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I have enough experience with local and federal government that there is no way I want them to build any kind of software. Much less a complicated tax software.
by wil421 5y ago
I have enough experience with local and federal government that there is no way I want them to build any kind of software. Much less a complicated tax software.
It might work in the EU but in the US there’s state/county/municipality taxes that can get quite complicate. My zip code has a small area in my county and my county is at a 6% tax rate. Most of the zip code is another county that has a %7.5 tax rate. I have to double check large online purchases just to make sure it’s correct. Almost every place shows the wrong tax at checkout due to using my zip but’s it’s always fixed when my card is actually charged.
Most people are using SAP or Oracle to do this kind of thing because they already know the ins and outs of tax locales.
- YawningAngel 5y agoIf the tax law is so complex that the government can't correctly implement tax software, how is the government going to collect the taxes?
- SteveNuts 5y agoThey pour the resources and money into the enforcement side instead of the collection side.
- snovv_crash 5y agoIt's often easier to evaluate compliance than it is to engineer a compliant system.
- sokoloff 5y agoThe software would have to work everywhere. The tax collections (review/enforcement, really) process only has to work in one place. Tax law in one place is usually clear enough; the complexity is in the aggregate. My state doesn’t have to give a rip that NYC has a city surtax on this but not that, or that some other jurisdiction treats clothing items up to $100 as non-taxable while we put the limit at $175.
- wil421 5y agoThe federal government is only one part of it. States, counties, and cities can also impose their own income taxes or sales tax. Or like Florida they can choose not to have an income tax. I suppose that would be like asking the EU commission to provide tax software for all its member states.