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Now we're just left with this illogical part of the tax system: The State: Pay me taxes or I'll put you in a cage! Citizen: OK, how much do you need? The S

Now we're just left with this illogical part of the tax system: The State: Pay me taxes or I'll put you in a cage! Citizen: OK, how much do you need? The State: You tell me, but if you're wrong you'll regret it!

CivBase 7y ago
Exactly. This made sense decades ago when it would have been extremely costly to keep track of all the data necessary to calculate taxes. I don't want the government to make a free solution to help me file taxes. I want the government to make a solution that prevents me from having to file taxes in the first place!
onion2k 7y ago
This change means the state will stop saying "you tell me" and start telling people.
- CivBase 7y ago
  Do you have a source for this? I can't find any mention of it in the linked article.
jpmoral 7y ago
In Australia you do your taxes and then a few weeks later you either get a refund or a bill. If there's anything that doesn't add up in your filing they may ask you about it. Nothing to regret unless you knowingly filed incorrect information. Edit: a lot of it is pre-filled (payroll, bank interest, investment distributions in my case), you just need to check against your own records.
dmoy 7y ago
If you mess up your taxes, the IRS actually has a very reasonable process for making amends, with penalties that aren't egregious at all. It's mostly a small interest (like a couple percent above prime or something), which caps at 25% of the unpaid amount. In fact it's the same interest they pay you if you were due refund and they were slow giving it back. My main complaint is that it's a super, super slow process. They'll follow up years later, and each back and forth takes like three months.
- Keverw 7y ago
  Yep, I've heard that too. However, the states are much worse. Someone was telling me about how he made an error, and New York was much more aggressive. He decided to take his family and company to Texas instead, so in the long term, New York lost a lot more money. Plus his kids when they grow up will probably stay in Texas too, so they might as well lost an entire generation they could have taxed. Plus New York isn't a business friendly state in the first place along with New Jersey and California. Then California is the same way too it sounds even going after former residents as they went after the inventor of the microprocessor who moved to Nevada, and even broke Nevada law while doing so since they sent state officials across state lines to stalk him and dig through his trash. He sued California in Nevada and was granted millions of dollars, but due to a loophole, California didn't even have to pay as much as the judge in Nevada ordered. California says living in an apartment isn't a permanent home, you must get a mortgage and buy a house to no longer be a California resident... Well, of course, that isn't the actual law, so the state of California abused their power. I wonder how California would view someone getting into YC, doing the program for the 3 months and then going back to where they were originally living or moving to a totally different state after such as Austin, TX since they had no intent of living in California? I wish YC would expand to Austin. San Francisco looks nice to visit, but due to it being expensive, and politics it's a turn off for some people. However it seems like Austin is starting to have some of the same problems with cost of living rising since it's growing, Apple is expanding there to be the largest employer in Austin.

CivBase 7y ago

Exactly. This made sense decades ago when it would have been extremely costly to keep track of all the data necessary to calculate taxes. I don't want the government to make a free solution to help me file taxes. I want the government to make a solution that prevents me from having to file taxes in the first place!

onion2k 7y ago

This change means the state will stop saying "you tell me" and start telling people.

CivBase 7y ago
Do you have a source for this? I can't find any mention of it in the linked article.

jpmoral 7y ago

In Australia you do your taxes and then a few weeks later you either get a refund or a bill. If there's anything that doesn't add up in your filing they may ask you about it. Nothing to regret unless you knowingly filed incorrect information. Edit: a lot of it is pre-filled (payroll, bank interest, investment distributions in my case), you just need to check against your own records.

dmoy 7y ago

If you mess up your taxes, the IRS actually has a very reasonable process for making amends, with penalties that aren't egregious at all. It's mostly a small interest (like a couple percent above prime or something), which caps at 25% of the unpaid amount. In fact it's the same interest they pay you if you were due refund and they were slow giving it back. My main complaint is that it's a super, super slow process. They'll follow up years later, and each back and forth takes like three months.

Keverw 7y ago
Yep, I've heard that too. However, the states are much worse. Someone was telling me about how he made an error, and New York was much more aggressive. He decided to take his family and company to Texas instead, so in the long term, New York lost a lot more money. Plus his kids when they grow up will probably stay in Texas too, so they might as well lost an entire generation they could have taxed. Plus New York isn't a business friendly state in the first place along with New Jersey and California. Then California is the same way too it sounds even going after former residents as they went after the inventor of the microprocessor who moved to Nevada, and even broke Nevada law while doing so since they sent state officials across state lines to stalk him and dig through his trash. He sued California in Nevada and was granted millions of dollars, but due to a loophole, California didn't even have to pay as much as the judge in Nevada ordered. California says living in an apartment isn't a permanent home, you must get a mortgage and buy a house to no longer be a California resident... Well, of course, that isn't the actual law, so the state of California abused their power. I wonder how California would view someone getting into YC, doing the program for the 3 months and then going back to where they were originally living or moving to a totally different state after such as Austin, TX since they had no intent of living in California? I wish YC would expand to Austin. San Francisco looks nice to visit, but due to it being expensive, and politics it's a turn off for some people. However it seems like Austin is starting to have some of the same problems with cost of living rising since it's growing, Apple is expanding there to be the largest employer in Austin.