Posted on 03/04/2023 7:00:49 AM PST by Twotone
Edited on 03/04/2023 1:23:50 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Nothing focuses the mind quite so intently on the sheer stupidity of government as doing your taxes. What is taken from us is excessive, the intrusiveness is maddening, and the rules are byzantine, which is the distilled essence of most of our interactions with the state. So, it was with a certain degree of anticipation that I told my son that, after working hard at the supermarket in addition to his homeschooling and martial arts, he would have to file his first tax return. Much fun ensued.
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
Always do my own taxes. Not an accountant.
Of course the article is snarky. Doing taxes is inherently Not Fun, and article did actually have a base of reality. Until you’re capable of doing it a few times, it is a challenge. In twenty years, a typical person would have filled out twenty different federal filings. If as a tax preparer you had done only twenty in one year, I suspect you would have not had a job.
Here, at least, the young adult has a job, and has a father that cares enough to bring him to adulthood.
Think of the absolute worst things you can imagine doing as a job. There is some one somewhere who enjoys doing that job and is better at it than you are.
The whole point of the tax code is socially control and manipulate. It is the perfect vehicle for that and that is why it will never be simplified and will grow and become more complex instead.
I thought if you had to go into your local community office and to the state offices and to the federal office every month to pay taxes people would not put up with it.
Many years ago, my 3 year old was sitting with me as I did our taxes. After adding/subtracting, I hit total on the calculator and utter, F%#$. Daughter IMMEDIATELY want to know what F%#$ meant.
Many years ago, my 3 year old was sitting with me as I did our taxes. After adding/subtracting, I hit total on the calculator and utter, F%#$. Daughter IMMEDIATELY want to know what F%#$ meant.
Put another way, the primary qualification for these new agents will be "diversity", not education or qualifications. They'll all start out as GS-7s, making about $45K a year, no promotion potential for at least two years.
They will be trained by the very people who have effed up the Agency with their sloth and incompetence.
To justify their existence, the low hanging fruit of taxpayers, i.e. those who don't use a CPA, will be plucked more than fat chickens.
Feel better? LOL
True, but the true stealth tax is Corporate Taxes.
Corporations do not pay income taxes. They collect taxes.
Corporate income taxes are paid by the end user of their products and services.
Income taxes are a small portion of the taxes we pay.
Fortunately, I now work in the tax department of my company, and will avail myself of their tax program.
I spared my son the first experience before he got out of high screwl. Until he graduated he was further spared the experience my having turned it over to our accountant.
When he commissioned and obama raised taxes I groused and he didn’t care since as a 2nd Lt. he didn’t make enough to care much. By the time he did make barely enough to GAS he had married a CPA. He gets the tax stuff but he doesn’t prepare the data or file the taxes.
Oklahoma makes you submit your federal return so there is no confidentiality involved so why can’t they just tax a portion of your feral return and have done with it? Because they don’t have to so they don’t.
Why is it that former citizens do these awful things to others?
Now I use a popular tax software that is free for most users and pretty cheap for me. The software has advanced over the years to be pretty good at filling out the forms. It even downloads transactions from the major banks and brokerage houses.
This year I had to file for my deceased father-in-law’s revocable trust and my wife's brokerage accounts. The cost was $89 for each and was pretty simple.
I still recommend a CPA if you are running a business that requires a schedule C, SE and other forms that are likely to be audited.
I think the German word is Einkommensteuerschadenfreude.
There was a video with two black guys in the front seat of a car and their younger brother in the back just got his first paycheck. He knew his gross pay. He opened the envelope and was quite upset. Why is ss taken out, Medicare, etc. his older brothers were in the front seat laughing like mad.
“The whole system is based on the premise that the government already knows how much you owe, but won’t tell you.”
I filed my taxes one time using Turbo Tax. There was, at that time, a one time tax credit for something. I went through the questions and the program said I did not qualify for the tax credit. A couple weeks after filing I got a letter from the IRS that I did indeed qualify for the credit and my tax refund would be increased accordingly. I thought right then, if the IRS knows so much about my finances why do I even have to file?
I would agree if we did not have a withholding system, most of the new filers (I know I did) get refunds.
Refunds = A no-interest loan to the government.
My youngest son did his taxes for his first professional job in which he worked less than the whole year, and despite frustration with the forms was delighted to get a $2500 return. Then he figured his 2022 taxes and learned he was getting only $5 back. He was quite upset.
You can get any IRS form online, I hope you know. Just download the PDF and print it. I have found the most expeditious way is to download 2 copies and designate one as a draft, and fill it out as quickly as you can. Don’t worry too much about mistakes, it is much easier to correct a number that you see with your eyes rather than to look at a blank space and think “oh man I have to go look at this, that, and the other to fill out that form.’
“The whole system is based on the premise that the government already knows how much you owe, but won’t tell you. You have to guess,”
You have to volunteer.
That’s the premise. Taxes are voluntary. Legally, that’s how you volunteer. If you go out the form, you tell them the amount you volunteer to pay.
I haven’t paid taxes since 97. I was 18 when I went for my CCW permit and stated leaning about gun control and more precisely, Bill Clinton. I promised I wouldn’t feed the beast. Took a lot of research and risk but I did it.
Here it is now and I’m alright.
Author’s son learned a lesson, but the real opportunity to learn the real lesson is lost on both the son and the author.
Taxes are voluntary.
Adding to my above post about volunteering to pay if like to add that a “flat tax” could not be voluntary.
They would simply bill you. Which is why it doesn’t work.
You can get all tax forms free by going to https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs
and printing them out.
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