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Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)

nytimes.com

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Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)

#81

Post by mbreese »

craftyguy wrote: post #45
simplecomplex wrote: post #8

They already do prepare your taxes. They just make you do the same work twice.

If they do, they are terrible at it. I get 'corrections' from the IRS about once a year to previous returns, all of which are basically them making an error and then sending me a bill. Not only do I have to waste time preparing my taxes, but I have to waste additional time disputing their BS 'corrections'.

I once got a correction was was completely accurate. TurboTax has hidden something in a worksheet that errantly added something twice. The IRS corrected it and sent me a notice to let me know the correct value. It did reduce my refund, but it was correct.

Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)

#82

Post by wwweston »

ritchiea wrote: post #39
rndmize wrote: post #9

13 million in lobbying over five years to prevent more efficient tax filing for an entire nation and protect your business model. Sounds like an amazing deal for a company with 5 billion in revenue. I'm consistently amazed at just how little money it takes to buy off the government effectively.

It's not just that, anti-tax zealot Grover Norquist has outsized interest on the right and he gets republicans to sign a pledge to not raise taxes, and if they violate the pledge Norquist raises money and campaigns against them. The problem is, the pledge also requires signees also do not support legislation to make paying taxes easier. The radical anti-tax groups are so anti-tax that they see making it easier to pay…

It turns out that:

"I don't want government to operate effectively because to do so would ruin my ideological minarchism"

and

"I don't want government to operate effectively because I can profit from it operating less effectively"

are very friendly bedfellows indeed.

Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)

#83

Post by yxhuvud »

Yes. I do it every year, and taxes take roughly 10 minutes to prepare.

And the majority of those is because I'm a part owner of my dads company, so I have to verify that the given numbers are correct in two forms instead of only one.

Also note that companies usually prepay part of salaries as tax, so generally people only have to pay a few K, or receive a few K. Depending on how much is paid.

Taxes seem complicated in USA.

Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)

#84

Post by funkaster »

In Chile, the government gives you the opportunity to pre-fill all your info. You could use gov-only accounting tools and at the end of the year everything is done for you. Just one click and you get your return, this has been true for 10+ years IIRC. When I moved to the US (7 years ago) I was so overwhelmed with taxes that I decided to pay for an accountant. This year I used TurboTax and even though there's a nice "wizard" it still feels overly (and unnecessary) complex.

As others have stated in comments, there's nothing special about US taxes that mandate it should be this complex, other than special interests of people wanting to make things complex for their own benefit.

Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)

#85

Post by stephengillie »

icedchai wrote: post #78
stephengillie wrote: post #3

I'm annoyed that there is no simple system for the IRS to tell me what I owe, and let me pay or dispute. Instead, we play this game where the IRS provides a bunch of complicated documents, I guess which ones to fill out and submit, then wait 3 years to see if I was randomly chosen to see if I was correct. So it's very easy to make a mistake for dozens of years, then suddenly be penalized at random. It's the worst kin…

This would be nice, but they may not actually have all of the data: itemized deductions being one major missing piece.

Doesn't the bank send the same tax documents to the IRS as they send to you? (Mortgage interest is a commonly itemized deduction.)

Itemized deductions could be a "dispute" item, where you would login, switch from Standard to Itemized, then itemize your deductions. It could possibly recall this setting, and even the deductions, from the previous year's input.

Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)

#87

Post by refurb »

rb808 wrote: post #43
sologoub wrote: post #2

Colleagues from the EU countries who relocate to the US generally tend to have a two-fold reaction - excitement at the lower tax rates and dismay at the filing complexities. Would be amazing to have the cake and eat it too - lower taxes and a simple filing system!

Lower taxes? In France the bracket for a family for €104,120 to €279,132 is only 30%. Sure if you live in Oaklahoma you might pay less than that but CA/NY state taxes plus property taxes, plus fewer investment tax free options, I think US taxes are now similar or higher. Ie 28% federal + 10% state + 10% property taxes equals nearly 50%. Sure sales tax is lower. Plus - you still have to pay for your medical care, and…

Who pays a 10% property tax?

The $165K to $315K bracket for a family in the US is 24%. A healthy chunk lower than France. Plus mortgage interest deduction, etc.

Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)

#88

Post by [deleted] »

jedberg wrote: post #73
Karishma1234 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not that simple and there are deeper issues. If buying out politicians was easy Google and Amazon would have easily raised H1B cap by now. Just like in immigration there are multiple forces at play in taxation too. The powerful anti-tax group (which I support) is against this simplification problem. We believe making it simple would also make it simple to raise taxes and people will not realise how much money t…

> We believe making it simple would also make it simple to raise taxes and people will not realise how much money they are paying to the government. In other words you think people are too dumb to do the math, but yet are smart enough to make intelligent protests against taxes when they have to write a check?

[deleted]

Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)

#89

Post by the_gastropod »

Karishma1234 wrote: post #54
rndmize wrote: post #9

13 million in lobbying over five years to prevent more efficient tax filing for an entire nation and protect your business model. Sounds like an amazing deal for a company with 5 billion in revenue. I'm consistently amazed at just how little money it takes to buy off the government effectively.

It is not that simple and there are deeper issues. If buying out politicians was easy Google and Amazon would have easily raised H1B cap by now. Just like in immigration there are multiple forces at play in taxation too. The powerful anti-tax group (which I support) is against this simplification problem. We believe making it simple would also make it simple to raise taxes and people will not realise how much money t…

This would be fine and good if:

1. There was any relation between how much we spent and what we pay in taxes. There isn't. In the U.S., so-called "fiscal conservatives" routinely give massive tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans while simultaneously voting to increase spending in the largest discretionary spending category we have: the military—which currently represents 53.7% of our discretionary budget.

2. People currently had any idea what they were spending on taxes. In my experience, most people think the amount taken out of their paycheck is all federal taxes. They seemingly make no distinction between social security, 401k contributions, medicare, pre-tax benefits like health insurance, transportation benefits, FSA's, etc., local, state, or federal taxes. It's all just seen as "the government took money from me". It's amazing how many people legitimately think they're taxed over 50% (especially those that are in the 15-25% tax brackets).

Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)

#90

Post by JumpCrisscross »

ada1981 wrote: post #58
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I guess you could call it civil disobedience Willful failure to file is a felony [1]. [1] https://www.irs.gov/irm/part25/irm_25-001-007

Not exactly. >> Willful failure to file a tax return is a misdemeanor pursuant to IRC 7203. In cases where an overt act of evasion occurred, willful failure to file may be elevated to a felony under IRC 7201. <<

> Willful failure to file a tax return is a misdemeanor

Carrying up to one year of jail time under federal law. States usually have penalties, too.

> In cases where an overt act of evasion occurred, willful failure to file may be elevated to a felony

OP is bragging about willfully failing to file on the Internet. Something tells me proving this wouldn't take a sleuth.

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