261–270 of 288 posts
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I wonder if they went through school and just didn't retain it, or if they were simply not educated at all.
Just wait until you see how many people don’t read another book for the rest of their lives after high school/college.
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> if your family makes under $60k you are almost certainly paying no income taxes How is this possible? Where I live, you can expect to pay around 30% of your income as tax almost regardless of how much money you actually make (as long as it's above something like $600 a year).
Yes. If you and your spouse both make minimum wage and not a cent more, and you have two children or more, you can come out about even. How many two child families do you know with both parents earning absolute minimum wage?
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Following tax forms is so braindead simple, I honestly can't see how anyone can be that incapable without being mentally deficient enough to be under conservatorship. It's literally step by step "Add this" or "subtract that". If you have a calculator and a 3rd grade level understanding of English, I can't see how you'd have a problem.
> Following tax forms is so braindead simple One year, I had to spend a good deal of time working around a cycle in my taxes--VA wanted me to do my CA taxes first and CA wanted me to do my VA taxes first, and the instructions that explained how to handle this situation were only one on the one form that needed to be used to solve it, with nothing telling you maybe you should look for that form instead. Furthermore, t…
Whether or not you do your taxes by hand, you should probably have a good idea of your income sources.
It’s amazing that 54% of adults in the United States have a literacy below 6th grade level, but it is expected for the same population to have the financial literacy to file their taxes accurately. Going further, the IRS already knows the details of most people’s taxes before they file, yet everyone is expected to complete what amounts to a complex task for many people. I cannot fathom why it is still done this way.
Like many things in America, the government is lobbied to create an unnecessary problem by private companies who aim to profit off of solving that problem.
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I’ve paid no tax and I’ve paid lots of tax. I did not care in either case how much I was paying in taxes (it is what it is). What I did care about is how much of a pain in the as it is. Mail me a goddamn postcard telling me how much I owe and be done with it. And then to find out one political party would prefer that I suffer so I’ll vote the way they want? Yeah, fuck those guys, I’m voting for the other ones.
Well perhaps you don’t care, but majority of people care and feel the impact of higher taxes. I’d rather not have the government waste more of my money
Then campaign and vote for people who will handle the money how you prefer. You don’t get to argue with the bill after the money is already spent. Tax collection time is the wrong time to be having this fight.
Listening to Congress “debate” this made me unreasonably upset. If you as a sitting politician have received monetary benefits from a tax filing service you should not be allowed to speak.
The rest of the world call this a bribe.
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The FICA system, of which taxes are one component, also pays out a lower proportion to higher earners. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/bendpoints.html It is incorrect to describe the system as regressive. It's a little weird to lump it all together as FICA taxes, too. Social security is more of a mandatory pension program that caps both contributions and benefits for high earners (in addition to progressively lower ben…
The question was, why doe EITC exist, not is the reason still relevant today (although I'd argue it is). The additional medicare taxex you mention have only existed for about ten years, EITC goes back to the 1960s as I recall.
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R44825/8 (PDF)
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They're probably right about that?
The vast majority of working adults have to file a W-4, receive paystubs that shw exactly how much they're withholding for state and federal taxes, and get a W-2 every year with the totals. The 1099 is just busywork that doesn't give the taxpayer any extra information. I fail to see how prefilled forms would fail to alert taxpayers to the amount of taxes they pay.
It’s amazing that 54% of adults in the United States have a literacy below 6th grade level, but it is expected for the same population to have the financial literacy to file their taxes accurately. Going further, the IRS already knows the details of most people’s taxes before they file, yet everyone is expected to complete what amounts to a complex task for many people. I cannot fathom why it is still done this way.
I wonder if this issue is due to the overall spread of academic abilities, or if it's because progressive education systems focus more on caring for students' feelings rather than setting higher standards
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> “all this for…” — you’re employing someone for 40% a full time duration. of course you need to do the right thing, ensure they get the right wage, if you need to pay benefis, etc. this is such a privileged position and you think you should’ve just been able to pay cash and potentially screw someone over?
That’s not even remotely close to what I said. I went through all the trouble because I thought it was the right thing to do and I wanted to do right by the babysitter. It’s why I ended up paying an accountant a larger lump of money than I would have liked to in order to get it all sorted out. Im complaining how difficult it is to do the right thing.
I did not read anything in your post that suggested you resented the babysitter or having to pay money to do it properly.
I read the exact opposite, that more people would if the process were not so burdensom of people who obviously have a child and so presumably not a ton of time for paperwork.
After all, you did it properly... what's to get angry about other than the topic of the original article, that tax paperwork is overboard?