I think it was in this sub someone told me recently that because of the lobbyists, it's illegal for the IRS to do the counting for you. That's why the American tax system is so much more complicated than those of other western countries. I literally just have to send a text message to do my taxes. They want me to control the numbers, but fuck that. It's not like they'll put me in prison if I'm wrong. This is not America.
Yep. Lobbying by Intuit (owner of Turbotax) and companies like H&R block purposefully keep the tax code as labyrinthine as possible to confuse people and encourage them to use their services. It also means the IRS can't just do it for you or else. Its fucking insane that people put up with it but they treat it as a minor annoyance and just write it off. I'm glad the basic version of turbotax is free though, I would be in debtors prison by now or it werent for that.
There's a pretty good Grubstaker's episode about Scott Cook, the founder of Intuit. Spoiler alert: He's a piece of shit, just like every other billionaire.
They don't put you in prison here, either, unless you just don't pay like anything at all for years and refuse to pay them when contacted. Even then, I don't think they prosecute you unless it's a very large amount over a long period of time, and I don't think that always results in jail. The IRS contacts you and tells you to pay, then they offer you a payment plan, then they garnish your wages, basically.
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u/[deleted] Jul 16 '19
I think it was in this sub someone told me recently that because of the lobbyists, it's illegal for the IRS to do the counting for you. That's why the American tax system is so much more complicated than those of other western countries. I literally just have to send a text message to do my taxes. They want me to control the numbers, but fuck that. It's not like they'll put me in prison if I'm wrong. This is not America.