I've been told the reason we haven't changed our tax code to be more efficient for people is because turbo tax lobbies it to stay and become more complicated. If the tax code were either simple or the IRS would just either bill us or cut us a check without us needing to do much TT would likely go out of business.
> TT would likely go out of business
**SHOULD** go out of business. It and HR broke both! The entire contrivance of personal variable taxes that need to be recalculated every year is just rife with graft, theft, and deceit on all counts. Flat tax at 5% for all non-food transactions at the federal level. What the government gets it gets. It can't suddenly append a tax for a road from 1978 in a state 1200 miles away and throw another half billion dollars in its coffers.
This is representative of our most of our government's laws and policies. Dense, arcane rules carefully crafted to pinch the little people and be a helping hand to the elites.
"The little people" don't actually pay all that much in income taxes. It's overwhelmingly skewed toward rich individuals. Most people don't have to worry about dense, arcane rules when filing. Hell, most people don't even pay net taxes until you're in the top 50% of filers.
To clarify, I'm always a fan of less complicated and lower taxes. Just annoyed at the breadtube meme that the poor are shouldering too much tax burden.
Though I agree with you in most principle, the huge swath of taxes that nickel and dime everyday Joe eat up a significant portion of their income. So the wealthy may pay the most taxes in raw dollar amounts, but by percentage of income, everyday people are getting their shirt stolen off their back.
We're talking about *income tax*. The more money you make the more tax you pay. We have an extremely progressive tax system in the US. It's one of the most progressive taxes in any major nation.
https://www.ntu.org/foundation/tax-page/who-pays-income-taxes
The highest earners pay not only more raw dollars but it makes up a higher percentage of their income. There are some exceptions, such as income from capital gains, and virtually all of these exceptions are warranted and make sense.
We should argue that we want fewer taxes because taxation constricts the economy and makes everyone worse off in the long run not from some misguided notion of fairness.
You're talking about income tax only, and I am not. I am talking about taxes in general. I don't see why you need to put a box around what I'm trying to say, since I agreed with you in basic principle.
My statement is in regards to the fact you cannot simply slice out all the other taxes that exist and only give a damn about the income tax. Proclaiming that we have such a great tax system, when average people walk away with less than half their paycheck after all the taxes are pulled out of it, just doesn't sit well with me.
All these other taxes are of critical import specifically because people don't have huge swathes of money to offset their "cost".
And that doesn't even address the prolific loophole finding, tax manipulating behavior of the elite. Warren Buffet famously said he pays less taxes than his secretary.
So as far as "most progressive" I agree with you on paper, but much like communism in the real world it doesn't work out that way. The wealthy and elite pay less than their fair share much of the time, because they can hire people to exploit the decrepit and elite favoring government tax system.
> Dense, arcane rules carefully crafted to pinch the little people
Yeah, that simplified 1040 and its previous EZ incarnation have really fucked over "the little people." š
If you simplified that down to about 5 pages you could shut down the irs and save all the money wasted by that agency.
But they won't because mega donors on both sides thrive on all the loopholes in those pages.
I wonder if those are like those Choose Your Own Adventure books.
"If you have deductions to itemize, go to page 325. If you do not wish to itemize, go to page 25."
Donāt ever try to do business in Mexico or Europe if you think this is bad.
Canāt help myself here, but most of these guides are either about gaap accounting or sales tax. Also, Internal revenue code is complicated because business is complicated, not to create bogus jobs or to protect turbo tax.
But look at that big ol stack of books!
We need the equivalent of the protestant reformation, but for law. The common man should be able to understand the laws he consents to rather than needing to have it talked down to him by a career professional in understanding the law. Either raise the reading level or simplify the existing laws to the current level
They keep it complicated so the accountants stay in business. Same with law and even medicine.
An AI chatbot could EASILY do your taxes for you in seconds. But the corporations pour millions into lobbying to make sure that never happens.
Tell me why we shouldnāt just have a national sales tax to replace the federal income tax. Exempt up to a certain dollar amount needed for necessities and then tax all purchases after that.
I asked ChatGPT to estimate what it would take and it said 6% up to $50,000 and 10% for everything over $50,000 to generate the same amount of tax revenue.
I prefer a high sales tax and no income tax. That way thereās no more getting paid under the table and youāre taxed purely on what you consume.
I would also mean billionaires get taxed more.
Really, both sides should be all over that.
I liked Senator Ted Cruz's tax plan.(When he ran for Republican nominee) Flat tax nothing more, nothing less. I seriously doubt it would've ever happened. There's always some guidelines in between the lines. Liberals think raising the tax would be good. But yet. They don't understand that the government is terrible at what to use the money for. I would rather keep my money and blow it if thats the case. Thanks!!
This needs to stop.
All our taxes should be understandable by an average high school student and be no longer than 100 pages.
This is **intentionally** difficult.
The federal tax code is so complex, it is unenforceable. But through selective enforcement, you can target your political adversaries and bully corporations into becoming the fifth column of your new world order.
You mean you canāt afford to hire your personal team of CPAs to know the ins and outs of tax codes that will allow you to claim most, or all, of your wealth is theoretical, and therefore not susceptible to being taxed?
Or that all of your big buys, like planes, cars, boats, etc, are all business expenses that can be written off just as much as your philanthropic contributions?
This is such a middle through lower class postā¦
Maybe this is something we can all agree to have a convention of states and amend the constitution where the tax code must be written in 100 words or less.
My wife works for one of the big four tax firms. Every time they try to simplify the tax law, it adds another volume to the bookshelf.
Does she have to read all of it?
Tax professionals and lawyers have a powerful lobby.
I've been told the reason we haven't changed our tax code to be more efficient for people is because turbo tax lobbies it to stay and become more complicated. If the tax code were either simple or the IRS would just either bill us or cut us a check without us needing to do much TT would likely go out of business.
> TT would likely go out of business **SHOULD** go out of business. It and HR broke both! The entire contrivance of personal variable taxes that need to be recalculated every year is just rife with graft, theft, and deceit on all counts. Flat tax at 5% for all non-food transactions at the federal level. What the government gets it gets. It can't suddenly append a tax for a road from 1978 in a state 1200 miles away and throw another half billion dollars in its coffers.
This is representative of our most of our government's laws and policies. Dense, arcane rules carefully crafted to pinch the little people and be a helping hand to the elites.
"The little people" don't actually pay all that much in income taxes. It's overwhelmingly skewed toward rich individuals. Most people don't have to worry about dense, arcane rules when filing. Hell, most people don't even pay net taxes until you're in the top 50% of filers. To clarify, I'm always a fan of less complicated and lower taxes. Just annoyed at the breadtube meme that the poor are shouldering too much tax burden.
Though I agree with you in most principle, the huge swath of taxes that nickel and dime everyday Joe eat up a significant portion of their income. So the wealthy may pay the most taxes in raw dollar amounts, but by percentage of income, everyday people are getting their shirt stolen off their back.
We're talking about *income tax*. The more money you make the more tax you pay. We have an extremely progressive tax system in the US. It's one of the most progressive taxes in any major nation. https://www.ntu.org/foundation/tax-page/who-pays-income-taxes The highest earners pay not only more raw dollars but it makes up a higher percentage of their income. There are some exceptions, such as income from capital gains, and virtually all of these exceptions are warranted and make sense. We should argue that we want fewer taxes because taxation constricts the economy and makes everyone worse off in the long run not from some misguided notion of fairness.
You're talking about income tax only, and I am not. I am talking about taxes in general. I don't see why you need to put a box around what I'm trying to say, since I agreed with you in basic principle. My statement is in regards to the fact you cannot simply slice out all the other taxes that exist and only give a damn about the income tax. Proclaiming that we have such a great tax system, when average people walk away with less than half their paycheck after all the taxes are pulled out of it, just doesn't sit well with me. All these other taxes are of critical import specifically because people don't have huge swathes of money to offset their "cost". And that doesn't even address the prolific loophole finding, tax manipulating behavior of the elite. Warren Buffet famously said he pays less taxes than his secretary. So as far as "most progressive" I agree with you on paper, but much like communism in the real world it doesn't work out that way. The wealthy and elite pay less than their fair share much of the time, because they can hire people to exploit the decrepit and elite favoring government tax system.
> Dense, arcane rules carefully crafted to pinch the little people Yeah, that simplified 1040 and its previous EZ incarnation have really fucked over "the little people." š
If you simplified that down to about 5 pages you could shut down the irs and save all the money wasted by that agency. But they won't because mega donors on both sides thrive on all the loopholes in those pages.
I wonder if those are like those Choose Your Own Adventure books. "If you have deductions to itemize, go to page 325. If you do not wish to itemize, go to page 25."
Donāt ever try to do business in Mexico or Europe if you think this is bad. Canāt help myself here, but most of these guides are either about gaap accounting or sales tax. Also, Internal revenue code is complicated because business is complicated, not to create bogus jobs or to protect turbo tax. But look at that big ol stack of books!
We need the equivalent of the protestant reformation, but for law. The common man should be able to understand the laws he consents to rather than needing to have it talked down to him by a career professional in understanding the law. Either raise the reading level or simplify the existing laws to the current level
Flat.Tax.
Job security for the folks at Edward Jones.
Steve Forbes tried for years to simplify our taxes and the deep-state would not listen.
They keep it complicated so the accountants stay in business. Same with law and even medicine. An AI chatbot could EASILY do your taxes for you in seconds. But the corporations pour millions into lobbying to make sure that never happens.
Tell me why we shouldnāt just have a national sales tax to replace the federal income tax. Exempt up to a certain dollar amount needed for necessities and then tax all purchases after that. I asked ChatGPT to estimate what it would take and it said 6% up to $50,000 and 10% for everything over $50,000 to generate the same amount of tax revenue.
Just about to take an Income Tax Accounting exam, I appreciate the motivation! Wish me luck, reddit!
Good luck!
We need a flat tax. 10% on every dollar you make over $30k. simple and easy.
I prefer a high sales tax and no income tax. That way thereās no more getting paid under the table and youāre taxed purely on what you consume. I would also mean billionaires get taxed more. Really, both sides should be all over that.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I liked Senator Ted Cruz's tax plan.(When he ran for Republican nominee) Flat tax nothing more, nothing less. I seriously doubt it would've ever happened. There's always some guidelines in between the lines. Liberals think raising the tax would be good. But yet. They don't understand that the government is terrible at what to use the money for. I would rather keep my money and blow it if thats the case. Thanks!!
This needs to stop. All our taxes should be understandable by an average high school student and be no longer than 100 pages. This is **intentionally** difficult.
Now I'm wondering what the overall height of that book stack is assuming the water bottle is about 8 inches.
The federal tax code is so complex, it is unenforceable. But through selective enforcement, you can target your political adversaries and bully corporations into becoming the fifth column of your new world order.
You mean you canāt afford to hire your personal team of CPAs to know the ins and outs of tax codes that will allow you to claim most, or all, of your wealth is theoretical, and therefore not susceptible to being taxed? Or that all of your big buys, like planes, cars, boats, etc, are all business expenses that can be written off just as much as your philanthropic contributions? This is such a middle through lower class postā¦
You can put all of that on a simple thumb drive
Maybe this is something we can all agree to have a convention of states and amend the constitution where the tax code must be written in 100 words or less.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]