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Filing Taxes in Japan Is a Breeze. Why Not in the US?

nytimes.com

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Re: Filing Taxes in Japan Is a Breeze. Why Not in the US?

#11

Post by jschulenklopper »

I don't know when the slogan of the Dutch tax authority, "We can’t make paying taxes pleasant, but at least we can make it simple" was introduced, but in my view it has been supported in three different ways:

1) a simplification of the tax rules - mainly by reducing the number of exceptions and tax deduction rules,

2) filing the tax forms digitally - they started with desktop applications, and now the main focus is on a web application, and

3) pre-entering the information the DTA already has on you, so you just need to correct and add missing information instead of entering everything from scratch - and they collect a lot of data of you yearly.

This improvement happened over the last 15 years, and the time required to filing tax returns was reduced from many hours (mainly to gather all the information, and writing it on a paper form) to like 30 minutes. That is, if your administration is up to date. Filing the tax forms is my yearly reminder to update my administration...

BTW, that slogan is stated more succinctly in Dutch: "Leuker kunnen we het niet maken. Wel makkelijker."

Re: Filing Taxes in Japan Is a Breeze. Why Not in the US?

#12

Post by dagenleg »

oakesm9 wrote: post #8
dagenleg wrote: post #5

The beauty of free market is that it can create markets where there otherwise would be none. Once you normalize lobbying in your society, possibilities are virtually limitless.

Is it really a free market if you need to stop one party (the government) doing something to keep your market?

Why would you want to word it like that? Let's not call it 'stop' but rather 'financially discourage'.

Re: Filing Taxes in Japan Is a Breeze. Why Not in the US?

#13

Post by kartan »

Today I filed taxes in Sweden for the first time.

1. Sign-in from Bank-id at Skatteverket

2. Review pre-populated amounts

3. Digitally sign acceptance filing with Bank-id

If I just have one salary from one employer all year round, why should it be more complicated than this?

Re: Filing Taxes in Japan Is a Breeze. Why Not in the US?

#15

Post by geon »

ominous wrote: post #3

offtopic: Is this a new thing? Double clicked a word to try and select it, and the text changes size. Windows 10, Firefox. Up there with "smooth scrolling", "clipboard hijack" and making me type something in the browser console so I can use javascript. Annoying.

It's not doing it on Chrome/Mac.

I guess it is about as annoying as menu elements changing size on hover.

Re: Filing Taxes in Japan Is a Breeze. Why Not in the US?

#16

Post by huffmsa »

"Hey, we here at The Government would like to make your experience paying taxes less painful.

Hence forth, we're just going to take whatever amount we think is accurate, and you don't have to do anything!

Just trust us!"

Politely sir, take one giant step back from that and your beachfront property in Arizona, and diddle your own face.

Now, serious answer? Because EVERYTHING about the US Government is intentionally designed to be slow, cumbersome and painful, SPECIFICALLY to limit the amount of damage government institutions can cause to the country.

Re: Filing Taxes in Japan Is a Breeze. Why Not in the US?

#17

Post by PeterStuer »

oakesm9 wrote: post #8
dagenleg wrote: post #5

The beauty of free market is that it can create markets where there otherwise would be none. Once you normalize lobbying in your society, possibilities are virtually limitless.

Is it really a free market if you need to stop one party (the government) doing something to keep your market?

Rent seeking alongside concentrating benefits and externalizing woes is the pinnacle of 'free' markets.

Re: Filing Taxes in Japan Is a Breeze. Why Not in the US?

#18

Post by oblio »

In Romania if you don't have any income except for your salary, you don't have to do anything. Yes, there are no tax exemptions or deductions, but on the other hand life is simple.

How often are those exemptions or deductions worth it, especially when compared to the potential complexity and additional cost of a byzantine tax system?

Re: Filing Taxes in Japan Is a Breeze. Why Not in the US?

#19

Post by raverbashing »

huffmsa wrote: post #16

"Hey, we here at The Government would like to make your experience paying taxes less painful. Hence forth, we're just going to take whatever amount we think is accurate, and you don't have to do anything! Just trust us!" Politely sir, take one giant step back from that and your beachfront property in Arizona, and diddle your own face. Now, serious answer? Because EVERYTHING about the US Government is intentionally de…

You're saying this like inefficient government institutions can't harm business

Re: Filing Taxes in Japan Is a Breeze. Why Not in the US?

#20

Post by oakesm9 »

dagenleg wrote: post #12
oakesm9 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really a free market if you need to stop one party (the government) doing something to keep your market?

Why would you want to word it like that? Let's not call it 'stop' but rather 'financially discourage'.

I meant is it really a free market when Intuit needs to pay off the government through lobbying to stop them making tax filing simpler so they can keep their market.
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