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

latimes.com

261–270 of 304 posts

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

#261

The US is such a stressful country, tax filing, healthcare, none of these basic things just work. Add to that the lawyers culture and you get a good basis for emotion filled Netflix dramas, but not really for real life.

There are actually less lawsuits per capita in the US than in most OECD nations. The "lawyers culture" is a false idea created, it seems, by popular media (films, TV, etc.)

> lawsuits per capita

try legal transations per capita

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

#262

The US is such a stressful country, tax filing, healthcare, none of these basic things just work. Add to that the lawyers culture and you get a good basis for emotion filled Netflix dramas, but not really for real life.

There are actually less lawsuits per capita in the US than in most OECD nations. The "lawyers culture" is a false idea created, it seems, by popular media (films, TV, etc.)

> There are actually less lawsuits per capita in the US than in most OECD nations.

That's because our inefficient and costly to access and high-risk legal system is optimized for resolving conflict by legal intimidation rather than actual adjudication.

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

#263
post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The "left" that has power in the US (establishment dems) barely qualify as being left at all You seem to interpret that statement as an opinion, but it is not a subjective statement. [1] The U.S. isn't the only democracy in the world, and if we compare the Democratic party with other political parties around the world, they are indeed barely left-of-center. [1] https://archive.md/PjNEF

I'm not sure an opinion piece in the nyt qualifies as evidence but that same analysis classified tons of other liberal parties as right wing (uk, switzerland etc) which seems more like they have a definitions problem due to a complete lack of clear criteria.

The Manifesto Project has its downsides, but it's still one of the best datasets we've got [1], and the other survey-based datasets like the Global Party Survey [2] yield similar results [3]. (Note: You brought up the UK's Labor party which appears much more left here, as social & economic values are broken out into separate axes).

When viewed from a global perspective, the Republican party is firmly right-wing, but today's Democratic party is decidedly center-left on economic issues, and more closely reflects the values of the median American voter [4].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifesto_Project_Database#Aca...

[2] https://www.globalpartysurvey.org/methods

[3] https://i.imgur.com/rNeCdnH.png

[4] https://i.imgur.com/WWYHSzx.png

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

#264
post #235
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Foreign Income Earned Credit. Basically since the US is one of two countries in the world to still collect taxes from people living abroad, you have to file taxes every year still but it usually amounts to a net of $0.00 as it's written off under double-tax agreements with Germany.

You are conflating two different tax benefits. The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion essentially sets your tax rate to 0% for the first $108k of earned income. It has no effect on earned income in excess of this threshold, or on unearned income such as investment income. https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/fore... The Foreign Tax Credit subtracts your foreign tax liability from your US tax liability…

Yes, sorry, but just in the name. I personally go the FEIE route.

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

#265
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

I think the picture is more complex than donor states and receiver states. As the article below argues, the Rockefeller study that the data comes from has flawed methodology. New York for example benefits tremendously from its large financial industry that pays a lot in taxes. But arguably the industry is so concentrated in New York today because of federal laws that force the federal reserve to conduct its financial…

Ahh, yes.

The WSJ commentary/opinion section. Truly a pinnacle of economic discussion.

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

#266
post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are actually less lawsuits per capita in the US than in most OECD nations. The "lawyers culture" is a false idea created, it seems, by popular media (films, TV, etc.)

I’m really curious to dig into this and finding out what people in Europe are suing each other for. It’s just so weird seeing the billboards here in the US encouraging people to sue for personal injury damages, featuring photos of happy people holding fans of cash like they just won the lottery. Maybe the celebration of lawsuits is the American thing, if not having greater total numbers.

Yeah, there's a mile or two in Albuquerque, NM where almost every visible piece of advertising (even the bus stops) are stereotypical lawyers promising to fight for you. It's comical, terrifying and pathetic, all at once.

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

#267
post #182
post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You realized you just dismissed GDP per capita, a quantitative metric, as too “flawed”, then instead relied on HDI which entirely a made up metric based on subjective measures?

Yes, because money isn't everything. I know (you seem to be American) that this is probably a strange concept :-p And HDI is still quantitative, it's still a number: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index#New_me... You might not like the magic numbers in the formula or the things they choose to weigh, but GDP is much, much too coarse to evaluate anything about the greater well-being of a population, es…

It’s a really terrible index if you’ve ever dig into the criticisms. It’s doesn’t do a very good job of measuring the things it claims to measure.

So you’ve basically argued against a quantifiable measure that is a major determinant of quality of life and replaced it with something worse?

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

#268
post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You realized you just dismissed GDP per capita, a quantitative metric, as too “flawed”, then instead relied on HDI which entirely a made up metric based on subjective measures?

In the very least you'd have to adjust for purchasing power parity and look at the median rather than the mean, to say anything useful about quality of life for normal people.

It’s GDP not income so not sure what the median would do since that would ignore any distribution through taxes.

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

#269
The linked Reagan proposal is remarkable:

"We believe most Americans would go from the long form or the short form to no form.

Comparing the distance between the present system and our proposal is like comparing the distance between a Model T and the space shuttle. And I should know -- I've seen both."

Sadly the space shuttle suffered multiple disasters.

And we're still stuck with form 1040.

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

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a school of thought, and I tend to agree with it, that "a position of public trust" is exactly and specifically what is granted to a corporation by granting it its special, fictive-person, liability-shielding status. The veneration of "corporations as psychopaths" is more of a deification of the current state, not an aspirational one. It doesn't have to be that way, and so we absolutely can fault Intuit for…

> granted to a corporation by granting it its special, fictive-person, liability-shielding status. There is no such thing. This is such a silly argument made by people who have no understanding of corporate liability laws. Incorporating doesn't suddenly shield you from liability. If you were negligent or intended harm, you will be held personally liable. If you're a shareholder and knew what was going on, you will al…

I'm well aware of how corporate liability laws work, thank you. Intuit advocating to indirectly damage the body politic to increase their profits is not negligence. It is also wrong. The divide, and the hole in the modern theory of the corporation, is obvious when one is not hiding the cards.

It is a moral failure and a failure of social distinction, not a legal one. I understand why that shorts your circuit. It exists nevertheless.

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