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Taxes are... (Score:1)
Taxes are for those with reportable income.
Re:Taxes are... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Taxes are... (Score:5, Insightful)
Taxes are for those with reportable income.
Actually, not true. In James v United States, 1961, even illegally obtained income is taxable http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J... [wikipedia.org]
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Re: Taxes are... (Score:1)
I live abroad, but because I'm a US citizen, I still have to pay them taxes every year.
Looking to renounce my citizenship (not just because of this, but also because the US is becoming a police state) but I don't want to become a stateless person. Once I marry my foreign wife perhaps I can really do it.
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And most importantly the IRS doesn't care how you obtained the money and is barred from sharing the information with other government agencies (officially) so if you're a smart criminal you'll render unto Cesar and have one less long jail term hanging over your head =)
Re: Taxes are... (Score:2)
That doesn't invalidate what the other poster said. Yes, illegal earnings are still reportable and thus taxable - but taxes are only for people with reportable income.
Ob missing option (Score:3)
"Just fucking take it all"
Or how about
"What taxes? I'm MC Hammer"
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Reminds me of an old joke.
"The IRS is introducing a new form for taxes next year. It's very easy--just four simple steps:
Step 1: How much money did you make last year?
Step 2: What were your expenses?
Step 3: How much did you have left over?
Step 4: Send it in."
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Remove steps 2 and 3 and you're getting close to reality!
Re:Ob missing option (Score:5, Insightful)
If you think we're heavily taxed in the US, you have no concept of reality. I've lived in Europe for a bit (back in the US now) and THOSE are taxes.
I'm okay with it though, because healthcare, education, real infrastructure, and pensions are taken care of.
If you can guarantee all of the above you can have half my pay.
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Precalculated (Score:3)
Where I currently live you download a program from the tax authority which in turn downloads almost all data you need from their servers (including your salary, health care expenditures, etc.). You then fill out 2-3 missing points like where you live or some additional deducible items, and by the press of a button the program gives you a 100% accurate estimate of your tax returns. When you press another button it sends the declaration back to their servers, and it's done.
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Where do you live?
I've long though the US IRS should provide software to taxpayers instead of forcing us toward the so-called free market.
Re:Precalculated (Score:5, Insightful)
I swear this is the reason the tax code is so damn complex. I'm sure tax lawyers around the US lobby for more ridiculous credits, exemption, forms, and deductions. I don't know how much of the US economy is tax services, but it's way too much and unfortunately makes it that much harder to simply taxes.
Re:Precalculated (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
It's mostly Intuit. At H and R Block we've been around long enough to know that Congress will make the tax code more complex every damn year by itself. Lobbying is a waste of money.
Re:Precalculated (Score:5, Informative)
It's partly structural (with so many players in DC it's relatively easy for a Congressman to create a new tax credit; and virtually impossible to a) get rid of it, or b) for a Congressman to get anything else done); and it's partly how Americans think.
For example we created tax-deferred retirement accounts. Fair enough. So did everybody else. But those are only useful if your tax rate when you retire is lower then before. If it's the same then it's a wash. So the small minority who were going to make more in retirement then working got the Roth IRA created so that you could pay taxes now and not when you took out the money.
Then people worried about education costs crippling families. Rather then do the logical thing and subsidize education, we created a ridiculously intricate set of education tax credits (including several that I have never seen IRL, despite doing hundreds of tax returns over the past few years) that are an absolutely massive pain in the ass to do properly (quick: how many years have you claimed the American Opportunity Credit? your tax guy has to know, because you're only allowed to do it for four years), and have some extremely strange exceptions. For example, convicted potheads are totally ineligible for most of them.
Now we've got universal medical care, but it was really hard to integrate that to the employer system so we didn't try. This is America. We did it the most complex way possibly imaginable, and integrated the income tax system, requiring you buy into either your job's insurance or the new system. The way you use the new system is you go to your state's Exchange, guess your income for the year, and the exchange calculates a subsidy. The subsidy is an income tax credit.
This means that if you make more then you thought (raise, promotion, extra shifts at the plant, etc.) and you don't tell them you got too much credit. You gotta pay it back on April 15th. If your hours got cut you were poorer then you thought,. and you deserved more subsidy. You have a good day at my tax desk.
Any attempt to simplify the Code dies because simplification = somebody losing a credit. The people who'd lose the credit call Congress in tears because tax credits are more precious to the American people then God. If you want an example of this look at Obama's State of the Union. He asked to get rid of a Cloverdale Education credit that only a tiny minority of the wealthy use with a newer credit that everyone could use, and he had to cave because the Democrats in Congress got a call from every single person in the country who knew what a Cloverdale Account was before his speech.
So no, people who actually prepare taxers for a living don't bother lobbying to make the code more complex. If we thought it would do any fucking good we'd lobby to simplify the damn thing because it is stupidly complicated and we'd make more money and do our jobs better if we didn't have to spend half our damn time trying to convince people to come into the office a third time because they didn't actually answer the "How many years have you taken the American Opportunity Credit?" question the first two times. Intuit bothers lobbying to stop the IRS filling out forms itself, because they're convinced that the world is a magical wonderland where doing a bunch of free 1040EZs will result in tax forms that cost being filed real soon now. But nobody tries to get the code complicated.
Re: (Score:1)
Agreed. The government should make it as efficient as possible; there's no need to involve third parties. Unfortunately, in the US Intuit lobbies heavily to keep the IRS and state governments from setting up electronic filing directly with the tax agency. In 2007 they got the IRS to agree not to develop any such system. [npr.org]
In Virginia, they lobbied to dismantle iFile for individuals, which allowed Virginia taxpayers to painlessly file income tax returns. I used the system for many years; it worked very well, un
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Precalculated (Score:5, Interesting)
Not sure where the GP lives but it's like that in Australia. The ATO [ato.gov.au] makes software called e-tax that walks you through the tax return forms in a questionnaire-type way, pre-populating what it can, and at the end gives you an estimate of refund (or amount owing), and you click to submit it (after going through an identity-validation process that involves unique numbers printed on your previous years' tax returns).
The pre-population of data has got better and better over the years. A decade ago it only really populated your salary (PAYG certificate info, analogous to US W-2s) and even then it was hit and miss. But last year it was great. It accurately pre-populated virtually everything for me: all income, bank account interest and investment returns, medical expenses (through the universal healthcare system), etc. My contact details and bank account info to receive payment of the return hadn't changed since the previous year so I didn't even need to update those.
I'm a dual US-Australian citizen and by comparison, my US taxes took literally weeks of mundane record gathering and work, even using software :( Part of this is the fact that US states levy income tax and I had received income in several US states (so had 3 or 4 separate returns to do). In Australia there's only Federal tax thankfully.
However, even ignoring that, the US Federal return took far longer and lodgement is far less streamlined than the Australian system. The Australian process was literally 15 minutes of clicking "next", "next", "next", and all done.
Re: (Score:3)
You didn't point out the BEST thing about the e-tax stuff.
If you follow all the instructions (and they are extensive), do everything exactly as stated and something messes up, you cannot be held accountable for it.
Re: (Score:1)
WRONG!
https://www.ato.gov.au/General/Correct-a-mistake-or-amend-a-return/Correct-(amend)-an-income-tax-return/
They will hold you accountable for it.
https://www.ato.gov.au/General/How-we-check-compliance/Data-matching/Current-data-matching-programs/
You may not be penalised, but you will pay the right amount of tax, or get tax refunded if you've overpaid, and interest may be charged (or yes, paid to you).
Re: (Score:2)
You may want to work on your comprehension.
If you follow all THEIR instructions and make a mistake because you followed their instructions, you will not be held accountable (and duh, of course you have to pay the difference, they just aren't going to charge you for misfiling).
"If you make an honest mistake in trying to follow our information in e-tax 2014 and you owe us money as a result, we will not charge you a penalty. However, we will ask you to pay the money, and we may also charge you interest. If cor
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Portugal
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Re: (Score:3)
That's complex - where I live I can just enter the approval in a text message on my phone if I think that the authorities got it right.
Re: (Score:2)
In the US we have a system with multiple powerful Houses of the Legislature, an independent Executive Branch, and relatively little tradition of backbenchers being quiet and voting for their leadership. That makes new government programs hard to sell because they require a lot of coordination between competing interests, and somebody has to say, "you know what Mr. Person with strangely specific interests that are uniquely effected by this bill? yes this new regulation means you're gonna have to change some
No more refunds from here on out (Score:3)
I've always been used to big refunds because I've done a lot of contracting work, and that means employment gaps and an overall yearly income that's lower than the estimated taxes taken out of each paycheck. Settled down fulltime...don't think that'll happen anymore.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
You do realize a refund means you gave the government an interest free loan on money due to you every paycheck?
Re: (Score:3)
I'm sure he does, but nevertheless employers withhold taxes from your checks via a formula that assumes you get that kind of check regularly all year long, so if you DON'T, the taxes withheld will be higher than necessary and you get a refund whether you wanted to do it that way or not.
Re: (Score:1)
Which is why if you care you can file a W-4 to adjust the amount of witholding.
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In many (most?) countries, the government adds interest payable to the amount of the refund when they pay you back. Of course right now, interest rates are very low in most places so this doesn't amount to much...
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You work and get paid, your salary is taxed. You put some in the bank, and some in investments, and live on the rest. Everything you buy with the money that was already taxed, is taxed again when you spend it (and again as income for whomever you made
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not saying tax system is fair, but there is much more to using the system wisely than your post would indicate.
Re: (Score:2)
But the usa already has sales taxes. it is used for states and counties.
Also consumption tax taxes those who make the least the most. 100 people earning a million a year spend less money than 1,000 people earning 100k a year. who spend less than 2,000 people earning 50k a year.
So under a VAT you tax people the most who are likely to improve your economy. that is the real reason why Europe is struggling to get out the recession. those who spend money don't have it.
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But the usa already has sales taxes. it is used for states and counties.
It is used so that the federal and state governments can keep playing 'hide the real tax rate' between the two of them.
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Missing option: European (Score:1)
"I'm European, so my paycheck is whatever crumbs are left after they tax me each week."
Re: (Score:2)
I don't believe you're European. Many people here in the States tell us how good it is in Europe. How everyone in Europe are handed huge paychecks, perfect healthcare, a wide selection of Amiibo, and months off for maternity/paternity leave.
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yes to all except the huge paychecks. Do you remember how socialism works?
Re: (Score:2)
best thing is, the Federal Reserve bails out your banking system
Higher, again (Score:3)
Higher than anticipated, again, because I still hadn't learned that my employer doesn't change the amount of tax they forward on even when they increase my salary. They wait for me to tell the tax office that my salary changed and for the tax office to tell them that my salary changed, even though they were the ones who changed it in the first place. Brilliant.
They also lose the documentation sent by the tax office at the start of each year and, in the absence of any better information, deduct SIXTY PERCENT. Every. Single. February. As well as the first month of my job, which is really handy when you've just moved to a foreign country and need to buy just about everything from scratch.
This year I got wise to it and told them to deduct extra. That way there's either a fat refund around Christmas or some margin when they cock it up yet again.
I might have missed a deduction (Score:3)
If any of you work on websites that provide banking data, please bear in mind that having the complete previous year available to your customers isn't just a courtesy, it's essential these paperless days.
Re: (Score:2)
FYI - you can always file an amended return after the fact, and claim that missed deduction (assuming you find that data).
I'm a minor (Score:1)
Wishing I was canadian... (Score:5, Insightful)
Republicans are all lying sacks of dog shit.
I paid 49% taxes along with my healthcare insurance premiums this year. Granted I'm rich at making $109,000 a year.. Counterparts that make the same income in canada pay 39% and they GET FREE HEALTHCARE. No $800 a month extortion payment to a fucking insurance company that Scumbag republicans made sure were propped up with the fucking Romney Care scam they pulled on all of us.
Socialism lets me keep more of my money.... BRING IT ON and SIGN ME UP!
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Unless you live in Massachusetts and you are actually dealing with Romneycare and not just the ACA I don't see how you can blame Republicans who did literally everything in their power to stop it save for a handful of traitors to the party; and no the fact the Heritage foundation floated a similar idea in 1989 that went nowhere does not somehow make it GOP party plank in 2010.
As to propping up the insurance industry, you are nutz there too. Seriously if you think the Democratic party votes to pass healthca
re: Socialism? Not such a great answer ..... (Score:2)
Both of the major political parties in the U.S. are FULL of liars and opportunists. That's the nature of politics.
That doesn't mean you can't have the occasional sincere person who affiliates themselves with one of the 2 big party platforms, simply because it's practically a requirement to get elected. And then, it turns out they actually want to do things that help the average citizen -- not just further their own agenda.
IMO, if you want some real relief from excessive taxation, your best bet is looking to
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Don't believe everything that you hear on Fox News.
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At $109k? Probably less than a third.
Assuming he's single, and has no kids, he's paying at $20k and change to the Feds. In most cities in Cleveland he'd pay 2% to his work city and 1-1.5% to his home city. Call it another $3.5k. His state taxes would be in the $4,500 range. So it's roughly $29k, which is 26.6%.
From the tone of the rant I'd guess he's including his $800 a month in medical premiums, which gets significantly closer to 49% at 35.7%. I doubt the state matters much (altho Cali's famous 17% rate c
Re: (Score:2)
In many states, the state tax would be much higher...around $8K-$11K, and some cities like Philly/NYC add a 4.5% city tax on top of the state tax which would be around $5K.
But I'd bet he's including an 8%+ contribution to his 401K along with life/disability/etc premiums, and what he really means is that he only gets 51% take home pay from his gross.
I only take home about 50% of my gross when I consider the above.
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Republicans are all lying sacks of dog shit.
Yes, Republicans lie. They tell great stories of what they will do, but in the end, they don't do it.
Democrats, on the other hand, tell the truth. They tell horrifying stories of what they will do, and they do it.
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I'm always trying to get leftists, socialists, communists and other statists to specify exactly what they mean by "rich". Tax the Rich! Make the rich pay their fair share! etc. etc.
You really think a $109k annual salary makes you "rich"? In Massachusetts no less? What do you think of these people that want to soak you even more for the crime of being "rich"?
Your Romneycare payment is $800/month? Is that just for yourself? Plus 49-freakin-percent taxes? With that and the gun laws, there's no way I'd
Re: (Score:1)
You have a ridiculously bad accountant/tax professional if you paid 49% taxes.
Your combined federal+state highest *MARGINAL* income tax rate may be 49% (or even higher, the highest state income tax highest marginal rate is California at 13.3%,) which, added to the federal highest marginal rate of 39.6% is over 50%. But at $109,000 a year, you're not making near enough to hit those rates. (Which is $406,751/year at the federal level for 2014 tax year, $1,000,000/year for California.)
Plus, marginal rates me
When you're on disability... (Score:2)
When you're on disability, you don't get enough to owe anything. I'm so far below the "poverty line" for Canada that I have to use SCUBA gear to breathe... :(
Re: (Score:2)
If they were refundable tax credits I'd be getting about four grand. *LOL*
What tax bill? (Score:1)
I'm European. All taxes are already automatically deduced from your income by law. Yes you can declare your income to get a deduction and money back. But unless you a landlord or have a lot of investments there isn't any real tax bill.
What about "I'm happy to pay income tax?" (Score:1)
That's me. I'm in the 28% income tax bracket and I'm fucking loving it. I've got more money than I really know what to do with, and being a patriotic American who knows that much of our infrastructure and social safety net is not up to first world standards I'd very much like it if taxes went up.
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IRS Motto (Score:2)
"We've got what it takes to take what you've got."
Nice refund from the IRS... (Score:2)
... that's just enough to cover my property taxes so I said about what was anticipated.
Cheers,
Dave
So... (Score:2)
Thanks to my accountant girlfriend, (Score:2)
Envy me.
Income taxes are paid automatically (Score:2)
From my income, my employer automatically transfers money for taxes, healthcare, retirement fund, etc. So when doing my taxes, I normally get money back from the state, as I have additional expenses which can be used to lower my taxes.
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