171–180 of 454 posts
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> I've never met a doctor who wants people to be sick. i don't think this is meant in an interpersonal, malicious sense.
What other sense is there to take it?
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Yes, of course. Obviously if the IRS knows your income, knows you mortgage interest, interest on savings and dividends and it is all electronically recorded, there what is the point of filing. Only to keep accountants and tax software companies in business. I can guarantee you that if you file a return and copy the numbers in wrong from your W4 you will get a computer generated letter. I did that by accident once I t…
Even on mortgages, the IRS doesn't have all the information. I refinanced my mortgage and paid points for the refi. Those points have to be amortized over the life of the loan (which the IRS knows the law, but doesn't know that I paid points on the loan). I just refinanced that mortgage again, meaning next year that I'll write off the rest of the points for the previous loan as a 2017 expense. There's plenty that the…
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It's almost that simple in the US if your situation is that simple. What happens in NZ if you make $400 selling vintage cabbage patch dolls on eBay? What if you earned $1k in returns on your investment account? What if you are renting your place out on Airbnb? If all you have is a simple income in the US, then the 1040ez is a single page and you can file it for free online if you make under a certain amount. You can…
Yes you have to file an IR3 if you make other income. http://www.ird.govt.nz/income-tax-individual/end-year/ir3/ii... My favourite part of our tax system is the advice to file if you have "income from an illegal enterprise" EDIT: Just as a reply to the original point. I'm not sure how complicated the US system is. I'm not trying to say it's bad either, it just seems to me that we have a system similar to the one that…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's almost that simple in the US if your situation is that simple. What happens in NZ if you make $400 selling vintage cabbage patch dolls on eBay? What if you earned $1k in returns on your investment account? What if you are renting your place out on Airbnb? If all you have is a simple income in the US, then the 1040ez is a single page and you can file it for free online if you make under a certain amount. You can…
Yes you have to file an IR3 if you make other income. http://www.ird.govt.nz/income-tax-individual/end-year/ir3/ii... My favourite part of our tax system is the advice to file if you have "income from an illegal enterprise" EDIT: Just as a reply to the original point. I'm not sure how complicated the US system is. I'm not trying to say it's bad either, it just seems to me that we have a system similar to the one that…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even on mortgages, the IRS doesn't have all the information. I refinanced my mortgage and paid points for the refi. Those points have to be amortized over the life of the loan (which the IRS knows the law, but doesn't know that I paid points on the loan). I just refinanced that mortgage again, meaning next year that I'll write off the rest of the points for the previous loan as a 2017 expense. There's plenty that the…
That just sounds like a situation where the bank needs to supply information to the IRS for you so come tax time they already know about it.
Refinance points (and you'd also need to know the refinance term) are not currently collected by the IRS.
See the final paragraphs, which I've copied below - it's essentially a version of the Citogenesis effect.
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"Dennis Huang, executive director of the L.A.-based Asian Business Association, also told ProPublica he was solicited by a lobbyist to write about return-free filing. When the lobbyist sent him a suggested op-ed last summer and told him the proposal would hurt small businesses, Huang wrote an op-ed in the Asian Journal that claimed Asian-owned businesses would not only spend more time paying taxes, but they'd also get less of a refund each year.
Huang declined to disclose the lobbyist's name, but acknowledged he didn't really do his own research. "There's some homework needed," he said.
Oregon's Martin did some research on return-free filing and now supports it. She also co-published a post about the issue and the PR efforts related to it because, she says, she was alarmed that other nonprofits could easily agree to endorse a position they did not fully understand.
"You get one or two prominent nonprofits to use their name, and busy advocates will extend trust and say sure, us too," Martin said."
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The issue here is that taxes have been over complicated with deductions. If it was just simply based off earnings and there were no deductions it would be simple. Obviously taxes would need to be reduced if all deductions were removed. I for one would love to see a zero deduction tax law, and simple validation of earnings.
I think you're still stuck on W-2 employees (which is a pretty large and common case, I admit, and I'd love to see that simplified). You will always need accounting for businesses (IMO). Suppose you ran a lemonade stand. You bought some equipment, some raw materials, you used some utilities, you used some space, you bought a banner and some flyers to advertise your stand, you hired a lawyer to help set it up, you bou…
In terms of businesses, I hold somewhat controversial belief that businesses should not be taxed. Their employees are taxed, and people recieving dividends are taxed. By not taxing businesses, we'd also balance out the unfairness in the system today, where large companies are able to offset all profits with deductions, and small companies which actually pay quite a bit. The point is to bring fairness to the tax system.
1. The complexity of the tax code
2. The complexity of filing
They are not the same thing.
You have to go through some process to file now. Let the government go through that laborious process.
For those who are not conflating the two, this point does not apply.
If trump administration actually manages to simplify tax code and kill the stupidity corporations induce via lobbying such that I can file my own taxes. I would have a lot of respect for him.
In the first paragraph, "Meanwhile, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren proposed a bill yesterday to allow free government-prepped returns."