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Is it not in the governments interest to implement the cheapest, best system to enable all citizens to easily pay taxes? The IRS knows basic taxes better than a

by bix6 1y ago

Is it not in the governments interest to implement the cheapest, best system to enable all citizens to easily pay taxes? The IRS knows basic taxes better than anyone so certainly they are the most equipped to handle this program instead of the private sector?

actionfromafar 1y ago
GOP congresspeople have argued it's good to make it harder to pay taxes, that will make people pay less taxes, which is "starving the beast", which is good.
- bananapub 1y ago
  well, also it means that you can arbitrarily prosecute people, and it means Intuit etc will just give you, as a congressperson, bribes.
blactuary 1y ago
It is, but it is in individual politician's interest to take lobbying dollars from Intuit, who wants to keep gouging us
baq 1y ago
It is in the interest of turbotax et al. shareholders and politicians who receive funding from their lobbyists.
the_hoser 1y ago
You presume that the people in charge have the best interests of the government in mind when they make their decisions.
datadrivenangel 1y ago
Many private interests want taxes to be inefficient and painful so they can lobby for lower taxes
- xp84 1y ago
  And ironically, those same interests don't usually lower either middle-class tax rates nor the required complexity of the returns themselves! They just farm annoyance by making "IRS" a dirty word, and harvest it by some combination of imposing austerity on the IRS to make tax cheating by rich people less risky, and policy changes that just happen to benefit a class of people that excludes the bottom 80%.
miltonlost 1y ago
Yes, in a world where the government is run by a benevolent public servant. But we now have a fascist Republican government run by a rapist fraudster intent on pillaging whatever is left of America.
- drstewart 1y ago
  Ah, high quality HN discussion
  - miltonlost 1y ago
    Ah, good comment
georgemcbay 1y ago
There is a giant and still ever-widening gap between what is in the best interest of the government* and what is in the best interest of elected officials and the wealthy special interests that fund them. (* which should theoretically be indistinguishable from what is in the best interest of the people)
encom 1y ago
I, a Dane, have literally never filed a tax return in my life. It's completely automatic. I get a letter every year (electronically) and unless I have corrections to the pre-filled numbers, I do nothing. Manually filing tax returns is something people did in the 80's. I thought you guys were supposed to be tech pioneers or something.
- testing22321 1y ago
  Many countries have been working for decades on improving their societies, systems and quality of life. The US has been boosting its GDP to the benefit of the rich while not improving a damn thing for regular people.
- yencabulator 1y ago
  I set up an electric utility account online. Later, I get a bill from them, that has my name misspelled. I use as hell did not misspell my name like that. In the back office somewhere they are employing people who read text from one application and type it in another. The US is stuck in time somewhere along the 70-90s.
  - encom 1y ago
    >The US is stuck in time somewhere along the 70-90s. Don't be too sad. The 90's were a great time. I wish I could go back.
- radiofreeeuropa 1y ago
  I'm convinced a bunch of things like this, which create expense and nickel-and-diming and wasted time for tons and tons of ordinary people, are why the US feels a lot poorer than it is on paper. Like, Intuit and Turbotax contribute to GDP but their existence, at least at the size they are and in some of their roles, is purely a drag on QOL. (of course, the biggest part of this is the healthcare system, which is great at making sick people and their families, not to mention HR folks and such, waste tens to hundreds of hours on things that aren't about healthcare itself at all, while also costing far more than it ought to—but there are lots of other things like this, see also the tipping-culture thread today, it's all part of that, little bits of bullshit that make life worse)
mrexroad 1y ago
Unfortunately, private sector has a say in this as well UA lobbying. Intuit and H&R Block spend millions a year [1] in lobbying to protect their business, at the expense of the American people. [1] https://substack.perfectunion.us/p/turbotaxs-intuit-spent-record-amount https://substack.perfectunion.us/p/turbotaxs-intuit-spent-re...

by bix6 1y ago

actionfromafar 1y ago

GOP congresspeople have argued it's good to make it harder to pay taxes, that will make people pay less taxes, which is "starving the beast", which is good.

bananapub 1y ago
well, also it means that you can arbitrarily prosecute people, and it means Intuit etc will just give you, as a congressperson, bribes.

blactuary 1y ago

It is, but it is in individual politician's interest to take lobbying dollars from Intuit, who wants to keep gouging us

baq 1y ago

It is in the interest of turbotax et al. shareholders and politicians who receive funding from their lobbyists.

the_hoser 1y ago

You presume that the people in charge have the best interests of the government in mind when they make their decisions.

datadrivenangel 1y ago

Many private interests want taxes to be inefficient and painful so they can lobby for lower taxes

xp84 1y ago
And ironically, those same interests don't usually lower either middle-class tax rates nor the required complexity of the returns themselves! They just farm annoyance by making "IRS" a dirty word, and harvest it by some combination of imposing austerity on the IRS to make tax cheating by rich people less risky, and policy changes that just happen to benefit a class of people that excludes the bottom 80%.

miltonlost 1y ago

Yes, in a world where the government is run by a benevolent public servant. But we now have a fascist Republican government run by a rapist fraudster intent on pillaging whatever is left of America.

drstewart 1y ago
Ah, high quality HN discussion
- miltonlost 1y ago
  Ah, good comment

georgemcbay 1y ago

There is a giant and still ever-widening gap between what is in the best interest of the government* and what is in the best interest of elected officials and the wealthy special interests that fund them. (* which should theoretically be indistinguishable from what is in the best interest of the people)

encom 1y ago

I, a Dane, have literally never filed a tax return in my life. It's completely automatic. I get a letter every year (electronically) and unless I have corrections to the pre-filled numbers, I do nothing. Manually filing tax returns is something people did in the 80's. I thought you guys were supposed to be tech pioneers or something.

testing22321 1y ago
Many countries have been working for decades on improving their societies, systems and quality of life. The US has been boosting its GDP to the benefit of the rich while not improving a damn thing for regular people.
yencabulator 1y ago
I set up an electric utility account online. Later, I get a bill from them, that has my name misspelled. I use as hell did not misspell my name like that. In the back office somewhere they are employing people who read text from one application and type it in another. The US is stuck in time somewhere along the 70-90s.
- encom 1y ago
  >The US is stuck in time somewhere along the 70-90s. Don't be too sad. The 90's were a great time. I wish I could go back.
radiofreeeuropa 1y ago
I'm convinced a bunch of things like this, which create expense and nickel-and-diming and wasted time for tons and tons of ordinary people, are why the US feels a lot poorer than it is on paper. Like, Intuit and Turbotax contribute to GDP but their existence, at least at the size they are and in some of their roles, is purely a drag on QOL. (of course, the biggest part of this is the healthcare system, which is great at making sick people and their families, not to mention HR folks and such, waste tens to hundreds of hours on things that aren't about healthcare itself at all, while also costing far more than it ought to—but there are lots of other things like this, see also the tipping-culture thread today, it's all part of that, little bits of bullshit that make life worse)

mrexroad 1y ago

Unfortunately, private sector has a say in this as well UA lobbying. Intuit and H&R Block spend millions a year [1] in lobbying to protect their business, at the expense of the American people. [1] https://substack.perfectunion.us/p/turbotaxs-intuit-spent-record-amount https://substack.perfectunion.us/p/turbotaxs-intuit-spent-re...