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What I can't understand about our taxes is why we have to report income if they know what it is already. They should send us that information and let us comple

What I can't understand about our taxes is why we have to report income if they know what it is already. They should send us that information and let us complete the form for our deductions.

TazeTSchnitzel 7y ago
Many other countries already do that, I guess because they don't have Intuit lobbying the hell out of them.
glofish 7y ago
It is very simple really - and I have come to believe that the rationale is correct - even though I wish it weren't. Making taxes difficult to pay and a major annoyance contributes to keeping taxes lower than would be otherwise.
- dragonwriter 7y ago
  > Making taxes difficult to pay and a major annoyance contributes to keeping taxes lower than would be otherwise. It contributes to the political success of politicians who rail against taxes leveraging the frustration, but then take action that doesn't address the frustration even if it relates to taxes being lower for someone. Also, making people do extra work or pay someone else to do it is a tax, it's just an in-kind tax that provides no usable revenue or value, rather than an in-money tax that provides usable revenue. It's not usually counted in the cost of taxes, just like various mandatory fees aren't counted in airline price comparisons. But that's fundamentally misleading, in both cases.
  - glofish 7y ago
    I am not disagreeing with you, just slowly came to realize that the world is not all that logical, nor are well-intentioned people all that good at understanding all the consequences. Convenience in some cases may be counter-productive and ends up with unexpected side effects. I do happen to believe that taxes in the US are lower because of the way taxes are collected and that you are forced to "see" exactly what goes where. If it were just a line, sign here, and press a button I would do just that, press a button and submit. This approach may save me a few hours a year, ok, but I also think I would make less effort to look up ways to save taxes and I would simply be less aware of the various mechanisms that are there. For example, I understood long term gains and qualified dividends much better after adding these in (semi-manually) and seeing how it all affects the bottom line. I also understand much better how to do tax loss harvesting and other similar methods.
- Redoubts 7y ago
  Idk, usually the end result is a fat refund check. The incentives here are scatterbrained at best.
KoftaBob 7y ago
It seems like what they're doing is saying "we have a very good idea of what your income is, but fill out this tax form with that info so we can confirm". That way, it becomes your fault if certain income isn't accounted for.

What I can't understand about our taxes is why we have to report income if they know what it is already. They should send us that information and let us complete the form for our deductions.

TazeTSchnitzel 7y ago

Many other countries already do that, I guess because they don't have Intuit lobbying the hell out of them.

glofish 7y ago

It is very simple really - and I have come to believe that the rationale is correct - even though I wish it weren't. Making taxes difficult to pay and a major annoyance contributes to keeping taxes lower than would be otherwise.

dragonwriter 7y ago
> Making taxes difficult to pay and a major annoyance contributes to keeping taxes lower than would be otherwise. It contributes to the political success of politicians who rail against taxes leveraging the frustration, but then take action that doesn't address the frustration even if it relates to taxes being lower for someone. Also, making people do extra work or pay someone else to do it is a tax, it's just an in-kind tax that provides no usable revenue or value, rather than an in-money tax that provides usable revenue. It's not usually counted in the cost of taxes, just like various mandatory fees aren't counted in airline price comparisons. But that's fundamentally misleading, in both cases.
- glofish 7y ago
  I am not disagreeing with you, just slowly came to realize that the world is not all that logical, nor are well-intentioned people all that good at understanding all the consequences. Convenience in some cases may be counter-productive and ends up with unexpected side effects. I do happen to believe that taxes in the US are lower because of the way taxes are collected and that you are forced to "see" exactly what goes where. If it were just a line, sign here, and press a button I would do just that, press a button and submit. This approach may save me a few hours a year, ok, but I also think I would make less effort to look up ways to save taxes and I would simply be less aware of the various mechanisms that are there. For example, I understood long term gains and qualified dividends much better after adding these in (semi-manually) and seeing how it all affects the bottom line. I also understand much better how to do tax loss harvesting and other similar methods.
Redoubts 7y ago
Idk, usually the end result is a fat refund check. The incentives here are scatterbrained at best.

KoftaBob 7y ago

It seems like what they're doing is saying "we have a very good idea of what your income is, but fill out this tax form with that info so we can confirm". That way, it becomes your fault if certain income isn't accounted for.