It is batshit insane that we need to file taxes ourselves.
How do we not just get an invoice from the government every year?
@mjambon Right, but the former covers like less than 1% of taxpayers presumably. If you're doing weird financial stuff to minimize your tax burden, then yeah, you should be required to file. But the vast majority of us have already had all our income reported to the IRS for us.
@LouisIngenthron yeah. I think the example of the French government getting it done is a good example that it could be done in the US as well. You still need to click some buttons but the forms are all pre-filled for you and of course, it's free. This online service works better than many French companies's websites. It's extremely surprising to me. There must be cultural and historical factors I'm not aware of.
@LouisIngenthron Congress lobbying is a US specificity and so far I've been happy with blaming it but it's not something I studied closely.
they don't know how much you have made
@perfect_brains Sure they do. Your employer and bank send them that info every year.
For contract work, we'd just change it so the client sends the 1099-MISC to the IRS instead of the contractor.
That would cover 99% of taxpayers right there.
what if some of your income is tax deductible?
@perfect_brains Then the tiny percentage of people who have more itemized deductions than the standard deduction would need to file that in response to the invoice, with supporting documentation, and understand that they are at higher risk of audit as a result.
@perfect_brains No, but as a business owner, I have some experience with how much you need to actually spend/donate to have more itemized than the standard deduction (a lot), so logically, it should be a tiny percentage.
From what I understand, there aren't many folks who don't take the standard deduction, and they're nearly all high-earners who are trying to reduce their tax burden with financial shenanigans.
in many cases small business owners would want to use their home office and deduct that
@perfect_brains In most cases, it's not enough of a deduction to matter.
some very rich people can deduct huge amounts
in some cases the richest people pay no tax at all
so the richer you get, the more you would use deductions
@perfect_brains Exactly. So, those people would still need to file, but the rest of us wouldn't.
@LouisIngenthron foreign income and other complicated situations are one reason why it can't be completely automated. Lobbying/corruption by tax software companies is another.
For what it's worth, it's much easier in France than in the US. i.e. the threshold where you need to pay someone to get it done is much higher in France.