wouldn’t everyone drive faster if the speed limit was raised? A. No, the majority of drivers will not go faster than what they feel is comfortable and safe regardless of the speed l…

I don’t think dismissing the parent comment based on a study is fair. Anecdotally, I drive the way the parent describes, and several comments also corroborate with that. Likely that a non negligible portion of the population drive this way.

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

#157

Post by jandrese »

chatmasta wrote: post #29
ebiester wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think of it more as "The IRS has prepared this return for you. Look at it. If it's what you expect, you have nothing else to do other than send a check if you owe or a bank account for your refund. If you have extra information (more income, deductions, etc) - then you are free to fill out your own forms. As such, 60-70% of the population would have nothing to do. People with multiple part time jobs would be fine. Th…

What happens when the IRS gets it wrong and the impoverished recipient has nobody to review it for them? (Still I suppose that may be an improvement over the status quo)

Well, if the IRS gets it wrong they'll come back and declare the taxes you filed are wrong and send you a bill. Maybe also trigger an audit.

This system would be way better since you get to see the error up front and deal with it immediately instead of waiting 8 weeks for the process to start and your refund to languish for another month or two before it is all sorted out.

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

#158

Post by el_benhameen »

gamblor956 wrote: post #98
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…

The IRS has actually run trials like this in the past. Very successful, at least for simply W2-based returns, since most people's taxable transactions get reported by companies anyway (i.e., mortgages/interest, other income, etc.) and most people use the standardized deduction. Inuit and Quicken subsequently lobbied to end those programs and even bar the IRS from running similar programs...

While I'm sure that most tax prep companies have lobbied similarly, this is why I don't use TurboTax and other Intuit products.

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

#159

Post by Assadi »

gamblor956 wrote: post #108
rb808 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lower taxes? In France the bracket for a family for €104,120 to €279,132 is only 30%. Sure if you live in Oaklahoma you might pay less than that but CA/NY state taxes plus property taxes, plus fewer investment tax free options, I think US taxes are now similar or higher. Ie 28% federal + 10% state + 10% property taxes equals nearly 50%. Sure sales tax is lower. Plus - you still have to pay for your medical care, and…

In France, that 30% tax is on your gross income without deductions, and doesn't include a number of other taxes on your income that were already taken out as payroll taxes, usually about 10-20% of your wage income. In the US, you face a 24% or 25% tax on your gross income after deductions, not including additional credits that may also apply. Payroll tax deductions are also much smaller in the US. Not aware of any st…

>Not aware of any state which has a 10% property tax and an income tax. I am aware of some states having high property taxes but no income taxes...

California's can be as high as 13 something percent, I believe (though, I think with the kind of numbers the other guy was talking about, it'd probably be like 6-7%). But, you're right that the property tax is a serious exaggeration. Like, expensive places like Austin are around 2%, from what I remember.

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

#160

Post by gnopgnip »

rb808 wrote: post #43
sologoub wrote: post #2

Colleagues from the EU countries who relocate to the US generally tend to have a two-fold reaction - excitement at the lower tax rates and dismay at the filing complexities. Would be amazing to have the cake and eat it too - lower taxes and a simple filing system!

Lower taxes? In France the bracket for a family for €104,120 to €279,132 is only 30%. Sure if you live in Oaklahoma you might pay less than that but CA/NY state taxes plus property taxes, plus fewer investment tax free options, I think US taxes are now similar or higher. Ie 28% federal + 10% state + 10% property taxes equals nearly 50%. Sure sales tax is lower. Plus - you still have to pay for your medical care, and…

In France on an income of $100k USD your effective tax rate is 44%. Social security tax in France is significant. In CA you are paying 21%. At $300k USD it is 54% to 30%.

The sales tax in CA is half the rate in France.

Property taxes cannot be directly compared to income, they are based on the location and value of the home. There are large changes to the property tax system in 2018-2020 in France. We can compare overall property tax revenue for the country and divide it per person. In 2015 in France the average property tax revenue per person was $1422 USD. In 2010 in CA it was $1472. CA is higher but not substantially so.

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