4 ms·

Heaven forbid if the US catches up with the U.K. in the 1990s.

by moomin 2y ago

AnotherGoodName 2y ago
Hell any country except the USA. I've lived in both the USA and Australia. In Australia it's been digital for a long time. As in you go to file and the equivalent of all your W2 information is pre-filed by the employer, retirement and investment systems. You're just running through a government provided site to check off any special exemptions and you're done. It's a huge efficiency win. Think of the hours you spent dealing with Turbotax and the like, re-importing information from other systems manually when your employer and bank already added filed that information under your name into the tax system on their side. I hear outright wrong arguments for why the USA has not moved to a modern filing system. The US tax system is NOT more complex than other countries. It's pretty middle of the road in complexity. Yes other countries are made up of states too. Yes there's a ton of exemptions in other countries. It's yet another example of people taking an absurd "government is always less efficient than private" viewpoint that isn't even founded in any academic sense. It's a line broadcast by very rich people that want to siphon off profit and it's hard to do that when it's tax payer funded.
- zzgo 2y ago
  > very rich people that want to siphon off profit Tax preparation is a huge industry in the US, they're going to fight tooth and nail to make sure the government doesn't cut into their business.
- Kamq 2y ago
  > I hear outright wrong arguments for why the USA has not moved to a modern filing system. The argument I always hear from the right about this is that they worry that making taxes more efficient will allow them (and government action in general) to increase. The right is explicitly committed to reducing that, so it's not in their interest. Same reason I've heard from people on the right about ending withholding. They think that if people had to cut an actual check to the government every year (or quarter) that people would realize how much it's costing them and be more amenable to reducing it.
ahmedfromtunis 2y ago
I read somewhere that the convolution of tax returns system is intentional as the right thinks that the federal government should collect as little tax as possible. Making people suffer to file their taxes aims to reduce the federals from levying more taxes without popular opposition. Providing a free, digital service to collect taxes would then be considered a real threat.
- moomin 2y ago
  Pretty sure it was patio11. :D

Heaven forbid if the US catches up with the U.K. in the 1990s.

by moomin 2y ago

Heaven forbid if the US catches up with the U.K. in the 1990s.

Hell any country except the USA. I've lived in both the USA and Australia. In Australia it's been digital for a long time. As in you go to file and the equivalent of all your W2 information is pre-filed by the employer, retirement and investment systems. You're just running through a government provided site to check off any special exemptions and you're done. It's a huge efficiency win. Think of the hours you spent dealing with Turbotax and the like, re-importing information from other systems manually when your employer and bank already added filed that information under your name into the tax system on their side. I hear outright wrong arguments for why the USA has not moved to a modern filing system. The US tax system is NOT more complex than other countries. It's pretty middle of the road in complexity. Yes other countries are made up of states too. Yes there's a ton of exemptions in other countries. It's yet another example of people taking an absurd "government is always less efficient than private" viewpoint that isn't even founded in any academic sense. It's a line broadcast by very rich people that want to siphon off profit and it's hard to do that when it's tax payer funded.

zzgo 2y ago
> very rich people that want to siphon off profit Tax preparation is a huge industry in the US, they're going to fight tooth and nail to make sure the government doesn't cut into their business.
Kamq 2y ago
> I hear outright wrong arguments for why the USA has not moved to a modern filing system. The argument I always hear from the right about this is that they worry that making taxes more efficient will allow them (and government action in general) to increase. The right is explicitly committed to reducing that, so it's not in their interest. Same reason I've heard from people on the right about ending withholding. They think that if people had to cut an actual check to the government every year (or quarter) that people would realize how much it's costing them and be more amenable to reducing it.

ahmedfromtunis 2y ago

I read somewhere that the convolution of tax returns system is intentional as the right thinks that the federal government should collect as little tax as possible. Making people suffer to file their taxes aims to reduce the federals from levying more taxes without popular opposition. Providing a free, digital service to collect taxes would then be considered a real threat.

moomin 2y ago
Pretty sure it was patio11. :D