YouTube tells foreign creators they will soon be charged American tax • Hacker News Board

Re: YouTube tells foreign creators they will soon be charged American tax

#221

Post by AlwaysRock » Thu, Mar 11, 2021, 3:44 PM UTC

michaelcampbell wrote: post #213

eloff wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The taxes on unemployment income can easily exceed the stimulus amount, because they're two different things. I don't think the stimulus checks themselves are taxed, but I'm not an American and I don't know for sure.

That's moving the goalposts. The OP makes it sound like given an income "X", adding the stimulus to that will cause the IRS to not only take all the stimulus, but also some of X. My question is, under what circumstance would getting a gov't stimulus payment actually net you less money than not, all else being equal.

I meant anyone who got roughly 7.5K in unemployment or more and did not choose to get taxes taken out of it will likely end up owing whatever stimulus check they may receive and then some.

Re: YouTube tells foreign creators they will soon be charged American tax

#222

Post by AlwaysRock » Thu, Mar 11, 2021, 3:47 PM UTC

gruez wrote: post #52

AlwaysRock wrote: post #44

American taxes are so screwed up. Many typical hackernews folks may not be aware but potentially hundreds of thousands if not millions of people are realizing that they owe taxes on the unemployment income they received when they lost their job this year. Nothing like getting a stimulus check and then giving it all to the IRS plus some.

How is that screwed up? Unemployment income is still income. It works the same way in canada as well[1]. I get why it sounds stupid on the surface (ie. why is the government giving you money, then asking to give a portion back?), but it makes sense if you think about it. Otherwise unemployment disproportionately benefits high income earners because it's tax-free. [1] https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/news/2021/…

It's screwed up because we give people a very small amount of income to help them while they are seeking another job and then tax them on that small income. Why does it need to be taxed?

The max unemployment given per month does not cover rent for most people in a mid to high cost of living area. It just seems insane to decide that that income should be taxed as well.

Re: YouTube tells foreign creators they will soon be charged American tax

#223

Post by AlwaysRock » Thu, Mar 11, 2021, 3:49 PM UTC

AlwaysRock wrote: post #44

American taxes are so screwed up. Many typical hackernews folks may not be aware but potentially hundreds of thousands if not millions of people are realizing that they owe taxes on the unemployment income they received when they lost their job this year. Nothing like getting a stimulus check and then giving it all to the IRS plus some.

As an update on this... The latest stimulus package included 10K+ of unemployment income tax forgiveness. I'm glad the folks in DC realized how many people were going to end up with very expensive tax bills this year.