Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

When the IRS 'likes' your Facebook update

marketplace.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–57 of 57 posts

Re: When the IRS 'likes' your Facebook update

#51

Post by talmand »

maxerickson wrote: post #48
talmand wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how the US Federal Tax Code could get more complicated without just inserting pure gibberish into it. The thing is, most of the tax code doesn't apply to everyday citizen. The really complicated stuff only applies to a certain number and I'm sure they have well paid people doing their best to avoid those sections. The easy way to get people riled up about taxes? Remove withholding from paychecks and force…

That number is already shown on W-2s and copied to the tax return. I guess it's easier to not care about the number than it would be to not care about a check. One thing that would happen is that a lot more people would come up short at tax time.

And yet if you ask people how much they pay taxes they probably don't know.

They may know how much they take home and how much they get back on their return, but the dollar amount they pay in taxes? I would bet most don't know.

Re: When the IRS 'likes' your Facebook update

#52

Post by thenewbtg »

dragonwriter wrote: post #25
thenewbtg wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's wholly untrue. Yes, the tax preparation industry has made token donations to efforts to preserve the current tax code. But I would argue that the failure of tax reform is not so simple. Major tax reform is a massive, massive legislative undertaking. And doing so redefines many of the basic American incentives. Having your say in tax reform is the equivalent of leaving your mark on the next 20-30 years of Ameri…

> Yes, the tax preparation industry has made token donations to efforts to preserve the current tax code. The millions Intuit alone spends annually lobbying to that end are considerably more than anything that could reasonably called a "token".

A billion dollars has already been raised in the 2014 midterms. A non-presidential year, 6 months before the election, and a billion has already flowed in.

So yes, your millions are a very tiny fraction of the money flowing in.

Re: When the IRS 'likes' your Facebook update

#53

Post by swalkergibson »

oldstrangers wrote: post #49
swalkergibson wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not. Tax evasion is an actual crime. The IRS using public signals from social media to determine if somebody is cheating on their taxes is not the same as the NSA tracking your GPS location via your cell phone at all times.

"If you don't have something to hide then you shouldn't mind" ... "They do have something to hide, so fuck them!" is two sides of the same coin.

You are correct. Perhaps I did not make my point clear. If you publicly post pictures of your new Porsche and your newly remodeled kitchen and claim that you only made $10k last year, why should that not be cause for the IRS to take a deeper look? You do not, by definition, have any expectation of privacy in that scenario. If you sent the picture of your new ride in a private message, that is a different story.

Re: When the IRS 'likes' your Facebook update

#54

Post by thenewbtg »

talmand wrote: post #23
thenewbtg wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's wholly untrue. Yes, the tax preparation industry has made token donations to efforts to preserve the current tax code. But I would argue that the failure of tax reform is not so simple. Major tax reform is a massive, massive legislative undertaking. And doing so redefines many of the basic American incentives. Having your say in tax reform is the equivalent of leaving your mark on the next 20-30 years of Ameri…

Wait, you say it's wholly untrue but the immediately say that it's somewhat true. Can't disagree with the rest.

I apologize, I believe it's functionally untrue. I believe functionally that Intuit has approximately 0% effect on tax reform.

I was being glib in saying that they do have an effect, because to me a 0.01 - 0.05% level of effect is negligible.

Re: When the IRS 'likes' your Facebook update

#55

Post by maxerickson »

talmand wrote: post #51
maxerickson wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That number is already shown on W-2s and copied to the tax return. I guess it's easier to not care about the number than it would be to not care about a check. One thing that would happen is that a lot more people would come up short at tax time.

And yet if you ask people how much they pay taxes they probably don't know. They may know how much they take home and how much they get back on their return, but the dollar amount they pay in taxes? I would bet most don't know.

Oh, I agree with that. I was just pointing out that the information is already pretty available (It isn't actually on the W-2, that's just withholding, but it's a line item on the 1040). To me that at least hints at people not believing they can do much to change it, rather than being completely oblivious.

Re: When the IRS 'likes' your Facebook update

#56

Post by joshAg »

matwood wrote: post #39
yeukhon wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They always audit your tax, no matter what. I just got audited and boom they wanted $63 more. Whatever you paid this year, a few years later they will review again...

Most people's taxes are pretty basic and this is likely the typical audit response. The one thing I would have expected though is we want $63 more plus a $100 fine for making a typo. One thing that always bugs me, is that if the gov. has enough information to know you owed $63 more dollars they had enough information to tell you exactly what you owed up front and you could have skipped doing taxes and paying turbo ta…

blame intuit for lobbying to prevent the IRS from sending you what they think you owe.

http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/27/turbotax-maker-funnels-mill...

Re: When the IRS 'likes' your Facebook update

#57

Post by joshAg »

cobrausn wrote: post #44
DrJokepu wrote: post #18

I deal with 3 tax agencies every year. I submit my personal and my business's tax returns to the British HMRC as that's where I live. I deal with my home country's (Hungary) tax agency too for various, boring reasons. And, ultimately, as I tend to do my wife's tax returns as well and she's a citizen of the United States I file taxes with the IRS. I don't know how else I could put this: the US tax system is absolutely…

My father-in-law was pretty high up in the NY State taxing agencies before he retired. When I once asked him why he thought the tax codes in the US were so complicated, he said it was simply because the US likes to use the tax codes to for social engineering and many different people have had their hands at the controls over the years.

don't forget all the loopholes that get added along the way.
Post reply on HN