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

Post by philwelch » Mon, Aug 13, 2018, 10:23 PM UTC

pratheekrebala wrote: post #324

philwelch wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Itemizing deductions is totally different from reporting cost basis on a stock sale.

Right, I was just pointing out that OPs case is in the minority of tax filers and that making this option available would benefit a lot of tax-filers and wouldn't prevent OP from filing their taxes as they normally would.

Post by philwelch » Mon, Aug 13, 2018, 10:44 PM UTC

avar wrote: post #288

maxxxxx wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flat tax doesn't even simplify anything. The problem with taxes is to determine what the taxable income is. Figuring out the tax rate is trivial once you have that, no matter what the curve is. Flat tax is just another attempt to give big tax breaks to higher incomes.

> Flat tax doesn't even simplify anything. Yes it does, depending on the implementation. There's a 2005 Economist article which does a good job of summarizing why[1]. BEGIN QUOTE Fewer brackets are simpler to administer, but one bracket is simplest of all. Under a pure flat tax, the taxman takes the same cut from the last dollar you earn that he took from the first. The appeal to high earners is obvious. But the admi…

Post by zrobotics » Mon, Aug 13, 2018, 10:49 PM UTC

imgabe wrote: post #137

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…

> If you were to raise the speed limit to 75mph, people would just use the same logic to drive 90mph instead. I've driven in parts of the country where the speed limit is 75 or even 80 and that wasn't my experience. There were not a lot of people blowing past me doing 95.

Post by volkk » Mon, Aug 13, 2018, 11:09 PM UTC

grkvlt wrote: post #295

volkk wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally speaking, I've driven a lot and 75-80 is ideal speed for me. When I drove in texas where in certain areas, the speed limit is 80-85, I still drove around 80. Once you hit 85/90, a car just becomes too shaky/unstable feeling.

I think Ferrari, Porsche, et al would beg to differ. Most high end Mercedes, Audi or BMW cars are limited to 155 mph but you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference in ride quality between the top 50 mph of the range and the bottom 50. If your car gets shaky and unstable when you hit 90 mph then I'm sorry but you just don't have a very good vehicle.

Post by chc » Mon, Aug 13, 2018, 11:30 PM UTC

avar wrote: post #314

bmm6o wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True in theory, but virtually every mainstream "flat tax" that actually gets to the stage of having a concrete proposal acknowledges the need for deductions. I don't recall ever seeing a true flat tax.

There's flat tax proposals and implementations at every level of the economy in different countries, not all of them have to do with income tax. E.g. the case of the warm and cold chicken being taxed at different rates, as described in the linked Economist article. It's common in places with such a distinction in the tax code for some stores to sell packaged cold food clearly intended to be eaten on the go, and then…