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We don’t do that because it doesn’t make sense. How would that even work? Use the 2017 tax year as an example. You obviously can’t compute 2017’s taxes until th

We don’t do that because it doesn’t make sense. How would that even work? Use the 2017 tax year as an example. You obviously can’t compute 2017’s taxes until the year is over. So how do you stagger? Is my deadline in January? That’s not really fair to me if someone else has a deadline in May.

magduf 8y ago
Well you wouldn't have the same tax year for everyone, because you'd have to give everyone the same amount of time to file to be fair. So, you could give everyone a different tax year. The forms already allow you to have a different tax year, though few people make use of that (I have no idea what qualifies people to have a different fiscal year, it might just be for companies, I don't know). Of course, this would be a giant mess because all the other entities that are tied to the standard tax year, namely everyone who communicates info to the IRS about you and files 1099-xyz forms about you and sends copies to you: your employer, your bank, your IRA/401k company, etc. I don't see how it'd be workable at all. Here's what would work much better: simplify the tax code (eliminating a lot of deductions), and make filing automatic for regular W-2 wage-earners, like they do in western European nations, where they just send you a pre-filled form, you make any corrections to it (to account for income they didn't know about), and then send it back if there's changes (otherwise they just go with what they already know about you). We don't do this in the US because we're corrupt: the tax-filing companies have bought off the politicians so they won't let the IRS do this.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > The forms already allow you to have a different tax year, though few people make use of that (I have no idea what qualifies people to have a different fiscal year, it might just be for companies, I don't know) It's mostly for businesses (which includes individual tax payers as sole proprietorships), and the things looked to for non-automatic approvals are things like what your actual cycle of business is like. (For individual tax payers, the only automatically allowed changes are, IIRC, change back to a calendar year as tax yesr and changes to align with a spouses tax year with certain conditions.)
- fma 8y ago
  For what it's worth...taxes for C-corp are due March 15th. https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/small-business-taxes/s-corp-federal-tax-filing-dates/L1U6tYGMt https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/small-business-taxes/s-...

magduf 8y ago

Well you wouldn't have the same tax year for everyone, because you'd have to give everyone the same amount of time to file to be fair. So, you could give everyone a different tax year. The forms already allow you to have a different tax year, though few people make use of that (I have no idea what qualifies people to have a different fiscal year, it might just be for companies, I don't know). Of course, this would be a giant mess because all the other entities that are tied to the standard tax year, namely everyone who communicates info to the IRS about you and files 1099-xyz forms about you and sends copies to you: your employer, your bank, your IRA/401k company, etc. I don't see how it'd be workable at all. Here's what would work much better: simplify the tax code (eliminating a lot of deductions), and make filing automatic for regular W-2 wage-earners, like they do in western European nations, where they just send you a pre-filled form, you make any corrections to it (to account for income they didn't know about), and then send it back if there's changes (otherwise they just go with what they already know about you). We don't do this in the US because we're corrupt: the tax-filing companies have bought off the politicians so they won't let the IRS do this.

dragonwriter 8y ago
> The forms already allow you to have a different tax year, though few people make use of that (I have no idea what qualifies people to have a different fiscal year, it might just be for companies, I don't know) It's mostly for businesses (which includes individual tax payers as sole proprietorships), and the things looked to for non-automatic approvals are things like what your actual cycle of business is like. (For individual tax payers, the only automatically allowed changes are, IIRC, change back to a calendar year as tax yesr and changes to align with a spouses tax year with certain conditions.)
fma 8y ago
For what it's worth...taxes for C-corp are due March 15th. https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/small-business-taxes/s-corp-federal-tax-filing-dates/L1U6tYGMt https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/small-business-taxes/s-...