this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2024
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Love the meme but JFC I wish they would just send us a simple invoice (or refund) every year. You know, the way adult nations do things.
They're working on it. They had a pilot program in several states this year.
That's just for free tax filling software, i.e. a government sponsored TurboTax alternative. And that was definitely needed.
What they're talking about is not having to actually do the filling at all, or at least only having to file in certain cases. The government pays for employees that look at your stuff, says "that's the amount", and asks you to confirm.
Granted, with the way tax filing software has advanced, and how simple the vast majority of people's filings are going to be, the difference is not very substantial anymore. The majority of people just need to click through the screens and answer the questions, so it takes a little time but it's hardly a true hassle.
The reason it's been like this in the US for so long is because of the heavy lobbying to keep software like that proprietary and the system complicated enough that people need to use it.
But it's also been because of decades of conservative bullshit refusing to fund the IRS to the degree that they could provide the services that other countries get. IRS literally could not and cannot afford the manpower to handle the taxes of every American for us. Software lets them circumvent that.
In Germany they just keep the money they think you owe them up front. If you think you owe less you have to send in a report proving it. If you owe more (e.g. from cash income) and they find out, you're punished.
It's insanity. I'm sure there's some rationale for it, but it seems like it could be so much simpler.
The rationale is the tax companies want it this way, and pay politicians a lot of money to keep it this way
I'm not an expert by any means, but my understanding is there is a "tax accounting lobby" that works hard to prevent any measures to simplify it, because they would go out of business. Intuit and others.