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Killing TurboTax

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Re: Killing TurboTax

#531

Post by morlockabove »

dragonwriter wrote: post #505
benmw333 wrote: post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love it when people still have faith in either party cleaning up the tax code (aka reducing the size of government). Ain't happening.

> I love it when people still have faith in either party cleaning up the tax code (aka reducing the size of government). “Cleaning up the tax code” and “reducing the size of government" aren't really the same thing; the former could very easily serve the opposite purpose of the latter.

But it would put some people in the tax department out of work, so even if hypothetically a more efficient tax scheme would let you grow the government as a whole, the current people in the tax department have an incentive to not let that happen.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#532

Post by boulos »

faitswulff wrote: post #522
anadem wrote: post #479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Single party rule would be true only if the Senate was not encumbered by the filibuster.

And Senate Majority Leader Joe Manchin has stated that he is unequivocally against removing the filibuster.

Chuck Schumer is the Senate Majority Leader.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#533

Post by xtracto »

executesorder66 wrote: post #399
astura wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The IRS themselves need to provide this "auto tax" service.

We have this in South Africa. It was always easy to do your taxes before, but since last year they do what they call an "Auto assessment". The South African Revenue Service collects all the documents they need (payslips, medical aid, pension etc.) from the respective organizations, fills out the tax form for you, and lets you know it's ready. I logged in to check that they did it correctly, which they did, and approv…

Same here in mexico. Its wonderful to file my taxes because i only login into SAT website, check the prefilled data, click accept and I get my tax refunds due to my mortgage credit.

It blows my mind that The USA doesn't have something like this. It's basically taxes at work

Re: Killing TurboTax

#534

Post by Others »

null0pointer wrote: post #527
bob1029 wrote: post #298

"Killing TurboTax" is essentially a meme until we meaningfully simplify the tax code. There is no software development team on earth who could catch up with the full capabilities of TurboTax without some sort of fundamental shift in the business. I really hate to say this as someone who makes a living out of it, but dealing with the current amount of complexity in the tax code with a piece of software that a non-expe…

I agree, a vastly simplified tax code is needed. Here's my dream for a simpler tax code: The only tax is a Sales tax/VAT/GST. Pros: - Individuals never have to think about tax. It would completely eliminate tax returns. That alone is worth it's weight in gold since tax returns are such a time and money burden. - It would close all the loopholes megacorps/wealthy individuals use to pay less tax. You cannot avoid spend…

I think this is fundamentally a regressive idea. Currently the very poor pay zero (or effectively zero) income taxes. No matter how you structure the sales tax, you cannot go below zero. (I think negative sales tax is not actually realistic, nor particularly progressive.)

A system that only taxes spending fundamentally has problems in that the richer people can afford to save and invest.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#535

Post by Judgmentality »

dang wrote: post #454

This is such an ongoing theme on HN that we could maybe use a bibiliography. If I missed any big ones let me know. In reverse chronological order: Show HN: ustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26138446 - Feb 2021 (219 comments) TurboTax Tricked You into Paying to File Your Taxes (2019) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26102695 - Feb 2021 (306 comments) TurboTax’s 20…

As always, dang, thank you again for your wonderful moderation.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#536

Post by dragonwriter »

morlockabove wrote: post #531
dragonwriter wrote: post #505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I love it when people still have faith in either party cleaning up the tax code (aka reducing the size of government). “Cleaning up the tax code” and “reducing the size of government" aren't really the same thing; the former could very easily serve the opposite purpose of the latter.

But it would put some people in the tax department out of work, so even if hypothetically a more efficient tax scheme would let you grow the government as a whole, the current people in the tax department have an incentive to not let that happen.

> But it would put some people in the tax department out of work

Or, not; alternatively, it would allow the IRS to be more responsive in its supportive activities and more effective in its enforcement activities.

Cutting staff is a separate decision from streamlining the rules; the IRS hasn't had staffing expanded to keep workload constant when we weren't simplifying, there is no inherent reason it would ha r to cut staff and keep workload constant if we were simplifying.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#537

Post by null0pointer »

Others wrote: post #534
null0pointer wrote: post #527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, a vastly simplified tax code is needed. Here's my dream for a simpler tax code: The only tax is a Sales tax/VAT/GST. Pros: - Individuals never have to think about tax. It would completely eliminate tax returns. That alone is worth it's weight in gold since tax returns are such a time and money burden. - It would close all the loopholes megacorps/wealthy individuals use to pay less tax. You cannot avoid spend…

I think this is fundamentally a regressive idea. Currently the very poor pay zero (or effectively zero) income taxes. No matter how you structure the sales tax, you cannot go below zero. (I think negative sales tax is not actually realistic, nor particularly progressive.) A system that only taxes spending fundamentally has problems in that the richer people can afford to save and invest.

Could you explain a bit more how negative sales tax is unrealistic? We already subsidize things we want to encourage.

> A system that only taxes spending fundamentally has problems in that the richer people can afford to save and invest.

That is an existing problem inherent to any tax system. It's just saying "Rich people can afford to not spend all of their money". I don't see how that's fundamental to taxing only spending.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#538

Post by refurb »

null0pointer wrote: post #527
bob1029 wrote: post #298

"Killing TurboTax" is essentially a meme until we meaningfully simplify the tax code. There is no software development team on earth who could catch up with the full capabilities of TurboTax without some sort of fundamental shift in the business. I really hate to say this as someone who makes a living out of it, but dealing with the current amount of complexity in the tax code with a piece of software that a non-expe…

I agree, a vastly simplified tax code is needed. Here's my dream for a simpler tax code: The only tax is a Sales tax/VAT/GST. Pros: - Individuals never have to think about tax. It would completely eliminate tax returns. That alone is worth it's weight in gold since tax returns are such a time and money burden. - It would close all the loopholes megacorps/wealthy individuals use to pay less tax. You cannot avoid spend…

Do we really use that much time and money on tax prep? Sure, it seems like it during this time of year, but for the other 10 months I dont think about it.

And just forcing the bureaucracy into the businesses collecting a sales tax doesn’t reduce the burden, it just puts it out of sight for consumers.

Re: Killing TurboTax

#539

Post by cmeacham98 »

null0pointer wrote: post #527
bob1029 wrote: post #298

"Killing TurboTax" is essentially a meme until we meaningfully simplify the tax code. There is no software development team on earth who could catch up with the full capabilities of TurboTax without some sort of fundamental shift in the business. I really hate to say this as someone who makes a living out of it, but dealing with the current amount of complexity in the tax code with a piece of software that a non-expe…

I agree, a vastly simplified tax code is needed. Here's my dream for a simpler tax code: The only tax is a Sales tax/VAT/GST. Pros: - Individuals never have to think about tax. It would completely eliminate tax returns. That alone is worth it's weight in gold since tax returns are such a time and money burden. - It would close all the loopholes megacorps/wealthy individuals use to pay less tax. You cannot avoid spend…

> - It would close all the loopholes megacorps/wealthy individuals use to pay less tax. You cannot avoid spending money in the place where you operate.

Yeah, it would "fix" this situation by just having them pay _less_ tax without needing a loophole. The percentage of income/wealth that someone spends decreases as wealth increases, so in other words the poor pay proportionally more under your tax scheme.

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