[NaturalBornConservative]

"I probably spend 15 to 20 hours a year dealing with taxes, getting all my ducks in a row for the nearly two hours I spend at H&R Block, which costs an additional $450. When I contract out to do work on the side, I'm paid between $130 and $150 an hour. So as I see it, my "compliance cost" for taxes is at least $3000 a year."

So other than the $450 you actually pay to H&R Block, how much do you actually spend in real dollars, because that's the amount you will be able to deduct for tax preparation? Unless you actually had to take unpaid time off from work for tax compliance, there's no way in my mind you can justify a fictitious expense. That would be fraudulent. If you disagree, try deducting the $3,000, and good luck justifying it in Tax Court after you're audited.

[MarkL]

I'm perfectly aware of what I'm allowed to DEDUCT from my taxes. BTW, since I'm paying roughly 40% in taxes, I don't get "to keep" the entire $450. I get to deduct that from my taxable income.

Again, you seem to be a supporter of slavery, believing that one has no right to his own time. You seem to believe that we belong to the government, and all our labor is due the government, except for what the government lets us keep. Do you give away your time? Maybe your time has no value to anyone, not even yourself.

Mark

[MarkL]

BTW, the government has added ALL SORTS of compliance costs for businesses. Ask any medical or dental office how much HIPPA compliance cost them. Or any company that's forced to deal with SOX. A typical network change that I could previously take care of with a few moments of typing and then a minute or two of record keeping now typically takes at least 5 (and often more) minutes to do the paperwork and route it to the proper people. My company had to add a person to our IT department just to deal with the paperwork generated by SOX, and the company had to add an additional 2 internal auditors. The sheer amount of paperwork is staggering.

I guess those cost should just be ignored too, right? Actually, the more regulations they can add, the better, since that will help reduce the ranks of the unemployed too.

Mark

[Cyber Liberty]

Unless you actually had to take unpaid time off from work for tax compliance, there's no way in my mind you can justify a fictitious expense.

That's utterly preposterous. What about unpaid time after work? In your mind, my time has no value unless I am "at work" drawing a paycheck? If it takes someone many hours to gather paperwork to do their personal 1040, you assume that to be worthless time because they don't do it between 8 and 5? No wonder you get a cost of compliance that's 11% of what it really costs. You (and your friends at the Tax Court) deliberately ignore the unpaid efforts of millions of taxpayers.

2/3 of my life, and every other life, has no value to you. The rest of our entire existences must seem like one great big fictitious expense to you.