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I hope you've had a bad experience with the IRS because otherwise it's really frustrating to see the government-targeted analog of libel. Imagine working hard a

I hope you've had a bad experience with the IRS because otherwise it's really frustrating to see the government-targeted analog of libel. Imagine working hard and professionally to serve your country only to have your reputation tarnished like this.

jjoonathan 8y ago
My interactions with tax prep professionals and software have all been far, far worse than my interactions with the IRS. The IRS says exactly what they mean, while everyone else "interprets," does a bad job of it, and leaves you stuck with the bill plus the hassle.
mindslight 8y ago
That was not a political comment - merely remarking on the practicalities of dealing with large powerful organizations. While some aspects of interacting with the IRS may be refreshingly easy compared to expectations, they are not setup to be universally so. See the steep after-the-fact penalties for getting some types of things wrong (as opposed to simply just preventing them in the first place), as well as the prohibitive fees associated with "private letter rulings". Your appeal to the individual people working there is fallacious, as it would preclude any criticism of organizations as a whole. I have no doubt that the individuals working there are all trying to do a decent job, just as at Google. The problems are at higher levels of complexity. A program segfaulting is not an indictment of the transistors.
- perl4ever 8y ago
  "See the steep after-the-fact penalties for getting some types of things wrong (as opposed to simply just preventing them in the first place), as well as the prohibitive fees associated with "private letter rulings"." Fees for private letter rulings don't seem like a problem to me, because people always have the option of arranging their affairs in a simple and straightforward manner. In order to deter gamesmanship, there needs to be a substantial cost to running close to the edge.
  - mindslight 8y ago
    It's only a substantial cost to someone operating on a small scale, so it actually exacerbates the ability of the rich to engage in more gamesmanship than the middle class suckers.

jjoonathan 8y ago

My interactions with tax prep professionals and software have all been far, far worse than my interactions with the IRS. The IRS says exactly what they mean, while everyone else "interprets," does a bad job of it, and leaves you stuck with the bill plus the hassle.

mindslight 8y ago

That was not a political comment - merely remarking on the practicalities of dealing with large powerful organizations. While some aspects of interacting with the IRS may be refreshingly easy compared to expectations, they are not setup to be universally so. See the steep after-the-fact penalties for getting some types of things wrong (as opposed to simply just preventing them in the first place), as well as the prohibitive fees associated with "private letter rulings". Your appeal to the individual people working there is fallacious, as it would preclude any criticism of organizations as a whole. I have no doubt that the individuals working there are all trying to do a decent job, just as at Google. The problems are at higher levels of complexity. A program segfaulting is not an indictment of the transistors.

perl4ever 8y ago
"See the steep after-the-fact penalties for getting some types of things wrong (as opposed to simply just preventing them in the first place), as well as the prohibitive fees associated with "private letter rulings"." Fees for private letter rulings don't seem like a problem to me, because people always have the option of arranging their affairs in a simple and straightforward manner. In order to deter gamesmanship, there needs to be a substantial cost to running close to the edge.
- mindslight 8y ago
  It's only a substantial cost to someone operating on a small scale, so it actually exacerbates the ability of the rich to engage in more gamesmanship than the middle class suckers.