I honestly want the government to give in to them, let them have their "soverignty" and remove all protections they have under the law. So that its perfectly legal for me to just decide I want their car and its up to them to stop me. Cops will.just stand there going "Sorry, cant do anything. You are your own country and I cant get involved."
The only thing a cop has ever actually done for me was signing a police report so I could pass it on to the insurance company and get my claim processed.
That's called outlawry, and it was actually one of the harshest punishments you could receive in Roman times and the middle ages. Outlawry isn't nearly as cool as Clint Eastwood made it out to be.
You write exempt in one of the boxes. They've hidden the part where it tells you which one. You can look it up, but its not stated clearly on the form anymore.
But you still have to pay taxes if you owe them, and you have to pay a penalty if they didn't withhold enough. But if you're poor enough you don't owe federal income taxes you can avoid giving the IRS an interest free loan if you file your form properly.
The US learned what happens if taxes are actually voluntary during the days of the articles of confederation. Results were predictable.
This is an actually useful answer for an otherwise crazy conversation. If you are poor, and have kids, you probably don't owe any money at the end of the year. Most poor people actually get money at the end of the year that they didn't even pay, from child tax credits, earned income credit, and the standard deductions. If you fall into that category then you are better off filing as exempt, so that you don't loan the government money interest free, just like you said. Those few extra bucks every week really matter when you're below the poverty line.
When we were poor, we looked at it as a sort of yearly savings account. We weren't so poor that we couldn't afford to have taxes taken out, so it worked out pretty well. Every time we got our refund check, we were able to do something like get the car fixed.
I was looking into this a few years ago and also wondered what if I tried to just pay my taxes at the end of the year. I get why it exists but you gotta love the double standard... wish I could could get interest and penalty pay on any money they owe me over 1k.
This answer is correct, that form is called IRS W-4. All employers give this with setting up payroll.
The thing is, the IRS will still know how much you made and will be able to tell if those exemptions are authentic based on your tax return, so you'll still end up paying.
You could try to negotiate a 1099 contractor agreement sans the 1099 and pray the IRS never figures it out, but the company takes a risk with this too, bigger than the contractor, because they want to deduct your pay as an expense, and documentation is required.
Even better: work for a cash business and take your income in cash. Things might get a little spicy if you're depositing that much cash every month at your bank.
Anyone that really wants to do this can just put a really high number of deductions on their W2. It's an estimate. For most people you're trying to get close enough that you either get a small refund or owe a small bit. For these guys obviously they're trying to make their withholding come out to $0.
Right, it's just that the IRS will eventually catch up to them because the employer files, so the IRS knows how much they made. When they do catch up, they'll not only owe the original amount, they'll owe a giant penalty and interest on it.
It does actually take a while depending on how much you owe exactly. I had a year where my employer wasn't taking out the right tax amount and I ended up owing a couple grand. I eventually, a few years later, filed that year and a couple more all at once knowing those other years I'd be due a decent refund.
Pretty sure there's a box you can check that more or less says "tax exempt". Had a co-worker a few years back who's onboarding paperwork got fucked up and he got a fat tax bill come January. Turns out HR accidentally marked him as tax exempt when he got hired and he never checked his paystubs (they're behind a shitty payroll app) or just didn't notice he wasn't paying tax
That happened to me. I have several "jobs" at my job and they get paid through different entities. I went through the stupid charts and figured out all the withholding amounts and thought I had it right, but the bookkeeper accidentally reported that I have three kids (I have no kids) and then I surprise owed six grand.
Obviously these guys are idiots, but it would be nice if I had a better idea of what my taxes are actually going to pay for, because I do sometimes think they just vanish into the void and I never see the benefit from them, so I kind of get where they're coming from
If not, search for a “your country budget breakdown”. Most democratic nations will have a similar publication.
My take after looking it over, it’s boring. We spend money on medical care, defense, and interest payments. That’s where most all of the money goes. The benefits we receive from that money are things we completely take for granted, it’s easy to not notice them but you sure would notice if it stopped.
and c) there is Wall to Wall coverage of the budget every year, highlighted by the traditional annual photos of the chancellor of the exchequer and his red briefcase, in mid March when the tax year ends
In Australia we get a receipt with our tax return that breaks down exactly where our tax dollars went. The same happens in France if I remember correctly, it’s pretty cool to see it and puts some of the spending into perspective
I went down this rabbit hole years back. Was looking for any possible way to not pay taxes so I wouldn't be funding international wars and empire and such. Of course the arguments are all pseudolegal nonsense, since the bottom line is that the state makes and enforces the law.
Would have gladly taken an option to donate to charity the same amount of money that would have been taken.
Actually, there is a way to get the tax withholding set to 0. You have to pay when it comes to tax time though. You can alter your witholdings also so that your take home pay is more, but your tax return would be less. If you're really interested, I'd talk to an accountant ar a tax professional though. Also, just to make sure I'm not misunderstood, you still have to pay taxes to the govt, it's just a lump sum instead of being taken out every month.
I don't know for sure that this applies federally, but in my municipality you have to make estimated payments throughout the year if you don't have them deducted from your pay. My employer made a mistake and didn't withhold local taxes, and when I paid in a lump sum a fine was assessed.