5 ms·

Ask HN: Why is tax filing in the US so complicated?

9 points by chirau 6y ago

billconan 6y ago
https://qz.com/1590961/taxpayers-are-paying-turbotax-to-keep-taxes-complicated/ https://qz.com/1590961/taxpayers-are-paying-turbotax-to-keep...
sloaken 6y ago
Oh how you have opened a can of 'My pet peeves' So the tax laws are enormous. And ignorance of the law is no excuse. Then I contend the US tax laws are un constitutional. They are a cruel and unusual punishment for a citizenry that has not been convicted of a crime.
- AnimalMuppet 6y ago
  Given the existence of the 16th Amendment, on what basis do you claim that the US tax laws are unconstitutional?
  - sloaken 6y ago
    They are a cruel and unusual punishment for a citizenry that has not been convicted of a crime.
    - AnimalMuppet 6y ago
      Cruel, perhaps. You're going to have a hard time arguing "unusual", though...
db48x 6y ago
For 90% of people they're not really that complex. The 1040-EZ, which is all most people ever need to fill out every year, is ultimately just a few numbers that you add and subtract. Then you look at a big table so that you don't have to do any multiplication or rounding. Then you wait for a refund if you overpaid your taxes through the year, or write a check if you underpaid, and you're done.
- rskar 6y ago
  Per https://smartasset.com/taxes/all-about-irs-form-1040ez https://smartasset.com/taxes/all-about-irs-form-1040ez, Form 1040EZ is discontinued; there is only a single redesigned Form 1040 for all filers to use.
  - db48x 6y ago
    I'd forgotten about that. The same applies to the new 1040 though, and the older 1040 wasn't that much more complex. If you qualified for the 1040EZ, there would simply be some sections that didn't apply to you.
dyeje 6y ago
Because large companies like Intuit lobby to make the process complicated so they can sell expensive software for taxpayers to navigate it.
fardo 6y ago
There are strong political incentives, when a party wants to run on a platform of reducing taxes, to create as strong of a negative association with taxes as possible. Here are some ways you might seek to achieve this, which you may have seen before: > Taxes would be as manual of a process as possible, even for simple cases where the government already possesses the information needed to file from your employer, your bank, and from stock exchanges. You'd do everything in your power to ensure automatic filing, where no human even actually needs to be in the loop to run the manual computations, doesn't exist, is structurally hard, and if possible, is never allowed. > Allow and support predatory ecosystems of tax-preparation software or force people to hire accountants in order to navigate the complexity on their behalf - the more odious, expensive, and memorably bad these measures and systems are, the better. > You'd exploit your lack of need for simplicity in the tax system to provide kickbacks to special interest groups in the form of targeted reduced taxes for those who supported your election, as well as creating myriad carve-outs and deductions for key voting blocs, perhaps manual laborers and farmers in swing states. This incidentally also makes taxes more complicated - a bonus. The last issue of rewarding constituents is bipartisan, which is part of the reason why this is treated as a low priority issue for one party despite the status quo the other party enables being pretty obviously bad.
jklein11 6y ago
$$$

9 points by chirau 6y ago

https://qz.com/1590961/taxpayers-are-paying-turbotax-to-keep-taxes-complicated/ https://qz.com/1590961/taxpayers-are-paying-turbotax-to-keep...

sloaken 6y ago

Oh how you have opened a can of 'My pet peeves' So the tax laws are enormous. And ignorance of the law is no excuse. Then I contend the US tax laws are un constitutional. They are a cruel and unusual punishment for a citizenry that has not been convicted of a crime.

AnimalMuppet 6y ago
Given the existence of the 16th Amendment, on what basis do you claim that the US tax laws are unconstitutional?
- sloaken 6y ago
  They are a cruel and unusual punishment for a citizenry that has not been convicted of a crime.
  - AnimalMuppet 6y ago
    Cruel, perhaps. You're going to have a hard time arguing "unusual", though...

db48x 6y ago

For 90% of people they're not really that complex. The 1040-EZ, which is all most people ever need to fill out every year, is ultimately just a few numbers that you add and subtract. Then you look at a big table so that you don't have to do any multiplication or rounding. Then you wait for a refund if you overpaid your taxes through the year, or write a check if you underpaid, and you're done.

rskar 6y ago
Per https://smartasset.com/taxes/all-about-irs-form-1040ez https://smartasset.com/taxes/all-about-irs-form-1040ez, Form 1040EZ is discontinued; there is only a single redesigned Form 1040 for all filers to use.
- db48x 6y ago
  I'd forgotten about that. The same applies to the new 1040 though, and the older 1040 wasn't that much more complex. If you qualified for the 1040EZ, there would simply be some sections that didn't apply to you.

dyeje 6y ago

Because large companies like Intuit lobby to make the process complicated so they can sell expensive software for taxpayers to navigate it.

fardo 6y ago

There are strong political incentives, when a party wants to run on a platform of reducing taxes, to create as strong of a negative association with taxes as possible. Here are some ways you might seek to achieve this, which you may have seen before: > Taxes would be as manual of a process as possible, even for simple cases where the government already possesses the information needed to file from your employer, your bank, and from stock exchanges. You'd do everything in your power to ensure automatic filing, where no human even actually needs to be in the loop to run the manual computations, doesn't exist, is structurally hard, and if possible, is never allowed. > Allow and support predatory ecosystems of tax-preparation software or force people to hire accountants in order to navigate the complexity on their behalf - the more odious, expensive, and memorably bad these measures and systems are, the better. > You'd exploit your lack of need for simplicity in the tax system to provide kickbacks to special interest groups in the form of targeted reduced taxes for those who supported your election, as well as creating myriad carve-outs and deductions for key voting blocs, perhaps manual laborers and farmers in swing states. This incidentally also makes taxes more complicated - a bonus. The last issue of rewarding constituents is bipartisan, which is part of the reason why this is treated as a low priority issue for one party despite the status quo the other party enables being pretty obviously bad.

jklein11 6y ago

$$$