Not to mention that in any serious democracy you get the taxes calculated and sent to you for verification. As it should be. Ask your oligarchs why they don't want you to have this.
Intuit and H&R Block.
Scottish here. Apart from a brief time being self employed I have never needed to look at how much I have paid in taxes, it all gets done automatically by my employer and I get a yearly update through them.
No idea how you all do them.
It's incredibly stressful. I get about 3-4 months to do them, depending on how quickly I get all the necessary forms. If I don't pay in time the IRS fines me 25% of my taxes as a late payment.
Figure I typically put in about 40 hours per year to do my taxes, AND I HAVE TAX SOFTWARE!
We even have this in Ukraine. I guess our quality of life is still higher than the US.
What we generally do is pay for other people or programs to do it for us.
Also Scottish. I recently came into an inheritance that I had to pay some tax on. It was a wild ride working out how much. After a good long while in a phone queue I was directed to the correct online form, gathered all the relevant documents etc and just worked my way through it. It turned out I owed a lot less than I thought, hurrah! Everyone I spoke to was lovely and helpful, and although it was difficult (I'm crap at maths) it was a weirdly positive experience.
Finland: "Oh hey so your employer already handed us an estimated portion of your income for taxation using a percentage based on your income from last year. Now that the year is over and we could calculate your final tax rate for this year, here's your tax return back, with interest.
Just let us know if we missed anything, like a deductible or something."
Funny because it's haha funny. Funny also with a laugh that includes tears acknowledging how messed up at all is.
Taxes can be simplified for all. Taxes can be fair. Taxes can benefit the multitude.
And for reasons that seems very intentional, no matter how much politicians talk about reform, the system continues to favor the rich and privileged. Those that need help the most continue to get ignored.
So much could be fixed.
So much could be better.
In the Netherlands taxes take about 15 minutes each year. Everything is already calculated, you just have to check if the numbers on your paychecks and mortgage match.
Even better, if you've never did your taxes, you won't have to. But you usually get money back if you do, so there's no reason not to sit down for 15 minutes once a year for a nice chunk of money back.
Yes, I've heard much about such systems. Can't say I haven't envied it from time to time. 😊
Mine take about a week. And last time the tax software and IRS instructions conflicted. I ended up reading about 300 pages from the IRS website and eventually gave up.
(meme only applicable for the U.S, non-collapsed countries don't have systems this bad)
As a Canadian, I'm offended
If you screw up you actually probably aren't going to jail. If you make a mistake there's a period where you can notify them and fix it, and even if you get audited, (I've heard) they tend to try to work with you on it. The worst thing most people can reasonably expect is a fine. You only really go to jail if you've committed fraud, and usually not even then, especially if you're rich.
The IRS does not know how much you owe. They can figure it out. This is what an audit is. They assume most people are honest and most people are. They use statistics to decide who to audit.
Do not get me wrong it is a stupid system. But there is no need to exaggerate how stupid it is.
The IRS does not know how much you owe.
Why don’t they?
Lots of income can be under the table and aren't on the books. It's up to you to come clean.
They do know how much you owe, or can at least figure it out if you only work for one employer (who pays taxes) and you don't own any property. The tax setup is different if you're self-employed (there is no tax withheld automatically if your income is from your customers), or if you're self-employed AND work for one or more employers, or own properties (and what you do with those properties), or any combination of those things.
You can see how many possible scenarios there can be, so there's not really a one-size-fits-all solution. They can't possibly keep track of all of everyone's income streams and properties and all the other rules they have created, so they have to rely on individuals to self-report.
It's underfunded. That's why they also don't audit rich people as much, because they can't afford to.
Or you get less money than you should.
Not quite how it works. But yeah they should just tell you the number.
