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

nytimes.com

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

#301

Post by phamilton »

gamblor956 wrote: post #180
Assadi wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

California's property tax can't reach 13%. It's been capped at 1% since 1978, and the assessed value can only increase by 2% each year, or when a property is sold. But the tax itself remains 1%...

He means income tax

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

#302

Post by grkvlt »

jrockway wrote: post #282
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…

So... I apparently messed up my 2016 taxes, and the IRS sent me a letter entitled "suggested tax correction" or something to that effect. They attached the data that they claimed I omitted (indeed, Turbotax silently discarded that data), and how much I owed. I then paid them online. I think the IRS is super paranoid about people hiding information from them, and then never being liable for the taxes. Right now, if th…

> I think the IRS is super paranoid about people hiding information from them, and then never being liable for the taxes

Yeah, why do people pay out all that stupid money, when its as simple as just not telling the taxman? Really, if it was like that then tax evasion would be pretty simple...

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

#303

Post by hundt »

wool_gather wrote: post #62
chatmasta wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

It's a fair question, but what does such a person do now? I don't think their options would diminish .

They are induced to show up somewhere to prepare their taxes, either a professional tax preparer or a volunteer trained by the IRS[1].

I imagine they would probably lose the free option. It's true that they would still have the paid option, but I don't think most people would bother if they didn't have to.

[1] https://www.irs.gov/individuals/free-tax-return-preparation-...

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

#304

Post by rb808 »

greedo wrote: post #126
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…

10% property tax would spawn a rebellion. Mine is a bit over 2% and people complain about that.

I mean 2% of the property value, then that $ amount as %age of income. California is much lower.

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

#305

Post by seanmcdirmid »

s73v3r_ wrote: post #229
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never itemized and I’m pretty sure the IRS could never do my tax forms while I was in China...heck, they never even asked for anything like a W2 since my income was all foreign.

I fail to see how this is an argument against making this an option, though.

Itemizing isn’t the only thing that makes taxes too difficult to do automatically.

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

#306

Post by swebs »

dcosson wrote: post #203
gamblor956 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

There was an interesting Planet Money episode about this [0]. Apparently the lobbying by Intuit is actually fairly minor compared to the opposition by Republicans. Some group of Republican legislators came together and agreed to oppose all tax increases, and also agreed to oppose many types of tax simplification. The thinking being that the more painful filing your taxes is, the more people will have a negative perce…

>A few days later, a legislator called Bankman to tell him that Intuit’s lobbyists had killed ReadyReturn.

>But then, Frommer says, “We ran into a wall. And the wall was Intuit.”

>According to the L.A. Times, Intuit spent $1.25 million on lobbyists and gave $2.12 million to 120 California politicians from 2005 to 2010. Bankman says Intuit’s influence was obvious. In one meeting, he says, the legislator told him, “I’ve been warned about you.”

>“What Intuit did well was they created a boogieman,” says Dario Frommer. “They said ReadyReturn would put all these accountants out of business, and they organized African-American and Latino accountants against the bill.”

>Records show that tax preparers have spent over $28 million lobbying Washington since 1998. In 2007, Eric Cantor (a Republican leader) and Zoe Lofgren (a Democrat from Silicon Valley) had introduced a bill to ban return-free filing. Both received contributions from Inuit.

>Intuit still tried to kill ReadyReturn. But this time, Dario Frommer says, ReadyReturn had enough support in the legislature to block Intuit. In 2013, 99% of its 80,000 users said they were satisfied with ReadyReturn. ReadyReturn was later incorporated into CalFile, which allows Californians to e-file their taxes. Intuit is not a fan.

But yeah, let's keep up the anti-republican circlejerk

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

#307

Post by [deleted] »

curiousgeorgio wrote: post #182
gamblor956 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Nearly everyone I've talked to (on both sides of the political spectrum) agrees on this issue; if the IRS has the means to verify and audit the data, they might as well prepare the forms and just get authorization (+ any additional info they might be lacking) before tax returns are submitted. So how is it that lobbying alone is enough to persuade lawmakers to take the side of Intuit et al.? And which lawmakers are so…

[deleted]

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

#308

Post by nightski »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #279
usaar333 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It is boring for the IRS's computers, which calculate everything the IRS needs to know automatically from the data sent by my brokerage firm.

Right but you are very OT at this point. The parent was arguing that for the vast majority of people taxes are boring and do not involve 1099-INTs or taxes on numerous stock trades. While true, these people have the easiest time calculating their required tax.

No one ever was trying to say that IRS doing your taxes for you would never make things easier.

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

#309

Post by rb808 »

Xixi wrote: post #131
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…

It's 30% of what remains after the "cotisations sociales" (or "charges sociales" as people who hate them like to call them). These social contributions amount to close to 50% of what the employer pays. So it's 30% of what remains, which is already only barely half of what the employer paid... These social contributions cover health insurance, retirement contributions, a pretty generous unemployment insurance, etc. So…

OK, my mistake, so that adds to 67%, which is a lot. If you add Social Security and Medicare to US taxes I still think North East comes to 55%+. With virtually nothing to show for it.

At least we have the benefit of 14 aircraft carriers.

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

#310

Post by [deleted] »

s73v3r_ wrote: post #267
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…

"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." And as it turns out, this is the vast majority of cases. Just because there are a few other cases where it doesn't work out does not justify not doing this.

[deleted]
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