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I live in Finland, and I have never filed a tax return. The tax office here has used pre-filled annual forms since the mid 1990s, and since 2006 the pre-filled

I live in Finland, and I have never filed a tax return. The tax office here has used pre-filled annual forms since the mid 1990s, and since 2006 the pre-filled form is automatically accepted if you take no action. For me, the information has always been 100% correct, and should there be an error you can correct it in an online service using two-factor e-banking login or a government-issued ID card with smartchip for authentication.

masklinn 12y ago
AFAIK, modulo the date where this was put in place that's the case in much of Europe.
rinze 12y ago
Very similar in Spain. We get our pre-filled forms and you only have to correct what's missing (typically, in my case, the annual rent I paid the landlord) using a secure on-line system. You then submit it on-line too. Done. Takes 30 minutes of your time in total or less.
- Kurtz79 12y ago
  Yes, it does work quite well. In case of doubts, you can book (again, online, with a digital certificate) an appointment with the local "hacienda" branch on one of the available slots and have a clerk filing it for you. The last time I was there, the clerk had me deduct the rent, when I didn't know I was eligible. I have childhood memories of my parents being immersed in files and files of esoteric looking forms filled with numbers for days on end, and dreaded filing my first taxes. Progress!
bonesmoses 12y ago
And this is the way it should be. Our government seems to think computers are operated entirely via witchcraft. I doubt we'll get something like that before 2050.
- adventured 12y ago
  The problem isn't primarily the government's thinking around computers or technology. It's the lobbying standing in the way. Obama could force Congress' hand via an executive order, to get the ball rolling on tax reform. They would dive in to begin fighting for their interests rather than be left behind. He won't do it because he's just as susceptible to lobbyists as any of the other major politicians in DC.
  - Lewisham 12y ago
    As a British expat in California, I think the article actually gets the root cause here: Americans fundamentally don't trust government, and there is no-one they hate more than the tax man. If there's anyone not to trust, it's the I.R.S. In the UK, as stated for other countries, I would just use Pay As You Earn, where all taxes were extracted at the time of pay check, and would owe 0GBP at the end of the year. My Californian wife was astounded by this. "How do you know they've not got it wrong and screwed you?!" "Because I trust they got it right." "Why would you do that?!" My read of the British is that they might not like the government or politicians, but they generally believe that government agencies get things to the letter of the law more often than not. You can disagree with the tax law, but you assume that the tax man is taking the right amount as governed by that law. You can't pass tax reform in the US because enough of the citizenship wouldn't accept it.
    - DanBC 12y ago
      It's a good idea to check your taxes if you live in the UK - they do make errors and sometimes those will mean you pay more than you need to.
vonmoltke 12y ago
I have some questions for you or anyone else whose country has a similar system: - When do you need to accept your return or settle your outstanding balances by? - How are business taxes handled? - How complicated are your tax codes?
- _delirium 12y ago
  For individual taxes in Denmark: - Your current-year preliminary info becomes available online in November, and is updated continuously as the tax authority gets new information. You can log in at any time and correct things, declare unreported income, declare eligibility for commute subsidy, etc. The "regular" period for making such additions/corrections is through the end of February of the following year. - In the first week of March of the following calendar year, you get a PDF sent to you with the "final" tax computation based on what is in the system as of that date. The tax computation is fairly simple for most people; for me, this is a 3-page PDF, of which the actual computation takes up 1.5 pages. - If the form you get in March is correct and you're owed a refund, you don't need to do anything; the refund will be direct-deposited one month later (i.e. first week of April). If there are errors or omissions and/or you owe money, you have until May 1 to correct and/or settle it.
- vesinisa 12y ago
  > - When do you need to accept your return or settle your outstanding balances by? This year I got it in early March, and it's due by mid-May. > - How are business taxes handled? Pretty much all businesses employ an accountant that takes care for the basic stuff (paying and declaring salaries), and most also have a CFO - usually someone with a legal decree - who knows how to optimize the tax stuff. Every large corporation of course have a whole department of internal accountants and lawyers. > - How complicated are your tax codes? Not too simple at least! Multiple types of tax for different types of income (salary, capital, property) and the tax level depend on factors like municipality of residence, membership in a church, total income earned, sums and types of loans outstanding etc. If you collect social benefits, they further complicate as some are taxable and some not. There are also some "tax-like" fees payable by your employer, some of which are deductible in personal taxation and some not. And this is just what I know of personal taxation, the corporate taxation is a whole world of its own. I don't think the issue here is that our taxation would be so much simpler - and anyway the IRS probably has disproportionate R&D budget compared to a small European country.
rogerbinns 12y ago
The US tax code is stupidly complex. There are over 500 changes a year made. That is just federal taxes. You are also affected by state, county and city laws. For all practical purposes, it is impossible to do the returns 100% correctly. Legislators use the tax code extensively to achieve things, from social good through corporate welfare and what most would consider outright corruption. Voters in areas may also add to laws with various funding initiatives (eg extra taxes to cover funding for school construction). Look at sales tax just for California - http://www.boe.ca.gov/sutax/pam71.htm http://www.boe.ca.gov/sutax/pam71.htm - and that table of quicklinks should frighten you. That is just scratching the surface. For example sales tax for in person transactions is charged based on the address of the store. Unless you buy a car, in which case it is your home address. Two other factors apply. One is an American mentality that doing minor things against the law isn't that wrong, and being caught is where it becomes real. An example is speeding - it almost seems a contest of wits to not get caught, rather than fixing the limits or realising why they exist. Is it wrong to lie on your tax return about something, where the odds of getting caught are very low, and everyone else is doing it anyway? An example of that is how people call Amazon sales tax free because they are out of state. The supreme court says yes they are sales tax free (to not hinder interstate commerce), but then states charge a "use tax" which happens to be exactly the same as the sales tax. Very few people admitted to their out of state purchases since they were so unlikely to get caught. The final factor is a distrust of government. They are seen as plodding, corrupt, useless, expensive, political, uncaring and largely pointless. They are very rarely seen as an instrument of voter will. This is what provides the perennial source of jokes - the DMV (department of motor vehicles), the IRS, city hall and all that. Who would trust government to get things right? So tax returns turn into a contest. What do people think they get away with? Which of the many rules will they obey to the letter? What are their neighbours and others getting away with? Was that really a business lunch? How am I paying more tax than I need to? Despite their values, neither of the main two political parties do anything to fix this. They are however happy to keep adding to the piles of laws, which makes it more expensive to comply, and increasingly unfair. I often end up paying fines on my returns. This is not because I am a bad person, and I actually try very hard to get it all correct. It is just cheaper than doing some things the right way, and fairly normal! Some of those fines are also because I don't have a time machine, and I couldn't actually do things correctly without one. (Note that factors above are generalisations, and don't apply to every last person.)

masklinn 12y ago

AFAIK, modulo the date where this was put in place that's the case in much of Europe.

rinze 12y ago

Very similar in Spain. We get our pre-filled forms and you only have to correct what's missing (typically, in my case, the annual rent I paid the landlord) using a secure on-line system. You then submit it on-line too. Done. Takes 30 minutes of your time in total or less.

Kurtz79 12y ago
Yes, it does work quite well. In case of doubts, you can book (again, online, with a digital certificate) an appointment with the local "hacienda" branch on one of the available slots and have a clerk filing it for you. The last time I was there, the clerk had me deduct the rent, when I didn't know I was eligible. I have childhood memories of my parents being immersed in files and files of esoteric looking forms filled with numbers for days on end, and dreaded filing my first taxes. Progress!

bonesmoses 12y ago

And this is the way it should be. Our government seems to think computers are operated entirely via witchcraft. I doubt we'll get something like that before 2050.

adventured 12y ago
The problem isn't primarily the government's thinking around computers or technology. It's the lobbying standing in the way. Obama could force Congress' hand via an executive order, to get the ball rolling on tax reform. They would dive in to begin fighting for their interests rather than be left behind. He won't do it because he's just as susceptible to lobbyists as any of the other major politicians in DC.
- Lewisham 12y ago
  As a British expat in California, I think the article actually gets the root cause here: Americans fundamentally don't trust government, and there is no-one they hate more than the tax man. If there's anyone not to trust, it's the I.R.S. In the UK, as stated for other countries, I would just use Pay As You Earn, where all taxes were extracted at the time of pay check, and would owe 0GBP at the end of the year. My Californian wife was astounded by this. "How do you know they've not got it wrong and screwed you?!" "Because I trust they got it right." "Why would you do that?!" My read of the British is that they might not like the government or politicians, but they generally believe that government agencies get things to the letter of the law more often than not. You can disagree with the tax law, but you assume that the tax man is taking the right amount as governed by that law. You can't pass tax reform in the US because enough of the citizenship wouldn't accept it.
  - DanBC 12y ago
    It's a good idea to check your taxes if you live in the UK - they do make errors and sometimes those will mean you pay more than you need to.

vonmoltke 12y ago

I have some questions for you or anyone else whose country has a similar system: - When do you need to accept your return or settle your outstanding balances by? - How are business taxes handled? - How complicated are your tax codes?

_delirium 12y ago
For individual taxes in Denmark: - Your current-year preliminary info becomes available online in November, and is updated continuously as the tax authority gets new information. You can log in at any time and correct things, declare unreported income, declare eligibility for commute subsidy, etc. The "regular" period for making such additions/corrections is through the end of February of the following year. - In the first week of March of the following calendar year, you get a PDF sent to you with the "final" tax computation based on what is in the system as of that date. The tax computation is fairly simple for most people; for me, this is a 3-page PDF, of which the actual computation takes up 1.5 pages. - If the form you get in March is correct and you're owed a refund, you don't need to do anything; the refund will be direct-deposited one month later (i.e. first week of April). If there are errors or omissions and/or you owe money, you have until May 1 to correct and/or settle it.
vesinisa 12y ago
> - When do you need to accept your return or settle your outstanding balances by? This year I got it in early March, and it's due by mid-May. > - How are business taxes handled? Pretty much all businesses employ an accountant that takes care for the basic stuff (paying and declaring salaries), and most also have a CFO - usually someone with a legal decree - who knows how to optimize the tax stuff. Every large corporation of course have a whole department of internal accountants and lawyers. > - How complicated are your tax codes? Not too simple at least! Multiple types of tax for different types of income (salary, capital, property) and the tax level depend on factors like municipality of residence, membership in a church, total income earned, sums and types of loans outstanding etc. If you collect social benefits, they further complicate as some are taxable and some not. There are also some "tax-like" fees payable by your employer, some of which are deductible in personal taxation and some not. And this is just what I know of personal taxation, the corporate taxation is a whole world of its own. I don't think the issue here is that our taxation would be so much simpler - and anyway the IRS probably has disproportionate R&D budget compared to a small European country.

rogerbinns 12y ago

The US tax code is stupidly complex. There are over 500 changes a year made. That is just federal taxes. You are also affected by state, county and city laws. For all practical purposes, it is impossible to do the returns 100% correctly. Legislators use the tax code extensively to achieve things, from social good through corporate welfare and what most would consider outright corruption. Voters in areas may also add to laws with various funding initiatives (eg extra taxes to cover funding for school construction). Look at sales tax just for California - http://www.boe.ca.gov/sutax/pam71.htm http://www.boe.ca.gov/sutax/pam71.htm - and that table of quicklinks should frighten you. That is just scratching the surface. For example sales tax for in person transactions is charged based on the address of the store. Unless you buy a car, in which case it is your home address. Two other factors apply. One is an American mentality that doing minor things against the law isn't that wrong, and being caught is where it becomes real. An example is speeding - it almost seems a contest of wits to not get caught, rather than fixing the limits or realising why they exist. Is it wrong to lie on your tax return about something, where the odds of getting caught are very low, and everyone else is doing it anyway? An example of that is how people call Amazon sales tax free because they are out of state. The supreme court says yes they are sales tax free (to not hinder interstate commerce), but then states charge a "use tax" which happens to be exactly the same as the sales tax. Very few people admitted to their out of state purchases since they were so unlikely to get caught. The final factor is a distrust of government. They are seen as plodding, corrupt, useless, expensive, political, uncaring and largely pointless. They are very rarely seen as an instrument of voter will. This is what provides the perennial source of jokes - the DMV (department of motor vehicles), the IRS, city hall and all that. Who would trust government to get things right? So tax returns turn into a contest. What do people think they get away with? Which of the many rules will they obey to the letter? What are their neighbours and others getting away with? Was that really a business lunch? How am I paying more tax than I need to? Despite their values, neither of the main two political parties do anything to fix this. They are however happy to keep adding to the piles of laws, which makes it more expensive to comply, and increasingly unfair. I often end up paying fines on my returns. This is not because I am a bad person, and I actually try very hard to get it all correct. It is just cheaper than doing some things the right way, and fairly normal! Some of those fines are also because I don't have a time machine, and I couldn't actually do things correctly without one. (Note that factors above are generalisations, and don't apply to every last person.)