5 ms·

Sound nice except for the being frozen part :-) The IRS could do our taxes as well if there weren't 500,000 special interest exceptions to everything.

zem 12y ago
they could probably do it anyway, but intuit lobbied against it: http://www.propublica.org/article/turbotax-maker-linked-to-grassroots-campaign-against-free-simple-tax-filing http://www.propublica.org/article/turbotax-maker-linked-to-g...
- toomuchtodo 12y ago
  The lobbying by Intuit that prevents us from having first-world taxing bodies makes my blood boil.
  - theklub 12y ago
    We need a "lobby for the common people" fund.
    - crimsonalucard 12y ago
      The irony of this statement is that the entire US government itself was formed on a similar premise.
      - oldspiceman 12y ago
        "government of the people, by the people, for the people" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address
    - teddyh 12y ago
      Those are called “taxes”. In theory.
  - humanrebar 12y ago
    To be fair, there's lobbying on the other side against simplified tax codes. There have been lots of proposals: flat tax, fair tax, consumption taxes, VATs, etc. All are opposed by lobbying groups and not even the same ones. All this foaming at the mouth and finger pointing only makes things worse.
    - toomuchtodo 12y ago
      I think we can all agree that you should never have to pay to have your taxes done. Taxes are a rule set, a rule set that can be codified into software. The IRS should be able to prefill all of your taxes for you, and allow you to click Submit. But you should be able to change/add info, if you have supporting documentation. There is no reason Intuit and other businesses should need to exist to provide tax preparation services.
      - jarek 12y ago
        Well yeah but we're talking about the U.S. here, this is a culture that won't put final prices on price tags because then the customers won't know how much sales tax they're paying.
logn 12y ago
And the special interest lobbying of tax preparers to not let the IRS fill out our taxes. The IRS could prepare a fairly reasonable tax return, and let people modify it for their deductions or unreported income. But for most people, all their income is reported, along with mortgage info.
- Shivetya 12y ago
  with a seventy five thousand page tax code do we think they could? Taxes should be a one page affair, yet as always politicians are adept at dividing us, boxing us, and generally punishing us when we don't do as we are told. The IRS is a political weapon more often than not. As a typical corporate drone with a house how complex should my taxes be? I do the correct deductions throughout the year yet I never have a near zero difference.
  - bodyfour 12y ago
    > with a seventy five thousand page tax code do we think they could? Yes, for nearly everyone. In fact, the IRS already does this -- your employer, bank, etc have already reported all of the biggest items to the IRS. They know what your tax bill will look like before you even crack open the 1040 instructions. Then when you file they'll compare what you send via the baseline and flag anything that has a discrepancy in that taxpayer's favor. The IRS could easily let you start with the baseline and just say "OK, sounds good" or "actually, I've itemized my deductions, here is what I think the number should be". In fact the IRS wants to do that since it would be less work for them overall. Congress won't never let them though. To bring it back to the original article, this is also why expats should never expect tax relief. The tax preparation industry would lose millions of customers.
- Retra 12y ago
  Someday we will be paying people to throw their feces around in the name of creating jobs and protecting the janitorial industry. If only the American public actually understood the value of paying someone to have responsibilities rather than paying them to do work. But that might entail paying people to do their taxes, get an educations, vote, obey the law, etc. Real communism stuff!

zem 12y ago

they could probably do it anyway, but intuit lobbied against it: http://www.propublica.org/article/turbotax-maker-linked-to-grassroots-campaign-against-free-simple-tax-filing http://www.propublica.org/article/turbotax-maker-linked-to-g...

toomuchtodo 12y ago
The lobbying by Intuit that prevents us from having first-world taxing bodies makes my blood boil.
- theklub 12y ago
  We need a "lobby for the common people" fund.
  - crimsonalucard 12y ago
    The irony of this statement is that the entire US government itself was formed on a similar premise.
    - oldspiceman 12y ago
      "government of the people, by the people, for the people" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address
  - teddyh 12y ago
    Those are called “taxes”. In theory.
- humanrebar 12y ago
  To be fair, there's lobbying on the other side against simplified tax codes. There have been lots of proposals: flat tax, fair tax, consumption taxes, VATs, etc. All are opposed by lobbying groups and not even the same ones. All this foaming at the mouth and finger pointing only makes things worse.
  - toomuchtodo 12y ago
    I think we can all agree that you should never have to pay to have your taxes done. Taxes are a rule set, a rule set that can be codified into software. The IRS should be able to prefill all of your taxes for you, and allow you to click Submit. But you should be able to change/add info, if you have supporting documentation. There is no reason Intuit and other businesses should need to exist to provide tax preparation services.
    - jarek 12y ago
      Well yeah but we're talking about the U.S. here, this is a culture that won't put final prices on price tags because then the customers won't know how much sales tax they're paying.

logn 12y ago

And the special interest lobbying of tax preparers to not let the IRS fill out our taxes. The IRS could prepare a fairly reasonable tax return, and let people modify it for their deductions or unreported income. But for most people, all their income is reported, along with mortgage info.

Shivetya 12y ago
with a seventy five thousand page tax code do we think they could? Taxes should be a one page affair, yet as always politicians are adept at dividing us, boxing us, and generally punishing us when we don't do as we are told. The IRS is a political weapon more often than not. As a typical corporate drone with a house how complex should my taxes be? I do the correct deductions throughout the year yet I never have a near zero difference.
- bodyfour 12y ago
  > with a seventy five thousand page tax code do we think they could? Yes, for nearly everyone. In fact, the IRS already does this -- your employer, bank, etc have already reported all of the biggest items to the IRS. They know what your tax bill will look like before you even crack open the 1040 instructions. Then when you file they'll compare what you send via the baseline and flag anything that has a discrepancy in that taxpayer's favor. The IRS could easily let you start with the baseline and just say "OK, sounds good" or "actually, I've itemized my deductions, here is what I think the number should be". In fact the IRS wants to do that since it would be less work for them overall. Congress won't never let them though. To bring it back to the original article, this is also why expats should never expect tax relief. The tax preparation industry would lose millions of customers.
Retra 12y ago
Someday we will be paying people to throw their feces around in the name of creating jobs and protecting the janitorial industry. If only the American public actually understood the value of paying someone to have responsibilities rather than paying them to do work. But that might entail paying people to do their taxes, get an educations, vote, obey the law, etc. Real communism stuff!