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There was probably a way I could have figured out how to keep the profits, but because I only made a few hundred from mining, and I had other capital gains (fro

There was probably a way I could have figured out how to keep the profits, but because I only made a few hundred from mining, and I had other capital gains (from stocks) that made that whole part of my taxes complicated, it just wasn't worth the effort and the risk of an audit to try to find a loophole. I printed the forms from TaxBit and paid what it said. People say that US taxes are kept complicated because the tax prep companies profit, or because Republican politicians benefit from frustration at taxes. But I think this is a bigger reason: a lot of people, myself included, when faced with paying extra taxes that just "don't seem right", would rather pay extra that go through the complication of figuring out how to fix them. So the government gets extra tax revenue that they technically didn't require.

ctvo 4y ago
> People say that US taxes are kept complicated because the tax prep companies profit, or because Republican politicians benefit from frustration at taxes. But I think this is a bigger reason: a lot of people, myself included, when faced with paying extra taxes that just "don't seem right", would rather pay extra that go through the complication of figuring out how to fix them. So the government gets extra tax revenue that they technically didn't require. So you think people overpay more commonly when faced with complexity and confusion in the tax code vs. underpaying or not paying at all? Is that right? Also the confusion you're describing is also what drives your first reason: > People say that US taxes are kept complicated because the tax prep companies profit People need to use professional services because they're not sure.
- squeaky-clean 4y ago
  It's pretty well acknowledged that the American tax system is heavily under the influence of lobbyists from tax filing companies like Intuit. You don't see these sorts of problems in other countries for individual or self employment taxes
- sgtnoodle 4y ago
  The tax code is too complex. I've consulted professional tax accountants three times over the last decade. Professionals don't understand it either. The first one was an oaf in Los Angeles that charged me $500 to redo a back-of-the-envelope calculation I had already done. The second one was an older lady in Silicon Valley. You would think she would have known how ISOs work, but she messed up the calculations anyway. There were no penalties, but she felt bad enough that she filed my taxes for free. She got cancer and retired 6 months later. The third was a friend that prepares taxes for billionaires. His retainer is something like $15K per year. His software's calculations disagreed with my homemade spreadsheet by $40K. In April my spreadsheet ended up within a few thousand of TurboTax. He's still kicking himself over that...

ctvo 4y ago

> People say that US taxes are kept complicated because the tax prep companies profit, or because Republican politicians benefit from frustration at taxes. But I think this is a bigger reason: a lot of people, myself included, when faced with paying extra taxes that just "don't seem right", would rather pay extra that go through the complication of figuring out how to fix them. So the government gets extra tax revenue that they technically didn't require. So you think people overpay more commonly when faced with complexity and confusion in the tax code vs. underpaying or not paying at all? Is that right? Also the confusion you're describing is also what drives your first reason: > People say that US taxes are kept complicated because the tax prep companies profit People need to use professional services because they're not sure.

squeaky-clean 4y ago
It's pretty well acknowledged that the American tax system is heavily under the influence of lobbyists from tax filing companies like Intuit. You don't see these sorts of problems in other countries for individual or self employment taxes
sgtnoodle 4y ago
The tax code is too complex. I've consulted professional tax accountants three times over the last decade. Professionals don't understand it either. The first one was an oaf in Los Angeles that charged me $500 to redo a back-of-the-envelope calculation I had already done. The second one was an older lady in Silicon Valley. You would think she would have known how ISOs work, but she messed up the calculations anyway. There were no penalties, but she felt bad enough that she filed my taxes for free. She got cancer and retired 6 months later. The third was a friend that prepares taxes for billionaires. His retainer is something like $15K per year. His software's calculations disagreed with my homemade spreadsheet by $40K. In April my spreadsheet ended up within a few thousand of TurboTax. He's still kicking himself over that...