California tried to save the nation from tax filing, then Intuit stepped in

Post by ericbarrett » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 2:16 PM UTC

nightski wrote: post #27

bogota wrote: post #10

I hate wasting at least a day if not more of my life every year filing. As time goes on and i have more assets the time to file goes up as well and gathering all the required documents with every bank having different timelines is a nightmare. But what can I do about it? I would imagine if it went to a vote overwhelmingly people would say no I don’t want to file like this every year. But here we are and honestly I do…

If you have all these assets and your time is valuable I imagine you can cough up a few $ to pay a local tax accountant. I do this for my single member company, it costs $150 each year. Very worth it and a small price to pay. They even do a quick review of my books. At this point I am familiar enough with all the forms that I could probably do it myself in less than an hour. But I don't mind supporting the accountant…

Post by spywaregorilla » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 2:17 PM UTC

halgir wrote: post #21

spywaregorilla wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Filing taxes isn't especially difficult. Knowing that filing taxes isn't especially difficult is not so easy. If you have absolutely no clue how it works, you're probably going to have to pay someone to do it for you.

There is considerable overlap between people who have no clue how taxes work and people who cannot afford to pay professionals to do it for them.

Post by fighterpilot » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 2:17 PM UTC

Closi wrote: post #43

brainwipe wrote: post #2

Anyone got a tldr for a Brit staring at a paywall?

Basically, as a fellow Brit you will know that for most people your tax just happens automatically (typically through the PAYE system, so tax is taken before you get your paycheck, and we never have to even think about it). Then in the UK if you have more complex tax affairs, then you have to fill in a self assessment on the government portal (where it already knows most of your tax information, and you are pretty mu…

Post by yankoff » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 2:18 PM UTC

dpweb wrote: post #8

At the risk of being a non-popular opinion, I don't find tax filing to be particularly difficult. Maybe its because my job is to solve pretty hard problems all day. But the average person/family who doesn't itemize have a Sched C, it's quite easy. The thing to understand about filing is that (particularly for W2 wage earners) you're not telling the Government how much you made and how much you owe. They know that alr…

Post by dpweb » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 2:18 PM UTC

_jal wrote: post #40

dpweb wrote: post #8

At the risk of being a non-popular opinion, I don't find tax filing to be particularly difficult. Maybe its because my job is to solve pretty hard problems all day. But the average person/family who doesn't itemize have a Sched C, it's quite easy. The thing to understand about filing is that (particularly for W2 wage earners) you're not telling the Government how much you made and how much you owe. They know that alr…

> I don't find tax filing to be particularly difficult. That's nice. You still might care that we collectively waste an enormous amount of time doing it, unnecessarily, for the benefit of Intuit (and some cranks who want people angry about taxes). If you still don't care, I'll be taking a few hours of your labor per year for my around the house work. It isn't particularly difficult work, no big deal, right?