Most developed countries tell you what they think you owe, give you free filing tools that let you edit and make changes.
Thr IRS already knows the bill for most people and under Biden rolled out free filing which Intuit et al fought for years.
Under Trump free file was stripped away and the IRS still refuses to just tell you what you owe based on their reported information.
Imagine if the power company refused to send you a monthly bill and instead said “we know what you owe but lets see if you can figure it out for yourself and if youre wrong there will be severe penalties and consequences.”
Its absolute nonsense.
Just_Candle_315 on
LoL the US has a self-reporting system because it doesn’t what you’re up to 24/7/365 and where your income comes from and how much things cost you and how much you sold them for. If you’re not responsible enough to self report, that’s alarming it’s really not complicated and can basically be performed for free on https://www.freetaxusa.com/.
pte_omark on
Over her the governments takes the tax every paycheck and at the end of the year they say hey you paid X amount of tax we think you are entitled to y amount back. If you don’t agree send us the receipts that show you deserve more back and we’ll fix you up within two weeks
It easy. If you spend on work stuff (within the rules) you can claim those expenses against your income to reduce the taxes owed (already paid) then you get a deposit straight into your account from the gov.
thequietthingsthat on
You can thank TurboTax for this bullshit. Seriously. They lobbied to make it this way so people would buy their services.
Willem_Dafuq on
So I’m going to say this, but I’m sure it will be downvoted. I am a cpa with 18 years experience fwiw. But unless you have kids or own a house, it’s pretty easy to do your taxes, and spending an hour or so reviewing your finances for the year shouldn’t be the worst idea anyway.
And as it relates to certain deductions- those are there for your benefit. Things like interest on student loan payments and child credits may make the code more complex, but they are to the benefit of the taxpayers. So yeah you could argue that the code should be simplified but that may remove benefits. Wouldn’t you prefer an extra – let’s say $300 of tax benefits for a little extra time to research?
weveran on
Ah this classic. As someone who files and mails out hundreds of W-2s each year for various clients, I always feel compelled to mention that its the employer’s filing that tells the IRS the number that you should be reporting. They don’t know who is lying if it’s off and will notify both sides that there’s a mismatch if someone files wrong 😛
LordNemissary on
It’s easy to hate the IRS but really they are just underpaid, overworked accountants. All of the problems with tax filing are because of the corporations that make tens or hundreds of millions by charging people for tax filing services.
It is wild. A few years ago, in my haste, I grabbed the previous year’s W2 and filed with that. I got a call from a (no sarcasm) *very* nice IRS officer who said, “You used last year’s W2. Your income should have been [exact amount], and your taxes should have been [exact amount].” I got a reprint of my W2 and redid it and communicated with her a couple times. She was super helpful, I didn’t get penalized or anything. But, yeah, I was like, “Wait, you know exactly what I made and how much I owed? Why am I doing this?”
12 Comments
Most developed countries tell you what they think you owe, give you free filing tools that let you edit and make changes.
Thr IRS already knows the bill for most people and under Biden rolled out free filing which Intuit et al fought for years.
Under Trump free file was stripped away and the IRS still refuses to just tell you what you owe based on their reported information.
Imagine if the power company refused to send you a monthly bill and instead said “we know what you owe but lets see if you can figure it out for yourself and if youre wrong there will be severe penalties and consequences.”
Its absolute nonsense.
LoL the US has a self-reporting system because it doesn’t what you’re up to 24/7/365 and where your income comes from and how much things cost you and how much you sold them for. If you’re not responsible enough to self report, that’s alarming it’s really not complicated and can basically be performed for free on https://www.freetaxusa.com/.
Over her the governments takes the tax every paycheck and at the end of the year they say hey you paid X amount of tax we think you are entitled to y amount back. If you don’t agree send us the receipts that show you deserve more back and we’ll fix you up within two weeks
It easy. If you spend on work stuff (within the rules) you can claim those expenses against your income to reduce the taxes owed (already paid) then you get a deposit straight into your account from the gov.
You can thank TurboTax for this bullshit. Seriously. They lobbied to make it this way so people would buy their services.
So I’m going to say this, but I’m sure it will be downvoted. I am a cpa with 18 years experience fwiw. But unless you have kids or own a house, it’s pretty easy to do your taxes, and spending an hour or so reviewing your finances for the year shouldn’t be the worst idea anyway.
And as it relates to certain deductions- those are there for your benefit. Things like interest on student loan payments and child credits may make the code more complex, but they are to the benefit of the taxpayers. So yeah you could argue that the code should be simplified but that may remove benefits. Wouldn’t you prefer an extra – let’s say $300 of tax benefits for a little extra time to research?
Ah this classic. As someone who files and mails out hundreds of W-2s each year for various clients, I always feel compelled to mention that its the employer’s filing that tells the IRS the number that you should be reporting. They don’t know who is lying if it’s off and will notify both sides that there’s a mismatch if someone files wrong 😛
It’s easy to hate the IRS but really they are just underpaid, overworked accountants. All of the problems with tax filing are because of the corporations that make tens or hundreds of millions by charging people for tax filing services.
So they can fine or jail you when you fuck it up.
If your wrong they come for it the next year
More like jail 🙂
Oldie but a goodie!
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZThmDLgH9/
It is wild. A few years ago, in my haste, I grabbed the previous year’s W2 and filed with that. I got a call from a (no sarcasm) *very* nice IRS officer who said, “You used last year’s W2. Your income should have been [exact amount], and your taxes should have been [exact amount].” I got a reprint of my W2 and redid it and communicated with her a couple times. She was super helpful, I didn’t get penalized or anything. But, yeah, I was like, “Wait, you know exactly what I made and how much I owed? Why am I doing this?”