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Take a moment to look outside of your borders. In the UK we have a mostly progressive income tax system with various tax brackets, tax free allowances up to 12k

Take a moment to look outside of your borders. In the UK we have a mostly progressive income tax system with various tax brackets, tax free allowances up to 12k GBP, claw backs of said allowance over incomes of a certain amount, national insurance taxation, student loan repayments, etc... The majority of UK citizens file no paperwork with HMRC (equivalent to the IRS) and never have a reason to contact HMRC. The majority of UK citizens only interaction with HMRC is when they get a summary letter in the post at most once a year telling them that everything is fine or they over/underpaid through the automated systems. In the latter casen they either are given the money owed or told that they will have to repay what is due through what is effectively an interest free loan over the course of the next 1-2 years (can be negotiated). The reason why this is possible is because employers report salaries to HMRC and its a deduction in their monthly payslips. You might say its not possible to do that in the US, but ask yourself how does the IRS actually know that you have misreported/underpaid? Its because they already know exactly how much you owe because the same information has already been reported to them by the banks and your employers. There is literately no point in tax filing for the majority of US citizen that work as an employee employer except to enable the parasitic tax filing industry to exist.

ajmurmann 3y ago
It feels like you are arguing against a point I didn't make. I was responding to this section from the parent "it'll be much harder to restrict benefits only to specific income brackets, but it would be much simpler and cheaper for taxpayers." Also to "Take a moment to look outside of your borders.", I'm a German citizen where my dad is a retired tax officer and Iia business degree which involved accounting and taxation. I'm familiar with some taxation outside the US. If I weren't, there'd already have been dozens of other posts here describing the better tax filing solution in every country.
- deleted 3y ago
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- a_humean 3y ago
  I apologise, I think I actually meant to reply the the parent above you. I was intending to criticise the implied premise that the problem with filing is that tax code is too complex, when its very possible in other complex tax justidictions to automate all of this away for most citizens (esp when the standard deductible is sufficient for almost everyone). There is evidence that its already possible to automate most of this away in the US because the data collection and calculation is already happening for most simple cases. I know this because I'm a dual citizen and I am constantly shocked at how terrible the IRS is and how relatively pleasant HMRC is. I just took it as non-sequitur to promote some other policy bug bear.

ajmurmann 3y ago

It feels like you are arguing against a point I didn't make. I was responding to this section from the parent "it'll be much harder to restrict benefits only to specific income brackets, but it would be much simpler and cheaper for taxpayers." Also to "Take a moment to look outside of your borders.", I'm a German citizen where my dad is a retired tax officer and Iia business degree which involved accounting and taxation. I'm familiar with some taxation outside the US. If I weren't, there'd already have been dozens of other posts here describing the better tax filing solution in every country.

deleted 3y ago
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a_humean 3y ago
I apologise, I think I actually meant to reply the the parent above you. I was intending to criticise the implied premise that the problem with filing is that tax code is too complex, when its very possible in other complex tax justidictions to automate all of this away for most citizens (esp when the standard deductible is sufficient for almost everyone). There is evidence that its already possible to automate most of this away in the US because the data collection and calculation is already happening for most simple cases. I know this because I'm a dual citizen and I am constantly shocked at how terrible the IRS is and how relatively pleasant HMRC is. I just took it as non-sequitur to promote some other policy bug bear.