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

latimes.com

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

#61

Post by gigatexal »

elthran wrote: post #49
gigatexal wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HEY! Fellow US ex-pat here in Germany. I do use germantaxes.de which offers a hand-holding experience and all in English but the fact that there's a simple government provided solution is how it should be. All this hate towards FB and others but we really should be reigning in the likes of Intuit because filing taxes should not cost anything for simple W-2's. I recall reading that in Japan if you have just wage incom…

Not just Japan, also true for the UK with our Pay As You Earn system - you get assigned a tax code, and the appropriate amount is automatically deducted from your payslip. No need to file anything, and refunds/demands get generated automatically each year if you've been changing jobs/not working/other odd circumstances meaning that the amount you paid doesn't match what you were expected to

wow now that's a killer feature that might be just enough to get me to move there than somewhere else. More governments should be looking into replicating this.

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

#62

Post by Hamuko »

elthran wrote: post #49
gigatexal wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HEY! Fellow US ex-pat here in Germany. I do use germantaxes.de which offers a hand-holding experience and all in English but the fact that there's a simple government provided solution is how it should be. All this hate towards FB and others but we really should be reigning in the likes of Intuit because filing taxes should not cost anything for simple W-2's. I recall reading that in Japan if you have just wage incom…

Not just Japan, also true for the UK with our Pay As You Earn system - you get assigned a tax code, and the appropriate amount is automatically deducted from your payslip. No need to file anything, and refunds/demands get generated automatically each year if you've been changing jobs/not working/other odd circumstances meaning that the amount you paid doesn't match what you were expected to

>Not just Japan, also true for the UK with our Pay As You Earn system

It's true for most of the world. It's a bit like metric vs. imperial – the US is the odd one out.

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

#63

Post by masa331 »

progx wrote: post #7
junon wrote: post #3

Intuit is such an evil company. Now that I've moved to Germany, I know what it feels like not to have to file every year (I still have to for the US but it's trivial now due to FIEC). There's nobody hounding you here, no stress regarding your taxes unless you're filing for a return or have extenuating circumstances, and even then there's a government-provided online portal for direct communication with the Finanzamt…

But only für employees! As an independent or small company owner you have todo it every year.

And it makes sense because government might not have all the data even for basic tax filling. On the other hand employees data are already available from various other systems where you have to register them and report and pay social security, taxes, healthcare etc.. I co-own an accounting company in Czech Republic.

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

#64

Post by silexia »

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…

I have to pay $6,000 per year for tax. I hire a lot of employees in other states which means that I have to file a tax return in 30 states.

Intuit is pure evil.

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

#65

Post by BurningFrog »

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…

It's not that difficult, but as you point out, the government already knows the info you have to give them.

That's the crazy part.

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

#66

Post by Mordisquitos »

xeromal wrote: post #36
matheusmoreira wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They know that already and calculate it. Why waste people's time with this stuff then?

Real talk though, how are they going to know that you bought an energy efficient AC unit for your house that you can deduct off your taxes?

They don't know that. The trick is to send you a draft proposal based on what they do know, and allow you to amend it based on information that they do not. If you aren't eligible for any deductions nor have any other taxable source of income of which the IRS was not aware, you just accept their proposal. That's how it works in most developed countries.

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

#67

Post by mehphp »

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…

Same, I have a full-time job and have a small side business, and my accountant does it all for $150. It's incredible and she saves me a lot of money.

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

#68

Post by mwint »

Since I’ve not seen it mentioned yet, https://www.freetaxusa.com/. Used it the last few years to do my taxes, which include investment and self employment income. No complaints. Intuit’s stuff would charge quite a bit for my “complex” taxes.

They charge a couple bucks to file state taxes, which gives me a bit of confidence they’re not making money by selling my info to someone.

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

#70

Post by ValleZ »

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…

I paid 600 usd last year fora tax accountant. He couldn't even do the most easiest part (1040 with stocks and dividend), and after struggling with him we didn't even proceed with the multistate reports I needed. It was complete waste of time and if I didn't check the result it would be also a waste of money and potential criminal action.
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