The IRS is confident it can do direct file for most american returns, which is why its running a pilot program this year to do just that
Comment on Tax time
ggBarabajagal@lemmy.world 7 months agoWe have a “voluntary” tax system in the U.S. – that’s always been the situation. “Voluntary” doesn’t mean that that you can choose to not volunteer to pay your taxes. It mostly just means that the way we run things, by default, it is each citizen’s responsibility to calculate and pay their taxes each April.
American taxpayers filled out 1040 forms in the days before computers, a lot like they do now. The IRS selected certain fillings for audits, just like they do now – sometimes because of an apparent discrepancy, and sometimes just at random.
It would be a lot more work, take a lot more resources, and be prone to a lot more error and lawsuits, if the IRS tried to calculate everyone’s taxes for them. Even now that we are in the days of computers, it is much more efficient for the IRS to only audit a fraction of the filings submitted each year.
I’m also pretty sure our “voluntary” tax filling system has something to do with the Fourth Amendment and other privacy concerns. A lot of Americans very strongly believe that it is not the government’s place to be all up in their private business.
mosiacmango@lemm.ee 7 months ago
Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 7 months ago
if the IRS tried to calculate everyone’s taxes for them
The IRS does calculate everyone’s taxes without an audit. If you mistype a bank statement you will get a bill or a check from the IRS (depending on whether the error was paying too much or too little).
An audit is completely different than the typical, "you typed $1000 in bank interest but you only really received $100 so here’s a check for the difference in taxes. This has happened to me many times over the years. It’s why I no longer get stressed over taxes because I know the IRS will just send me a bill or a check in 6 months to fix any mistakes.
ggBarabajagal@lemmy.world 7 months ago
The IRS calculates an employee’s taxes based on the income and withholding information provided to the IRS by the employer. The employee “volunteers” his tax information (and IRS witholding payment, if any) with each paycheck. The accounting for all this is listed right there on the paystub.
bouh@lemmy.world 7 months ago
We had the same in France until not so long ago. It is a democratic principle that you voluntarily and freely pay your taxes, rather than the state take your money without you hvving a say in it.
It is both a principle of transparency and consent for taxes.
tias@discuss.tchncs.de 7 months ago
Yet many other countries do in fact calculate taxes for their citizens. You just need to check it and sign.
GreenMario@lemm.ee 7 months ago
America has a serious skill issue in all things.
sock@lemmy.world 7 months ago
more like a population issue and too much diversity to agree on anything to make a law
and i mean diverse opinions and backgrounds not skin color or whatever.
Evil_incarnate@lemm.ee 7 months ago
Yeah, they send me mine calculated, and ask if I want to change anything. I look over it and and, as if I understand it all, say " That’ll do pig"
ggBarabajagal@lemmy.world 7 months ago
If you need to check it, then maybe they are not calculating your taxes for you, so much they are taking their best guess and asking you to sign off on it. If their best guess is as good (or better) than yours, there is no difference in practice. But there is still a difference in principle: whether a citizen is permitted to declare their own income or whether the government is obliged to determine it for them.
tias@discuss.tchncs.de 7 months ago
Not exactly a guess, more like “this is what we know about your income. Would you like to add anything?”
ggBarabajagal@lemmy.world 7 months ago
But how do they know what they know about your income? Didn’t you (or your employer on your behalf) already volunteer this information to the government in the first place? Or is your government monitoring your private financial transactions without your express consent?
Stumblinbear@pawb.social 7 months ago
Not exactly, since the IRS provides tons of credits and deductions for things that aren’t inherently trackable, like credits for upgrading your home to be more “green,” asset depreciation, or any other of the thousand random things they incentivize
tias@discuss.tchncs.de 7 months ago
We have those kinds of deductions in Sweden too. The company that upgrades your home files for the money of your deduction with the IRS and then reduces your bill by the corresponding amount.
If you do the renovations yourself you have to file for the reduction yourself, so there are certainly many situations where you can’t just have every single party of the tax forms automatically calculated. But typically it’s just a matter of logging in to the IRS website and providing the facts as you know them (“I bought stock for X and sold it for Y”) then the system calculates the rest for you.
KevonLooney@lemm.ee 7 months ago
But it’s honestly stupid to do it that way at the individual taxpayer level. Do you think the EU doesn’t subsidize anything? They subsidize hella things.
They just do it the real way, through spending. In the US, Republicans in Congress can never agree to spend money, just tax cuts. Tax cuts are spending.