4 ms·

Taxes are not hard. You enter in your income and see if you can get any deductions. Be an adult.

by fridif 5y ago

Telemakhos 5y ago
Taxes are not hard for people with one job and one SSN and no schedule Ks filing in one place. Last year I had four TIN/EIN/SSNs, filing in up to three states, depending on the TIN/EIN/SSN, along with a federal return. That meant a dozen different filings. Hiring an accountant was worth it for me. On the other hand, when I was young, I did my own taxes by hand on paper, and it was easy: they are easy if you just have a W2 and maybe some 1099s. But I was not an adult then, nor did I have adult finances.
- fridif 5y ago
  Does it stand to reason that the average person does not have multiple business entities in multiple locations? You are getting scammed by the government, who have made it burdensome to report all of this income. A tax professional or a service like Intuit are trying to help here. If the government wanted to make this process easier for the small percentage of people like you, they would have done so, but they haven't, because they have weak volition and desire for creativity.
  - yladiz 5y ago
    Does it stand to reason that the average person needs to actually file taxes if the government knows the information necessary to calculate a tax refund or bill anyway?
    - fridif 5y ago
      How would the government know what deductions you are applying for before you apply for them?
      - yladiz 5y ago
        Does the average person have complicated deductions?
        fridif 5y ago
        How will the government know how much you have spent on gas without you telling them? Furthermore, my taxes take me less than 1 hour per year. I prefer the current system where I tell them what I think I owe. If they told me what I owed, and I disagreed, what recourse would I have? I guarantee it would take more than an hour.
        danaris 5y ago
        Gas isn't a normal deduction for most people. I'd have to drive several orders of magnitude more than I do to spend tens of thousands of dollars on gas each year.
        fridif 5y ago
        So are we really going to go through the entire tax code and all of the potential use cases of median individuals, all so that we can conclude that the government needs to predict our deductions in advance so that you don't have to spend 1 hour and $39 per year filling out your info on TurboTax? I'm tired of arguing with malicious people on the internet.
        danaris 5y ago
        I...what? No; under every actual proposal, people who have these complicated deductions and other specialized needs can still file exactly the way they do today so that they can get their taxes calculated properly. And making sure that >50% of Americans—in particular, the >50% who have the simplest taxes, which correlates highly with lower income—don't have to "spend 1 hour and $39 per year" with private companies to accomplish their legally mandated tax filing is a very good thing, even if it were to actually increase the inconvenience for the wealthy and complicated. Which, again, this wouldn't. So please put aside the ad hominem attacks, which I believe are against the HN guidelines anyway.
wpietri 5y ago
That is not a vaguely fair characterization of what filing taxes is like. Every year my accountant sends me a 50-page booklet of questions on things that might affect tax returns. Taxes are in fact quite hard. But that's not my real issue with your comment. I agree adults have to tough things out sometimes. But toughing out a problem that doesn't need to exist is macho nonsense. You might as well insist that people get rid of their indoor plumbing, because we got got along fine without it for most of human history. You can go dig your own outhouse if you want, but don't suggest somebody else is inferior for not going out of the way to make their life harder unnecessarily.
- fridif 5y ago
  What is the nature of your income, such that it requires a 50 page booklet? The normal W2 worker does not need such a booklet. I am not saying that you should tough something out for no reason. I have electricity coming to my house to make my life convenient, which I pay for. I have water coming to my house, which I pay for. But I cut my own grass manually. Why? Because I felt the prices offered to me were not fair, and that the job was not complex or hard. Either you pay a tax professional if you feel the work is too complex and the price is acceptable, or you do it yourself. You can try to fight the government on this one, and you might win (even I hope you do), but at what cost? Certainly it is not cheaper than $39 a year.
  - wpietri 5y ago
    They send the same booklet to all their clients. Because at least one person needs each page. I agree that the modal W2 worker does not need such a booklet. But they don't need to fill out tax forms at all. The correct solution is not to make them pay $39 for software they don't need. It's for the IRS to say "Here's what we think we owe you and why. If you don't like that, go and fill out the forms."
  - yladiz 5y ago
    > I have electricity coming to my house to make my life convenient Wait, what? Are you actually arguing that electricity is a convenience?

Taxes are not hard. You enter in your income and see if you can get any deductions. Be an adult.

by fridif 5y ago

Taxes are not hard. You enter in your income and see if you can get any deductions. Be an adult.

Taxes are not hard for people with one job and one SSN and no schedule Ks filing in one place. Last year I had four TIN/EIN/SSNs, filing in up to three states, depending on the TIN/EIN/SSN, along with a federal return. That meant a dozen different filings. Hiring an accountant was worth it for me. On the other hand, when I was young, I did my own taxes by hand on paper, and it was easy: they are easy if you just have a W2 and maybe some 1099s. But I was not an adult then, nor did I have adult finances.

fridif 5y ago
Does it stand to reason that the average person does not have multiple business entities in multiple locations? You are getting scammed by the government, who have made it burdensome to report all of this income. A tax professional or a service like Intuit are trying to help here. If the government wanted to make this process easier for the small percentage of people like you, they would have done so, but they haven't, because they have weak volition and desire for creativity.
- yladiz 5y ago
  Does it stand to reason that the average person needs to actually file taxes if the government knows the information necessary to calculate a tax refund or bill anyway?
  - fridif 5y ago
    How would the government know what deductions you are applying for before you apply for them?
    - yladiz 5y ago
      Does the average person have complicated deductions?
      - fridif 5y ago
        How will the government know how much you have spent on gas without you telling them? Furthermore, my taxes take me less than 1 hour per year. I prefer the current system where I tell them what I think I owe. If they told me what I owed, and I disagreed, what recourse would I have? I guarantee it would take more than an hour.
        danaris 5y ago
        Gas isn't a normal deduction for most people. I'd have to drive several orders of magnitude more than I do to spend tens of thousands of dollars on gas each year.
        fridif 5y ago
        So are we really going to go through the entire tax code and all of the potential use cases of median individuals, all so that we can conclude that the government needs to predict our deductions in advance so that you don't have to spend 1 hour and $39 per year filling out your info on TurboTax? I'm tired of arguing with malicious people on the internet.
        danaris 5y ago
        I...what? No; under every actual proposal, people who have these complicated deductions and other specialized needs can still file exactly the way they do today so that they can get their taxes calculated properly. And making sure that >50% of Americans—in particular, the >50% who have the simplest taxes, which correlates highly with lower income—don't have to "spend 1 hour and $39 per year" with private companies to accomplish their legally mandated tax filing is a very good thing, even if it were to actually increase the inconvenience for the wealthy and complicated. Which, again, this wouldn't. So please put aside the ad hominem attacks, which I believe are against the HN guidelines anyway.

wpietri 5y ago

That is not a vaguely fair characterization of what filing taxes is like. Every year my accountant sends me a 50-page booklet of questions on things that might affect tax returns. Taxes are in fact quite hard. But that's not my real issue with your comment. I agree adults have to tough things out sometimes. But toughing out a problem that doesn't need to exist is macho nonsense. You might as well insist that people get rid of their indoor plumbing, because we got got along fine without it for most of human history. You can go dig your own outhouse if you want, but don't suggest somebody else is inferior for not going out of the way to make their life harder unnecessarily.

fridif 5y ago
What is the nature of your income, such that it requires a 50 page booklet? The normal W2 worker does not need such a booklet. I am not saying that you should tough something out for no reason. I have electricity coming to my house to make my life convenient, which I pay for. I have water coming to my house, which I pay for. But I cut my own grass manually. Why? Because I felt the prices offered to me were not fair, and that the job was not complex or hard. Either you pay a tax professional if you feel the work is too complex and the price is acceptable, or you do it yourself. You can try to fight the government on this one, and you might win (even I hope you do), but at what cost? Certainly it is not cheaper than $39 a year.
- wpietri 5y ago
  They send the same booklet to all their clients. Because at least one person needs each page. I agree that the modal W2 worker does not need such a booklet. But they don't need to fill out tax forms at all. The correct solution is not to make them pay $39 for software they don't need. It's for the IRS to say "Here's what we think we owe you and why. If you don't like that, go and fill out the forms."
- yladiz 5y ago
  > I have electricity coming to my house to make my life convenient Wait, what? Are you actually arguing that electricity is a convenience?