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I'd have thought the government would need to maintain some expertise in the "industry" of collecting taxes, at least. When I file a tax return in Australia, I

I'd have thought the government would need to maintain some expertise in the "industry" of collecting taxes, at least. When I file a tax return in Australia, I do it via a government website.

TylerE 7y ago
A major complication is that here in the US we have local (city/county), state, and national taxes, all of which can vary by location.
- scriptdevil 7y ago
  The way India handles that is by having a progressive income tax that is collected at the federal level and sales taxes at both the federal and local level (CGST and SGST). Apart from federal funding of states, they also get all the SGST taxes and are free to set their rates for fuel, road taxes etc. Having multiple levels of income tax is always painful. Also, the government provides free java/excel based tax filing systems with a certain level of sanity checking. Apart from this there are several fremium sites like cleartax to help file taxes but they don't get to lobby. (yes, corruption is inherent and tax evasion is rampant, but at least filing taxes aren't as painful as US tax filing seems to be)
  - aitchnyu 7y ago
    To nitick, employees don't need to use Java on the web to file taxes. IIRC there is also XML so other software may generate it.
- bobbydroptables 7y ago
  This isn't a reason that the feds couldn't do it, though. (The federal government only deals with one kind of taxes: federal taxes). It's only an argument that the state and local governments would need their own, parallel systems if they wanted to participate.
  - swebs 7y ago
    The Federal government does have an online system to file your taxes for free. https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-f...
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
- magashna 7y ago
  But if you're in a certain income segment, you can plug it all in online. The tools are there and the all the mentioned governments need to verify. It would be easier for them to send me the numbers and I can dispute if I disagree (or want to itemize)

I'd have thought the government would need to maintain some expertise in the "industry" of collecting taxes, at least. When I file a tax return in Australia, I do it via a government website.

TylerE 7y ago

A major complication is that here in the US we have local (city/county), state, and national taxes, all of which can vary by location.

scriptdevil 7y ago
The way India handles that is by having a progressive income tax that is collected at the federal level and sales taxes at both the federal and local level (CGST and SGST). Apart from federal funding of states, they also get all the SGST taxes and are free to set their rates for fuel, road taxes etc. Having multiple levels of income tax is always painful. Also, the government provides free java/excel based tax filing systems with a certain level of sanity checking. Apart from this there are several fremium sites like cleartax to help file taxes but they don't get to lobby. (yes, corruption is inherent and tax evasion is rampant, but at least filing taxes aren't as painful as US tax filing seems to be)
- aitchnyu 7y ago
  To nitick, employees don't need to use Java on the web to file taxes. IIRC there is also XML so other software may generate it.
bobbydroptables 7y ago
This isn't a reason that the feds couldn't do it, though. (The federal government only deals with one kind of taxes: federal taxes). It's only an argument that the state and local governments would need their own, parallel systems if they wanted to participate.
- swebs 7y ago
  The Federal government does have an online system to file your taxes for free. https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-f...
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
magashna 7y ago
But if you're in a certain income segment, you can plug it all in online. The tools are there and the all the mentioned governments need to verify. It would be easier for them to send me the numbers and I can dispute if I disagree (or want to itemize)