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Americans as a whole are very stupid and don’t realize that the overwhelming majority of them can file for free. 100% of Americans can self-file (for free) of they can handle about an hour of basic paperwork, but for 90% of Americans, you can file taxes for free in less than twenty minutes.

But most people would rather Google “how to file taxes,” click on the first sponsored link they see, and buy something before they ever actually try to do even a minute of research.

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ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Tbf as a Swede I just log in, glance at the forms, sign and log out. That’s what easy is.

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- PP_BOY_@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I’m not saying that filing in the US takes zero effort whatsoever, but you have some deeper problems if you don’t think five questions like “What does Box A on your paper form say?” is just as easy easy. You’re saying, “My car has 500 horsepower. That’s what fast is” to a guy with a 499hp car.
  
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  - Grass@sh.itjust.works ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    When I’m crippled by power harassment at the last 5 jobs, 2 of which are current, I just want to sign in and click okay and be done. Or click no and do paperwork, but only if the initial suggestion was incorrect.
    
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  - ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    It’s more like comparing an automatic gearbox to a manual IMO
    
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starman2112@sh.itjust.works ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

if they can handle about an hour of basic paperwork,

People make it out like tax filing is like travelling to Ry’leh and transcribing eldritch runes, but it’s made pretty dead simple. Put the number from one box in piece of paper A into the corresponding box in piece of paper B. If it has you do a math, you can just… Do a math. Pull out your calculator and subtract the amount you’ve paid so far from the amount you owe. Is the result a negative number? Congratulations! You’re getting a return! It’s three number positive? Oh no! That’s how much you need to pay the IRS!

I get that for some people it is significantly more complicated than that, but if you work one job where you make some number of dollars per hour and you don’t invest in the stock market or cryptocurrency, it’s virtually idiotproof.

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- duffman@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  People are afraid of trying and making mistakes because the consequences may be severe. When you get into stocks, crypto, homeownership, etc, the forma start piling up. I had a company mess up our taxes one year and correcting it, with a tax professional, took hours.
  
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