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Most people have boring taxes. For those people with interesting taxes, they can do them themselves or pay someone else to do them. For the exceptional cases, t
by scott_s 8y ago
Most people have boring taxes. For those people with interesting taxes, they can do them themselves or pay someone else to do them. For the exceptional cases, this is what they already do. Arguing against something that simplifies an act for most people by pointing out that it doesn't apply to everyone does not make sense to me.
I think it's almost important to keep in mind that the IRS already does your taxes. If what they do significantly disagrees with what you do, you have problems. I would much prefer the IRS just sends me their work rather than me having to do it, then send it to them for checking.
- nightski 8y agoIf you have boring taxes this isn't a problem anyways. It's extremely simple to file if all you have is a W2. It can be done in about 10-15 minutes without any special knowledge.
- Spooky23 8y agoMany boring people don't know this -- people pay $500 to claim the earned income credit.
- lern_too_spel 8y agoI have "boring" taxes with many stock transactions. This is not simple to file.
- usaar333 8y agoStock transactions make your taxes very not boring. Pub 550 (https://www.irs.gov/publications/p550 https://www.irs.gov/publications/p550) is one of the most complicated areas of personal income tax.
- lern_too_spel 8y agoIt is boring for the IRS's computers, which calculate everything the IRS needs to know automatically from the data sent by my brokerage firm.
- nightski 8y agoRight but you are very OT at this point. The parent was arguing that for the vast majority of people taxes are boring and do not involve 1099-INTs or taxes on numerous stock trades. While true, these people have the easiest time calculating their required tax. No one ever was trying to say that IRS doing your taxes for you would never make things easier.
- hundt 8y ago42M out of 150M tax returns filed in 2015 had taxable interest (1099-INT) https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-individual-income-tax-returns-line-item-estimates https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-individual-inco...
- scott_s 8y agoWe're in the weeds here, but 1099-INT are also used for interest on money-market savings accounts - my guess is a lot of that 42 million filers do not have stock trades. I think W2s and 1099-INTs for money-market savings accounts still qualify as quite boring. However, I still claim that even such boring filers would benefit from the IRS sending out "yea/nay" forms. It removes a lot of the stress and mystery from the process.
- hundt 8y agoYou don't have to guess :) About 26.5 million had losses or gains from sale of property (of which stock trades is the simplest case). Stock trades are also reported to the IRS, although the basis often isn't.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- lern_too_spel 8y agoI'm saying that many people have tax returns that are not easy to file but should be. My stock transactions are just one example. As soon as return free filing becomes an option, intermediaries will pop up to automate IRS reporting for many other taxable transactions (think Square for plumbers and business credit cards for automatic business expense deductions). Even those who have simple returns are wasting half an hour a year.
- hundt 8y agoEven if this is true, most people don't know how boring their taxes are until someone tells them. So the argument is that by making it easier to falsely believe no special cases apply to them, more people will file their taxes incorrectly. You might predict otherwise, or you might think the cost is outweighed by the benefit to the people who really do have boring taxes. But I think the argument makes sense.