4 ms·
> "If you prevent cheating by having a person who's job it is to catch you then you feel like if you don't get caught you have won." Given the time of year, wh
by bm98 15y ago
> "If you prevent cheating by having a person who's job it is to catch you then you feel like if you don't get caught you have won."
Given the time of year, when I read about cheating and the honor system, my first thought is about taxes, specifically, paying state sales tax on items bought online and shipped from out of state.
Most states don't have an easy way of catching sales tax cheaters, so it usually comes down to the honor system: When you file your state income tax return, you are supposed to add up all your "mail order" receipts for the year and pay sales tax on them.
How many HNers actually do this, I wonder? This seems like an instance where there is an honor system, but everyone cheats anyway.
- crystalis 15y agoThe internet sales tax honor system is more of an oner system. You have to go out of your way to do all the bookkeeping yourself to reward unwarranted rent-seeking.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- hapless 15y agoThis is a much better way to put it. The book-keeping is too burdensome to make use-tax an example of the honor system. I would be penalized during audit if I failed to keep even one receipt. It would be an "honor system" if they asked you to estimate your tax bill, then pay it, with no threat of punishment if your estimate were imperfect.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- calloc 15y agoI went through the online H&R free tax thing because I made less than $50,000 in 2010, and the entire way through I am looking for a place to add up my receipts and pay my state tax on them, nowhere to be found. I have no way of calculating what else needs to be withheld, I don't have the money to go to a tax person to get it done there. Tax law has become so complex that a lay person can't get the job done without either paying someone to do it, or having to use software that may not include all of the options required...