3 ms·

As another data point, I also pay $2k - $3k / year for help to file taxes in Japan. But I also know many people who just do it themselves. My justifications fo

by bemmu 10y ago

As another data point, I also pay $2k - $3k / year for help to file taxes in Japan. But I also know many people who just do it themselves. My justifications for paying: - We've done the return ourselves once, but it was stressful to worry about not completely understanding everything and making some expensive mistake. - Service in English. - If tax officials ever wanted to ask me something, they would get responses in Japanese from a person who actually knows what they are talking about. - Nice for making sure I get every deduction. - Probably just doing the "blue form" return is already worth the expense because of deduction benefits. I probably wouldn't ever get around to figuring out how to do that. The process in Japan seems reasonable, but seems to me more convoluted than in Finland. I was particularly surprised how you have to pay many different fees which in Finland would have been bundled together. Namely having separate bills coming on varying payment schedules for income tax, municipal tax, entrepreneur tax (5%) and health insurance. This seems inefficient and confusing to me.

jacquesm 10y ago
> I was particularly surprised how you have to pay many different fees which in Finland would have been bundled together. Namely having separate bills coming on varying payment schedules for income tax, municipal tax, entrepreneur tax (5%) and health insurance. This seems inefficient and confusing to me. That's how it is in most countries because they're all different entities collecting.
- chimeracoder 10y ago
  > That's how it is in most countries because they're all different entities collecting. Exactly. I pay city, state, and federal income tax in the US. My city is about 1.5 times the population of Finland, and that's only one of the three different forms of income tax I have to pay. At least that goes through the state, so it's only two departments, but that's again separate from the federal IRS. And that's just income tax, not other taxes I have to account for and pay as well. The reason it's more complicated in countries like the US, Japan, India, etc. is because they're much, much larger, which requires more complexity to manage - both the size of the government itself and the revenue-collecting departments that need to support it. If I only had to pay taxes to my city's revenue department and there were no state or federal tax in the US, I can guarantee that the process would be a lot smoother for me as well.
  - krzyk 10y ago
    In Poland municipal, state and federal income taxes are paid as a single entry on the tax form. The government then transfers the money to the appropriate lower level of authorities. So I wouldn't say that most countries differentiate like in the states. Maybe it is a Europe - USA difference?
    - uiri 10y ago
      As an additional data point: provincial income taxes in Canada are collected along with federal income taxes by Revenue Canada and then remitted down to the provinces. The sole exception to this being Quebec. Definitely a peculiarity of the US system being less cohesive than some other countries - and also dealing with far more people and jurisdictions.
  - InitialLastName 10y ago
    Side note... when you say your city is 1.5 times the population of Finland, are you referring to the only city in the US with a larger population than Finland?
  - krzyk 10y ago
    Also, I don't think that the size of the country (I think you mean the population, Finland has larger area than Japan), but the amount of bureaucracy given state likes and population is able to handle. Actually the more population the harder it is keep the different taxes, it would be easier to have a single one and distribute it accordingly from the top.

by bemmu 10y ago

jacquesm 10y ago

> I was particularly surprised how you have to pay many different fees which in Finland would have been bundled together. Namely having separate bills coming on varying payment schedules for income tax, municipal tax, entrepreneur tax (5%) and health insurance. This seems inefficient and confusing to me. That's how it is in most countries because they're all different entities collecting.

chimeracoder 10y ago
> That's how it is in most countries because they're all different entities collecting. Exactly. I pay city, state, and federal income tax in the US. My city is about 1.5 times the population of Finland, and that's only one of the three different forms of income tax I have to pay. At least that goes through the state, so it's only two departments, but that's again separate from the federal IRS. And that's just income tax, not other taxes I have to account for and pay as well. The reason it's more complicated in countries like the US, Japan, India, etc. is because they're much, much larger, which requires more complexity to manage - both the size of the government itself and the revenue-collecting departments that need to support it. If I only had to pay taxes to my city's revenue department and there were no state or federal tax in the US, I can guarantee that the process would be a lot smoother for me as well.
- krzyk 10y ago
  In Poland municipal, state and federal income taxes are paid as a single entry on the tax form. The government then transfers the money to the appropriate lower level of authorities. So I wouldn't say that most countries differentiate like in the states. Maybe it is a Europe - USA difference?
  - uiri 10y ago
    As an additional data point: provincial income taxes in Canada are collected along with federal income taxes by Revenue Canada and then remitted down to the provinces. The sole exception to this being Quebec. Definitely a peculiarity of the US system being less cohesive than some other countries - and also dealing with far more people and jurisdictions.
- InitialLastName 10y ago
  Side note... when you say your city is 1.5 times the population of Finland, are you referring to the only city in the US with a larger population than Finland?
- krzyk 10y ago
  Also, I don't think that the size of the country (I think you mean the population, Finland has larger area than Japan), but the amount of bureaucracy given state likes and population is able to handle. Actually the more population the harder it is keep the different taxes, it would be easier to have a single one and distribute it accordingly from the top.