3 ms·
There really needs to be some option you can choose that's like "I don't want to cheat on my taxes like a billionaire and pay 3 percent, but I also don't want t
by dccoolgai 3y ago
There really needs to be some option you can choose that's like "I don't want to cheat on my taxes like a billionaire and pay 3 percent, but I also don't want to spend 2 weeks of my life scrambling to recover documents from 20 different banks and past employers so I can pay a normal rate instead of 70 percent".
- nameless912 3y agoI....don't hate this. "Here's 33%, it's probably more than I can get away with paying but I don't want to deal with the hassle" is absolutely something I would sign up for. FWIW my effective tax rate last year was like 28%. To know down to the penny how much is going to taxes and not having to worry about filing would be a dream.
- shortcake27 3y agoIn Australia, the ATO knows everything. Employment income for a start, but also bank account interest, dividends, health insurance payments, and a lot more. For the average person, the pre-fill is all you need and you can just submit the return as-is. Not sure why the US isn’t able to do that. All employers and banks have your SSN, right? Sharing data with the IRS at the end of the tax year isn’t rocket science.
- dessimus 3y agoShort answer: Lobbyists. Basically, the Intuits, H.R. Blocks, Jackson-Hewetts, et al., stand to lose a large chunk of their revenues if the IRS did everyone's taxes for them. Additionally, those in power, or with enough influence over those with power, do not want to fund the IRS to have easy visibility into all of those possible revenue streams in an easily correlated manner.