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

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

#131

Post by golemotron »

s5300 wrote: post #75
golemotron wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The nation is pretty tired of California and NY trying to save it.

Pretty sure California and New York are tired of paying billions of dollars to the Federal government that gets re-distributed to all of the failing Federal welfare states. If they're so tired, I'm sure they'd be happy to give back the billions of dollars they receive any time now. https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/donor-state...

It's because of inequality. California and New York have a higher GINI coefficient than most countries. If high net worth people from those states moved to other states, the transfer payments you are talking about wouldn't happen.

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

#132

Post by mrep »

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…

Oh the USA does do automated taxes, they just don't tell you what number they came up with until after you file.

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

#133

Post by PennRobotics »

coldpie wrote: post #99
0x0nyandesu wrote: post #6

This is why I always pirate TurboTax and deleted my Mint years ago. Fuck intuit. Oh and before someone asks me why I feel comfortable doing that security wise...I do it on an airgapped machine and print the return out and mail it in. Ezpz

I just do it by hand on paper. For folks with just some W-2s and maybe some light investing stuff (no, this isn't everyone, but it is a lot of people), it only takes an hour or two to do by hand and the instructions are actually pretty decent.

Imagine the productivity boost if an automated system handled the W2 + light investing case for "a lot of people"

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

#134

Post by throwaway0a5e »

merrywhether wrote: post #72
nightski wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe it's a common theme with California's draconian politics being ineffective.

Are you really arguing that corporatocracy is a progressive form of governance? Or do you just believe that companies leeching off society via regulatory capture is better for everyone?

>Are you really arguing that corporatocracy is a progressive form of governance?

He made a one sentence comment about CA's policies being ineffective. He made no endorsement of anything or comparison to alternatives. If you're going to build a straw-man be more subtle.

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

#135

Post by lbriner »

mbostleman wrote: post #113

I like finding approaches that don't necessarily "solve" a problem, but rather don't have the problem in the first place so that there's nothing to solve. In this case, I would suggest dropping income tax altogether, decommissioning the IRS, and using the state infrastructure already in place to collect an equal amount of revenue from sales tax. No filing. Broader tax base, including criminals and illegal activity. E…

I guess the argument against this is that some super-rich don't spent on th emainland or not even at all, just bank a tonne of cash.

In that case, the overall income from tax would be lower than it is now.

I don't necessarily agree but the idea is normally that "rich" people should pay a higher percentage of their income as tax because "they can afford it".

I personally like the idea of a fixed rate from 0 to infinity like Russia iirc, which gives everyone skin in the game and avoids some of the tax avoidance that we see to avoid the thresholds.

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

#136

Post by chrisseaton »

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

> the appropriate amount is automatically deducted from your payslip

Lol I wish they deducted the appropriate amount.

> No need to file anything

Not true - many still need to file a self assessment, just like in the US.

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

#137

Post by 74d-fe6-2c6 »

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…

Being German it feels weird reading someone praise our tax system. The problem here is that you almost always pay too much tax and will be reimbursed when filing a return while at the same time the German Finanzamt already has the required information to do that on its own. But it won't. End of story is that tax returns are exclusive to people educated enough to take of it. And even if you take care of it in an informed way doesn't mean you will be reimbursed fully. For that you'd need to hire a tax attorney in many non-trivial cases.

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

#138

Post by landemva »

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…

You can structure your personal life such that you don't qualify to file a personal IRS yearly signed inquisition document.

Then be like Clintons and live your life spending through foundations, trusts, and companies via speaking payments.

It does require upfront effort to set up everything. An unexpected benefit is the financial privacy it brings.

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

#139

Post by throwaway0a5e »

nicoffeine wrote: post #116
golemotron wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The nation is pretty tired of California and NY trying to save it.

The nation is dependent on the money that California and NY put in to the federal tax system. You're welcome. "A 2017 study by the Rockefeller Institute of Government found that traditional blue states like Connecticut ($15,643), Massachusetts ($13,582), New Jersey ($13,137), New York ($12,820), and California ($10,510), contributed significantly more in federal taxes, per citizen, than traditional red states like Mi…

If states like CA and NY are getting such a raw deal why don't they want to change it?

This tired old trope needs to be taken out back and shot. The net in or out flow from any given state is not enough to substantially impact anything.

Pretty much every state gets back what it puts in plus or minus 10-20%. Considering that each state is putting in a number that is only a small fraction of its GDP the overall difference is negligible. I think most people in the states that are getting paid would consider the economic hit to be a cheap price to pay for removing federal oversight from the things those dollars pay for.

Furthermore, even the poor states are just fine by European standards.[1][2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi...

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

#140

Post by burkaman »

sseagull wrote: post #12
0x0nyandesu wrote: post #6

This is why I always pirate TurboTax and deleted my Mint years ago. Fuck intuit. Oh and before someone asks me why I feel comfortable doing that security wise...I do it on an airgapped machine and print the return out and mail it in. Ezpz

Also why I was disappointed when Intuit bought Credit Karma. I will never use Turbo Tax, just out of principle. I cannot support a company like that.

FYI the DOJ wouldn't let Intuit buy the tax preparation part of Credit Karma, so that service is owned by Square now.
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