One of the easiest ways to convince the public that the government is inept and wasteful is to make it as difficult to do the necessary as possible. If politicians cared, this wouldn’t be an issue.
They could also learn to file their taxes, as well as simple tax planning, in a very short video.
In contrast, if the process is streamlined every year, most people won't even pay attention to how much they pay in taxes - which isn't great if your ultimate goal is to keep government as small as possible.
The ruling class doesn't even have to actively communicate and conspire with one another (although they do). Their independent attempts to undermine and control government furthers the agenda of all private businesses.
All this is with just the very basics, not counting step up basis, trusts or anything slightly complicated.
That's the financial impact. Depending on what you're missing, the nonfinancial might be opening yourself to perjury, because you're knowingly claiming a falsehood as a fact on a tax return (even if it's financially in the government's benefit)... never mind potentially screwing up future tax returns in the process.
An intern or 2 could do this for the entire nation to benefit!
One should note that the cited study quotes the 45% from a 1992 study. These days, with gig economy and quasi-self-employment, that number is probably higher since you don't have an employer who reports your income for you.
Still, here in Australia, where we have the return-free tax system, adding what you earned from your various gig jobs isn't too hard: you add that as items to the web form: 'I made 15,123 from Uber Eats'. That just gets added to your overall return. I don't see how that's so hard compared to the US?
If uber paid you $15123 but you:
Just bought a new bike bc your other was stolen
You paid $1200 for insurance
You bought a helmet and cold weather clothes etc etc.
Those things reduce your taxable income.
They have simplified it nicely, though: if you work from home you can claim a per-hour deduction so you don't have to do the math of wear-and-tear, electricity, internet etc. I think it was $0.6 per hour?
Other countries presumably rely on other fraud signals. They might have more visibility into your day-to-day financial transactions, or there might be more of a culture of leaving an anonymous tip if you suspect your neighbor isn't paying a fair share.
The issue is the broad range of deductions and credits that depend on things like the composition of your household and your primary residence. Contra some expectations, the IRS does not keep a database of who’s shacking up with whom, where, or if kids are in the picture.
All German readers spew out their drink in disbelief - Pardon what?
> United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, and the Netherlands, among other countries.
https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
I paid on the actual official website, did not get scammed BTW...
The government doesn't know the exact answer - if they did we wouldn't have to file at all. Have a kid? Buy a house? Go to college? Make $60k selling illicit drugs on the black market? Get a $200 bank signup bonus? These all affect taxes. One could argue in a dystopian way that technically "the government" as a whole does know these things, but suffice to say, the IRS doesn't, necessarily.
The whole point of filing is that our tax code is ridiculous. We shouldn't get mad at filing, but at our ridiculous tax code. But it'll never be fixed, there's way too much pork stuffed in it from both sides.
Also, nobody files 100% correct taxes. Show me the person, I'll show you the crime(so to speak). You do not go to prison for making mistakes!
Having seen their work before, wakeuptopolitics is a sort of fetishist for appearing unbiased or centrist so they won't bother calling out "one side" in order to appear to be enlightened and above the fray at the expense of the truth. While Democrats also get money from turbo tax et al., it was Trump who ended it likely just to spite Joe Biden, in his usual manner.
toomuchtodo•11h ago