Filing Taxes in Japan and Elsewhere Is a Breeze. Why Not Here?

New York Times ^ | 04/14/2017 | T.R. Reid

[SeekAndFind]

Ah, the blithe joys of springtime in the United States. Azaleas in bloom at the Masters, breezy picnics on balmy afternoons, Easter egg hunts — and the annual ordeal of tax forms, with helpful I.R.S. instructions like this: “Go to Part IV of Schedule I to figure line 52 if the estate or trust has qualified dividends or has a gain on lines 18a and 19 of column (2) of Schedule D (Form 1041) (as refigured for the AMT, if necessary).”

Americans will spend more than six billion hours this year gathering records and filling out forms, just to pay their taxes. They will pay some $10 billion to tax preparation firms to help get the job done and spend $2 billion on tax-preparation software (programs that still require hours of work). Millions will subsequently get a notice from the I.R.S. saying they got the figures wrong, or put the right number on the wrong line or added wrong in calculating line 47 — which means more hours of work or more fees to the tax preparer.

And here’s the most maddening thing of all: It doesn’t have to be this way.

Parliaments and revenue agencies all over the world have done what Congress seems totally unable to do: They’ve made paying taxes easy. If you walk down the street in Tel Aviv, Tokyo, London or Lima, Peru, you won’t see an office of H & R Block or a similar company; in most countries, there’s no need for that industry.

In the Netherlands, the Algemene Fiscale Politiek (the Dutch I.R.S.) has a slogan: “We can’t make paying taxes pleasant, but at least we can make it simple.” It is certainly simple for my friend Michael, a Dutch executive with a six-figure income,

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I get these letters now and then — the revenue service is always right — and it makes me mad. If the government already has all this stuff, why did I have to spend hours digging through receipts and statements and 1099 forms to report what the I.R.S. already knows?

Because they have to justify hiring an obscene number of Gubmint employees to suck at the Gubmint teat and also have measures of control and intimidation over the Serfs.

That's why.

[forgotten man]

Here is how we can simplify the filing of income tax returns. On line 1 enter your total incomes from all sources. On line 2 enter 90% of line 1 and send that amount to the IRS. Be careful what you ask for because you might get it.

[KarlInOhio]

Paying the tax takes up a small amount of the form. Not paying tax takes up most of it. Why should I (or the IRS or Congress) care about what type of furnace you bought? Whether you, as a teacher (but not secretary or engineer) bought supplies for work? Gave to a charity? Paid a mortgage as opposed to rented or lived in a paid off house? Paid state income tax?

Just lower the rate and dump every one of those social engineering credits and deductions. I don't care how you earned or spent your money and neither should Congress.

[mykroar]

That’s what my brother says, can you imaging the amount of people out of work if this lunacy actually ends?

[hanamizu]

It was supposed to be temporary.

---

Well, three quarters of a century could be thought of as ‘temporary’. But I think the temporary phone tax of the Spanish American war lasted even longer.

[gibsonguy]

The tax code is power. Trump talked great about simplifying it. With Jared’s gang - Cohn, Powell et all and GOPe in the thick of things there will be no real reform, count on it.

[marron]

There is no reason for the average citizen to have any contact with IRS.

The company you work for is already withholding your taxes. They have the tables that say how much you owe. With a simplified tax code, you fill out your W-4 the day you go to work, with your number of dependents, and that’s it.

If your spouse works, so what. She is withheld based on the same tables. They couldn’t sum your two wages to get a higher tax rate, but they don’t need to. Each wage stands alone.

So aside from filling out your W-4, you never have to think about it again as long as you live. No April 15 madness. No worrying if you overpaid or underpaid, its not your problem. The company that is going to withhold the money anyway is the one responsible to IRS. End of story.

This is the way it is overseas. Its not the employee’s problem.

[PGR88]

The US tax system is set up in large part as a scam on the American workers to transfer American wealth to the overlords

The Tax System is just a complement to our Federal Reserve financial system - which really, truly does transfer wealth from the working class and savers, to government, its cronies and anyone who can access debt first.

[Safetgiver]

Because the tax system is another welfare benefit. You make X amount of money, you get back X if youv’e over paid. However now, we have EIT credit, economic opportunity credits,green energy credits, adoption credits,tuition credits and on and on. All of those exemptions, credits,etc. is to get votes.

[drypowder]

Yes, that’s the way it was sold and evolved but don’t you think Col House and the other banksters of the day who pushed it through the Congress had to know what the law would mean for their bottom line and absolute control of America’s currency system (expand the tax base to the common folks) in the future? I do. One thing about evil people of that caliber and position, they are cunning like a fox.

[hanamizu]

I don’t know. Before the income tax, one’s finances were private—none of the government’s business. A lot of the initial resistance to the tax was based on the invasion of privacy that the new law allowed. Your money was your own to do with as you wanted. Now, moving sums over $10,000 requires informing the government, and of course moving sums less than $10,000 in a way that looks like you are avoiding reporting is a felony. I guess it really isn’t your money after all.

1913 also saw the creation of the Federal Reserve system that allowed the banksters to control the currency. But FWIW the biggest bankster of them all, JP Morgan had controlled money up until that time. (I think he died in 1913 one reason the Fed could (in my opinion) be created in the first place).

[LouAvul]

Congress critters make tax law and they love its intricacies so that the end user is ignorant of the implications. That way the bums in congress can manipulate the funds to keep themselves in hookers and blow.

It's way past time to kick those parasites out and reform govt with a modicum of common sense. (Term limits might be a good start.)

"Politics." From "poly" meaning "many" and "tics" meaning "blood sucking creatures."

[ConservaTeen]

What I’d love to see is this: under $95,000 5%, $95,000 to $500,000 10% above $500,000 16%. Deductions on homes, homeschooled children, and stock profits...