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

Post by tyldum » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 9:34 PM UTC

hnarn wrote: post #195

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…

>I'm annoyed that there is no simple system for the IRS to tell me what I owe, and let me pay or dispute. How weird is it that this is not the norm? In Sweden, this is exactly the way it works. You get a piece of paper every year saying "according to what your employer and other instances have reported, here's what we think you owe". You can dispute it, but best of all: if you have nothing to dispute, you can OK it c…

Post by bmm6o » Thu, Aug 16, 2018, 3:16 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…

Post by jjeaff » Thu, Aug 16, 2018, 6:44 PM UTC

dionidium wrote: post #281

jjeaff wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They really don't have even close to all the data. The irs will generally have income numbers, as those generally must be reported through 1099k, 1099, and w2, etc. But they have no information on your expenses, depreciation, etc. So they only know your revenues, not your expenses. And this applies for business as well as personal.

This is like when people say, "I don't know anybody who voted for the other party!" Lots and lots and lots of people don't have any expenses. They don't itemize. They don't want, have, or need any of the stuff you're protesting about. They have a job. And that job reports their income to the IRS. End of story. Case closed. That's it. That's their entire situation. You're imagining another kind of person, but I'm not…

Post by dragonwriter » Fri, Aug 17, 2018, 12:31 AM UTC

bmm6o wrote: post #436

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.

And at that point, you've pretty much acknowledged that a true flat tax is unfair and regressive, and now we're just arguing over how many tax brackets there should be. You want there to be 1 but propose 2 with no argument for why 2 is the optimal number. While I agree that there is marginal complexity with each one, that only affects people who do their own taxes by hand. Structure it so that most people are covered…