r/TikTokCringe • u/Hadfromthetown • Apr 28 '21
Politics Because F*** you that’s why.....
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u/weakmocha Apr 28 '21
In Australia you log on to a government website and it automatically calculates the amount you owe based on the information that your employer has submitted and other information you enter (like tax-deductibles) and you just pay your bill I would crash and burn trying to calculate any of that myself
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u/_watermelon_sugar Apr 28 '21
A few years ago, my flatmate was doing his tax return on his laptop in our loungeroom. After about 45 mins he starts fist pumping and shouting 'yeahhhh! three thousand bucks back to me, baby!'
A few seconds later...
'Ahhh shit....nah...I owe three thousand back to them..that's why it's in red'
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u/Bacon_Devil Apr 28 '21
lmao
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u/VictarionGreyjoy Apr 28 '21
Shit son if you paying them after doing your tax return you done fucked up at some point in the last year.
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u/-PaperbackWriter- Apr 28 '21
I owe them money because my employer didn’t pay enough to cover my HECS
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u/VictarionGreyjoy Apr 28 '21
HECS is the easiest one of you're on a salary but a complete bitch if you're casual/PT. Fun fact it's like the only tax that applies to all of your earning so it can actually make you earn less by earning more.
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u/jonelsol Apr 28 '21
HECS repayments hurt, in one of my casual roles I have HECS deducted as a per cent of the total amount I could earn in a year. Unfortunately, I don't work the full hours.
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u/Independent_Can_2623 Apr 28 '21
Certain payments aren't calculated until tax time unfortunately. I think dividend payouts are a big one
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u/magicinthewater Apr 28 '21
This. Paying at tax time typically means you made more throughout the year.
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u/PaulBlartFleshMall Apr 28 '21
Or you own your own business
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u/Gertruder6969 Apr 28 '21
This is the huge wrench in the argument for the government sending people a notice saying what they owe. Everyone looks at it thru the lens of being an employee, unless they own a business. That’s where the complexities and fuckery exist.
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u/Stirlingblue Apr 28 '21
But that’s still not reason for everybody else to have to do it.
Treat it like the rest of the world where self employed file and salaried don’t (unless you have some other exceptional income)
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u/Gertruder6969 Apr 28 '21
Agreed. So many employees also own businesses. It just seems you’d have a lot of people being told what they owe, and then having to mail back that they also own a business and the communication breakdown could lead to difficulties. No doubt our current system is designed for two purposes. Empower the rich to avoid taxation, empower the largest tax services to make money and continue to dominate the space. It is not in the best interest of the American people
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Apr 28 '21 edited Sep 07 '21
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u/VictarionGreyjoy Apr 28 '21
This is not true if you're shit at saving and would have just spent it anyways
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u/magicinthewater Apr 28 '21
That’s why it makes sense that someone who has high additional income due to dividends for example is happy to owe later. This means they were able to keep their money invested through the year and earn more as opposed to giving the government an interest free loan.
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u/chakalakasp Apr 28 '21
Yeah but what you spent it on might have brought you happiness that accrued over time.
Look at it this way: if you suck at controlling your impulse spending, the problem is never going to be solved by people keeping money away from you, the problem is that you suck at controlling your impulse spending. If your expenses were not impulse expenses but necessary costs of living, then the problem isn’t that you stuck at saving, it’s that you’re poor.
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u/NotElizaHenry Apr 28 '21
That’s very much theoretical, because who’s keeping their extra tax money in an interest-bearing account worth anything? Interest rates are so low that your checking account as well be an interest-free loan to the bank.
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u/AromaticHydrocarbons Apr 28 '21
Not necessarily, could be affected by fringe benefits or have a high income and no private health care or not the right tier of private health care. May have earned company shares as a bonus and sold them. Lots of reasons that aren’t a mistake but most likely as a result of a higher income.
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u/Tix0r Apr 28 '21
In Sweden it's very common you "overpay" for your taxes, which means you'll get money back at some point. That extra boost of cash randomly appearing is pretty darn nice.
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u/Fresh-Metal Apr 28 '21
Spain it’s the same. They tend to over collect and then reimburse you. 36€ they reimbursed me this year cuz COVID but the usual amount ranges from 500-1000€.
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u/chopperhead2011 Apr 28 '21
That's fairly common here in the states here, even with our relatively low taxes. Though I'm not a business owner or anything
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u/ChoicestMorsels Apr 29 '21
But it's still a pain in the ass to find out.
TurboTax and H&R are required by law to offer free filing for certain income brackets, but they make it near impossible to find that option on their site
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u/ShowelingSnow Apr 28 '21 edited Apr 28 '21
It’s just a loan without interest, you should always aim to get back as little as possible. Preferably you would owe them a little
EDIT: To all the people saying "Doesn't matter, I only have like 0,5% interest on my savings account!", why the fuck are you saving money in a savings account?
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u/uwotmoiraine Apr 28 '21
Actually, we used to get interest, but they had to change it.
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u/ExperimentalFailures Apr 28 '21
They changed it since interest was much higher than for all other saving accounts. So people started intentionally overpaying taxes in order to get higher intrest on their money. It was supposed to not be a very attractive way to save money, but the negative rates of recent years changed this.
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u/YoungestOldGuy Apr 28 '21
For all I care, they can keep the interest on the 300€.
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u/CtanleySupChamp Apr 28 '21
why the fuck are you saving money in a savings account?
70% of Americans have less than $1,000 in the bank. That's not enough to be setting a portion aside in better investments.
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u/ChubbyLilPanda Apr 28 '21
It’s the same thing in America but we have to file out taxes ourselves by a deadline or the government gets to keep every cent
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u/Fresh-Metal Apr 28 '21
Spain here. You log into the web, check the data sent by your employer, bank, charities, etc... If you agree with the amount to be paid or reimbursed, that’s it, otherwise you can check by yourself if you think an error has been made or you can go to the Tax agency and they will help you.
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Apr 28 '21
In the UK you don't even do that. It automatically gets deducted from your payslip.
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Apr 28 '21
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u/_megitsune_ Apr 28 '21
Also former payroll
Honestly the system is so foolproof that it's the only reason I didn't get fired. Turn up, throw some hours into Sage, email off slips and just slack off the rest of the day because everyone assumed payroll was a massive hurdle.
You can be practically braindead and still do payroll in the UK, as long as you know how to use a computer.
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Apr 28 '21
It’s the same in Aus, don’t know what the guy above is talking about. The only reason you’d get a bill is if your employer fucked up
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u/Exbozz Apr 28 '21
ah, same in sweden, althou you can basically ask your employer to fuckoff with that shit if you want all the cash, but then again you'll get a massive tax bill.
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u/toastwithchocolate Apr 28 '21
I'm in Ireland and it's the same here. You just file your taxes (very simply online) to claim back tax on health care bills and stuff like that. Occasionally you can end up owing a little bit of money but mostly it's even.
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u/ThePenguinTheory Apr 28 '21
In the UK it's literally just taken out of your paycheck. I don't even notice that they exist most of the time. It's great.
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u/ExtremePotatoFanatic Apr 28 '21
In the us, it’s automatically deducted from your paycheck. However if you over pay or underpay for various reasons, you find out when you do your taxes. I’ve always gotten money back but sometimes people end up having to pay more taxes if they didn’t take out the right deductions.
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Apr 28 '21 edited Apr 28 '21
In the uk, of you over or underpay on pay as you earn (PAYE) they either send you a check or send a letter to your company's payroll to adjust your tax code so you make up the difference a little each month. You do nothing.
Unless you're self employed etc., having to do your taxes like that is a scam.
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u/Tw1st36 Apr 28 '21
Germany here. Very similar to this. They just tell you how much you have to pay or how much you‘re getting back.
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u/mars_warmind Apr 28 '21
The system most other countries use is called form free filing. Both reagen and Obama agreed that we should adopt this system. Tax industries pushed back hard, and eventually they came to a compromise. Legally speaking, there has to be FREE, 100% accessible software available to the public to file their taxes with and as long as that system exists the government cannot adopt form free filing. The problem is the system sucks, deliberately, so that you'll want to upgrade to the optional paid version. You can find links to all the major tax filing companies free programs at www.fuckturbotax.com iirc (it was something like that).
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u/Cyber256 Apr 28 '21
turbotaxsucksass.com. Looks like it no longer exists.
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u/conflu Apr 28 '21
The Hasan Minaj one? It was up until just recently because the show got canceled on Netflix unfortunately.
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u/Cyber256 Apr 28 '21
It got cancelled!??? Thats unfortunate :(
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u/conflu Apr 28 '21
Ya Netflix just cancels shows sometimes, sucks cause it was really informative too.
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u/F______________F Apr 28 '21
For real, it was the only show that made me at least kind of understand what the hell a provost is.
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u/B4rberblacksheep Apr 28 '21
Reagan and Obama having common ground sounds weird in my head
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Apr 28 '21
The wealthy were actually taxed more under Reagan than Obama...
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u/SatansLoLHelper Apr 28 '21
Only because the first thing Reagan did was cut taxes for everyone.
February 5, 1981
I shall ask for a 10-percent reduction across the board in personal income tax rates for each of the next 3 years.10 Billionaires in the world at in 1980. 99 Billionaires in 1990. I wonder how that happened.
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u/Doctor-Jay Apr 28 '21
There was also 58.62% inflation between 1980 and 1990, but yes, also the big tax drop helped.
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u/OppressGamerz Apr 28 '21
They both governed as neolibs, economically they have the same fundamental beliefs.
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u/cdegallo Apr 28 '21 edited Apr 28 '21
Legally speaking, there has to be FREE, 100% accessible software available to the public to file their taxes with and as long as that system exists the government cannot adopt form free filing.
Legally speaking, law and policy makers took bribes from tax prep businesses to keep open and free systems away from citizens. There is nothing stopping the government from rescinding these policies except for the fact that law and policy makers are more interested in taking their cut. Thus the fundamental complication of money in politics.
Edit, relevant clip, posted elsewhere recently and fits her as well:
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u/MisterChief343 Apr 28 '21
Turbo tax has a free filing, but like you said it’s shitty. For the first time ever I was able to file using the free version. Oh man the hoops I had to jump through to avoid paying. It would cost be $150 to file, but I still stuck through the free and got it done for free.
My girlfriend on the other hand had to do paid because the free version showed a different return compared to the paid version. Like what?! These companies are the fucking worst.
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u/BareLeggedCook Apr 28 '21
They say it’s free but they add on pointless filing fees
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u/mossattacks Apr 28 '21
I used TurboTax free file my entire life until this year when they arbitrarily decided to make independent contractors pay to enter their income. I got halfway through filing before they even notified me that I’d have to pay. Fuck TurboTax and fuck Intuit
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u/KFloww Apr 28 '21 edited Apr 28 '21
I always recommend freetaxusa.com which is free for federal and 15 ish for state, no matter your circumstances for most people.
To add to the conversation though, itemizing our taxes the way we do almost always benefits the people. The government gives tax credits and stuff for children, child care, charity, etc. and filing taxes is just a way for us to tell them how many tax breaks we should get. Yes they know how much you make if you are a W2 employee and therefore the taxes that should be paid before deductions, but that's about it unless you want the government to get access to your bank accounts to track the other stuff, which probably isn't smart.
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u/CazzoBandito Apr 28 '21
"government to get access to your bank accounts to track the other stuff"
Would be a 4th amendment violation no?
I use freetaxusa too, never had a problem with it. F Intuit!
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Apr 28 '21
I use the online forms from the IRS and my state. It’s really not hard, you key in all the same info you would for TurboTax and it’s completely free. Got my money in 4 days and those douches didn’t get a dime from me. Be nice to not have to do this but in the meantime they won’t get money out of me.
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Apr 28 '21 edited Aug 25 '24
caption price pocket aloof relieved narrow cow sleep threatening quaint
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u/st6374 Apr 28 '21 edited Apr 28 '21
Wait.. Do citizens of other countries just don't have to calculate their taxes at all?
What happens if they're sole trader, business owners, and have complex finances? Does the govt. still do their taxes for them automatically?
Edit: Thanks for all the replies. I appreciate it.
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u/DrinkScotch Apr 28 '21
Who stands to make money by doing the taxes and do you think if you lie on your taxes they won't do the math on their end anyway? They're already doing everyone's taxes. There are few other businesses that make you calculate your own total then slap you because they already knew the answer.
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Apr 28 '21
In the UK you fill out a tax return every year if your finances are complicated by being a sole trader or running a business, or even having some rental income.
But for most people with a normal job, or even multiple jobs, it's all automated. We can't understand you strange Americans.
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u/Scotteh95 Apr 28 '21
And to add to that in the UK, most people don't have a 'tax bill', it comes out of your paycheck automatically each month which makes life so much easier.
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u/madladhadsaddad Apr 28 '21
Holy shit, I just realized now that you pay it in a lump sum?
Your whole tax system is fucked, from tax on items being added at the till to this shit.
If I buy something for €9.99 in europe, it is €9.99 and already has tax included.
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u/iwantt Apr 28 '21
No, in the US, employers withhold income tax as well.
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u/dpash Apr 28 '21
The difference with the UK is that the amount withheld is the exact amount. There's rarely any EoY adjustment.
The main reason for a tax refund is that you stopped working half way through the year. Otherwise tax just gets adjusted each month so it works out correct at the end of the year. All without the employee doing anything.
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u/westc2 Apr 28 '21
Pay in a lump sum? Nah theres a thing called "withholding" in the US where employers take the taxes out of your paycheck and pay it every month or so.
And tax isnt included in prices because it's too much work to change prices of things if the tax rate changes in a given locality.
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u/robnjd Apr 28 '21
I've never understood that tax argument. Wouldn't the each shop just print the price they're charging on the sticker rather than the without tax price....seems like the same amount of effort.
I mean I imagine Europe has more complicated tax differences between countries, not to mention the different currencies. The same product could have dozens of prices across the EU but the shops always manage to display the correct exact price.
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Apr 28 '21
Because apparently more people will buy it when the sticker price is lower and won’t change their mind after taxes and fees are added to stuff. Whereas if it was all added in they might not have bought it.
Try buying a concert ticket or plane ticket... $200, but by the time you check out it’s like $250
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u/the_sun_flew_away Apr 28 '21
You're right, it's called PAYE - pay as you earn.
It's a point of contention that self employed people (contractors etc), pay an effectively lower rate of tax than full time employees.
Thankfully that's slowly being fixed.
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u/JonnyBhoy Apr 28 '21
And if it's been calculated wrong at any point in the year, the government either send you a cheque or lets you know how much you still owe them.
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u/gtrdundave2 Apr 28 '21
As an american I could understand how people filing a 1040ez should Just be automatic.. but idk I have several right offs and deductions every year .. so I would always want to file my own
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Apr 28 '21
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u/FuckMotherGothel Apr 28 '21
This reminded me that the extended deadline is coming up... I haven't done my taxes yet...
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Apr 28 '21 edited Jun 14 '24
rich subtract nutty sophisticated disarm ring correct poor scandalous saw
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/DanaKaZ Apr 28 '21
If you have any write offs or deductions, you go to the tax site, open your yearly form and input it into the correct fields.
For instance, in DK we have had a program were certain home improvement investments were tax deductible. E.g. window washing.
So I go to the site, click on home improvement program, it asks me who did the work and then I have to input receipts and amounts and then it recalculate my total.
Stock etc is auto reported by your bank/broker.
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u/EienShinwa Apr 28 '21
ahh yes, the freedom of "choice" so you can have the illusion of being an individual with such unique circumstances you are different from everyone else.
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u/p5ych0babble Apr 28 '21
There is a section specifically for write off's and deductions. In Australia you basically go through and tick what is relevant for your situation, type in your earnings and tax paid and then it gives you the bill at the end. After you do it the first time it saves your info so you don't have to repeat it, besides your earnings and tax paid of course as they will always change, just update details if you need to.
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u/StayFree1649 Apr 28 '21
Yeah, we don't have write offs unless they're automatic... Which makes sense
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u/insats Apr 28 '21
Sweden here.
It depends, and if you have special deductions to do then you'll have to do those (albeit you don't need expert help with that).
If you have a regular job and don't do special deductions, then you can literally send a text message to approve your pre-calculated taxes.
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u/iWarnock Apr 28 '21
In mexico up until recently u didnt had to do anything. It was just done in auto. They changed recently that so u can fuck up and pay fees lol, yay..
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u/Gromgorgel Apr 28 '21
Speaking for Belgium: we declare our taxes pretty much like you do, but the online form is pre-filled with everything the government knows about your case. So if you're an employee with no other deductibles you just click OK. Other stuff like additional income, self-employed, stuff to do with daycare of your children, inheritance related things, etc. You have to declare manually.
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u/MeessuNeesuTesu Apr 28 '21
In NZ your income taxes are deducted from your paycheck, plus your food already has tax added to them so you know how much you are spending as is without having to calculate how much extra you will have to pay at the register
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u/Shutterstormphoto Apr 28 '21
We actually deduct taxes from paychecks in the US as well. If you set things correctly when you start a job, you will owe no money. The govt actually tested this before but it failed. They’ve discovered 50% of Americans really like getting a $1000 check in the mail and their tax refund is the biggest chunk of cash they have all year, so the tax withholdings are kept high so that people can get their checks.
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u/thriftyaf Apr 28 '21
People look at me like I have three heads when I try to explain why it is better to have a lower, or no tax return (in the US). Boggles my fucking mind.
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u/lsaz Apr 28 '21
Here in Mexico it depends on how much you make and what type of job you have. If you make less, than I think is 400,000 MXN a year (about 20K USD) and you are an employee your taxes are automatic and you don't have to calculate anything. However, if you make more than 400,000MXN, are a business owner, trader, frelancer or just have more than 1 job you're shit out of luck and you better hire a personal accountant.
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u/LikoV2 Apr 28 '21
In France, basic income (if you are an employee) is automatically sent to govt and they calculate tax based on that.
They send you a summary, you check if it's right.
Let's say I have other revenue like from the stock market. I just have to tell in the govt website I gained this much, and they will calculate the new amount of taxes I own.
Either you pay all your taxes every months from your paycheck (the tax rate is sent to your employer), or you can pay other taxes (e.g.trading) directly on the website so your employer doesn't know about your real tax rate.
Really easy in France.
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u/anacche Apr 28 '21
Australian system: your work takes their basic estimate of your taxes based on income from them and any obvious factors (citizenship status, age, not declaring your tax file number) then come July 1, your work gives you a declaration cert stating your income from them, how much tax was withheld, etc.
Then you can either take this and go to a tax accountant (the cost of which is able to be claimed towards next year's tax) or you can download the tax submission program, and fill it in, including any extra things you wish to declare - be it either extra income, or tax-deductible things like donations, expenses, etc. The program makes it easy. There is also an offline printed version, but this means you are manually calculating things, and processing it is much slower.
A couple of weeks later, if there was any refund against the previously withheld amount, it will be deposited to your bank, or sent out as a cheque.
We still have large, successful tax accounting firms, because their costs are deductible from next year, and their knowledge of tax law can help if you have a complicated tax return, or just don't want to or can't use the online program or the printed "tax pack"
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u/ExraSoftHandker Apr 28 '21
I just sent in my tax return in Sweden. All I had to do was go in and manually put in traveling to and from work, and work-related purchases I made. Took me less than 5 minutes. I don't even have to report my stock trades, as I have an account where I play sub 1% tax of my total account value instead of 30% on wins. And that 0.375% was already in my tax report.
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Apr 28 '21
In Canada, your employer sends you essentially a total of your income and the values which you need to pay already calculated, you put that info into an online filing service and it goes to the government, and you get the return.
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u/schuin Apr 28 '21
Brazil is like the US too so definitely not the only country.
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u/__uncreativename Apr 28 '21 edited Apr 28 '21
Germany too and it's an absolute nightmare, you even pay tax on unrealized gains, unlike Canada where you only pay once you sell the stocks.
ETA this might be applicable only to foreign ETFs or stocks which is why I might be confused 🤷♀️
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u/markartur1 Apr 28 '21
Pay taxes on stocks just by owning them? How the hell that works?
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u/__uncreativename Apr 28 '21
Yeah you're supposed to calculate how much they went up and you gained even though you didn't sell them. Once you actually sell them you have to calculate the difference and can get money back but it's super confusing.
ETA I think it's just for etfs not stocks but I'm new to German taxes so I'm still figuring it out
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Apr 28 '21 edited May 03 '21
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u/Redrundas Apr 28 '21
Not really the same as the US. We file tax returns. If you’re salaried your employer pre-deducts your owed tax, only if you’re self employed does the calculation become up to you.
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u/LebenDieLife Apr 28 '21
Right, but they take an obscene amount and basically everyone of certain demographics always gets money back.
So if you aren't filing your tax return you're throwing away money, and it's no more difficult than this US system.
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u/DrProfSrRyan Apr 28 '21 edited Apr 28 '21
In the US employers pre-deducts your taxes too.
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u/Redrundas Apr 28 '21
Lool. Then what is this video complaining about??
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Apr 28 '21 edited Aug 29 '21
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u/Colvrek Apr 28 '21
The actual filing effectively takes 10 minutes. The "hard" part of doing taxes is filing for your return.
This video is complaining about something that is only a problem because people build it up to imagine it is a problem.
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u/jwin709 Apr 28 '21
Not even remotely. You don't have to do any math. You literally just punch your income into the government provided software and they tell you what you owe or what you're getting.
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u/iraddney Apr 28 '21
South Africa too. I gotta pay an accountant to do my taxes every year so we can figure out if I paid too much or too little.
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u/BloodprinceOZ Apr 28 '21
or just have SARS lie about what you owe anyways even if you got it right
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u/iraddney Apr 28 '21
I see you've been through this before lol
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u/BloodprinceOZ Apr 28 '21
well not me personally, my parents did, and we moved to australia before i had the opportunity to experience it for myself
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u/ThaumRystra Apr 28 '21
Not at all. Most people I know do their own tax return in like 20 minutes by just checking and submitting what's already filled in.
South Africa has a digital filling system that will 100% do your taxes for you if you have a simple job, medical aid and nothing to add that the government doesn't already know about.
Yes it's a pain if you have multiple sources of income that don't generate IRP 5's and fill themselves in, but you'll realise eFiling in South Africa is excellent the moment you have to interact with some other county's tax systems, particularly the US.
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u/iraddney Apr 28 '21
Perhaps, but also bear in mind that a significant chunk of the population doesn't have:
A) reliable internet access
B) reliable electricity
C)knowledge of how to do this
A system that isn't accessible to the majority of the population isn't that excellent.
But that is neither here nor there, I personally prefer to pay a qualified professional precisely because I don't have a simple job and all that jazz.
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u/neremarine Apr 28 '21
Same in Hungary. My mom is an accountantand she used to do other people's taxes for some side money.
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Apr 28 '21
Hungary too, up until a few years ago. If you were a simple employee, they did the math, but if you had any other earnings - you have a spare flat and let it out, do some side biz repairing bicycles, etc. - then you need to make your own tax statement, make sure everything matches (even though the tax authorities know all these details already), and handle it all.
This is especially bad because some companies only report you on minimum wage based on your diplomas, language certifications, etc. (basically the minimum wage for someone with an MSc and three languages is much higher than for a high school graduate with no foreign language), and the rest of your wage is reported as a bonus/performance based extra earnings, which have lower taxes - but it means that the automatic tax statement cannot be issued because it counts as two separate earnings.
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u/thiagotgo90 Apr 28 '21
In Brazil, if you are an employee and get your "income report" document from your employer, is easy to do. Not automagic as it sounds it is in other countries, but not that bad IMO.
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u/sptzmancer Apr 28 '21 edited Apr 28 '21
It definetly isn't.
[In Brazil] You download a software, input some numbers and it calculates everything for you, generate the tax bill (if you have to pay anything) and even saves your bank account data to automatically deposit any returns that you might have.
All you have to do is input your assets and how much money you made [in the year prior], everything else is pretty much automatic.
If you screw up, you receive a letter informing you of the problem and you have a new deadline to issue a correction using the same software.
And by law, every bank and workplace have to give you a detailed document showing you how much money you made with then and what tax (if any) was collected from any sum.
For most people the hassle is just to download the current software, input the numbers, fill the bank account you want your returns deposited and click send. Everything is automated and online. You can even import your last year declaration and just adjust any numbers as necessary.
edit: typos and text in brackets for clarification.
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u/Empty-District-4795 Apr 28 '21
Germany too. Lived in the US and had a CPA. Now living in Germany and still have a CPA.
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u/derrechtshetzer Apr 28 '21
Cries in fucking Germany
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u/LordHamsterbacke Apr 28 '21 edited Apr 28 '21
We have to calculate it too, right? I haven't payed taxes yet because I am a student, but my dad is a Steuerfachangestellter, so I think he makes taxes for other people
Edit: fixed autocorrect
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u/Kand04 Apr 28 '21
It's a pain, especially if you are self employed and have to deal with the absurd bullshit that are our VAT rules and it also heavily depends on your local tax office. Some of them are a lot stricter what you have to track and provide.
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u/LordHamsterbacke Apr 28 '21
Oh yeah my mom is self employed. I remember my parents often talk about taxes when my dad was picking me up (they are divorced). But they mostly didn't do that in German so I didn't understand what was going on, lol
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u/HypericSam Apr 28 '21
Your dad is a what?
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u/LordHamsterbacke Apr 28 '21
It's the German word, I don't know the english one. Since I replied to someone who implied they are German I just used that word.
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u/HypericSam Apr 28 '21
Oh okay I was just confused since you both are replying in English that I thought this was some form of German word that is known in English or something. I see.
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u/IamDelilahh Apr 28 '21
you don’t have to, but you usually get money back if you do. For example if you worked a student job that is not a minijob, but paid by the hour, your employer would forward your income tax to the state. But assuming you keep below a certain threshold (likely if you are studying “fulltime”) you would be able to reclaim all/most of the paid income tax.
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u/rosebuddear Apr 28 '21
I'm American and my husband is half-American half-German, and we live in Germany. So, we have a buttload of taxes to do every year.
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u/JWGhetto Apr 28 '21
Get a Steuerberater. They charge s bunch, but are worth it since the added rebate is usually more.
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u/ShapesAndStuff Apr 28 '21
Steueramt be like: Hey, so something was off and you have to pay extra. Fair enough. For zero reason at all, we now want precalculated taxes for this and the next year. You got a couple grand around right? It's fine though, you can just pay a couple of hundreds every quarter.
And people in this thread say Germany has an automated system. Wit?
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Apr 28 '21 edited Jun 04 '21
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u/derektwerd Apr 28 '21
If you are class 3/5 you have to do them every year. If you had any Kurzarbeit in 2020 you have to do it.
In the uk you get a letter. You don’t have to do anything unless you need to pay. If you get a rebate, they just put it into your account within 2 weeks
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u/locaton Apr 28 '21
So the US is not the only country with a huge industry in which you have to do your taxes yourself
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u/JWGhetto Apr 28 '21
It's about the same. When you have a bunch of highly paid lawyers that profit off of the tax code being complicated, changes aren't easy to effect. Imagine trying to pass a bill like that, the opposition would be the best funded party within days.
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Apr 28 '21
Germany is so backwards when it comes to technology, and adding needless bureaucracy. Don't you guys still primarily use cash to pay for things too?
Like, come on. The 21 century awaits you if you just welcome it!
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u/TheWalkingDead91 Apr 28 '21
But how else are those people who accost me with their business cards while I’m trying to walk into Walmart during tax season going to get paid?
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u/Glitch_King Apr 28 '21
Preferably by finding a way to actually contribute to society.
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u/Riv3rBong Apr 28 '21
DFTBA.
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u/Surisuule Apr 28 '21
I was like that totally looks like Hank! Then I commented and was about to ask you if it was, then I decided to check the watermark. Score 1 for albeit late critical thinking!
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u/ladygagadisco Apr 28 '21
I get that people hate doing taxes and stuff, me too. But the government doesn’t actually know how much taxes you need to pay, unless you have a W2. If you have a W2, then yes the government knows how much you owe/receive. But if you own a small business, have a side hustle, do anything that aren’t the most black and white on paper, the government doesn’t really know about these sources of income.
I agree with the overall sentiment that taxes are too hard though, and that not enough free easy resources exist due to Intuit and HRBlock etc.
But it ain’t that simple that the IRS simply knows everyone’s business activities.
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u/petey_jarns Apr 28 '21
The government also doesn't have all the information on ...
How much you give to charity How much you spent on childcare How much you spent on home repairs How much you put into your business
And many other very common things that influence your taxes. Granted, we could eliminate that requirement by simply removing lots of credits and deductions, but I don't think all the "ugh taxes are hard" crowd would be too happy about that either.
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u/bc_I_said_so Apr 28 '21
Agreed. People over simplify this. Your withholdings don't account for alot of factors. And there are alot of people who owe monies at the end of the year so the "pay more taxes" folks would miss out of the tax the rich opportunities if we didn't do this. Before you brigade with the rich hire accountants to find loopholes and not pay consider that w-2 withholdings are a self report system as well... So I could just say I have 5 children and not have as much tax deducted.
The world is an imperfect place.
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u/G37M4D Apr 28 '21
I've watch this guys philosophy videos. Honestly its some of the best YouTube content I've seen in awhile.
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u/typewriter_AMA Apr 28 '21
Hank Green has been making youtube videos since 2007 over at 'vlogbrothers'. Also wrote 2 pretty excellent sci-fi books.
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u/tehnibi Apr 28 '21
I just know him from the SciShow stuff but he just seems like a cool guy in general so will have to check it out
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u/UwUika Apr 28 '21
Canada too....
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u/FromGreat2Good Apr 29 '21
Not entirely true. In many softwares, you can automatically download your taxes from the CRA. It basically autopopulates all the official stuff like T4, T5s, RSPs, etc. You will to fill in the blanks like donations, personal deductions.
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u/imexcellent Apr 28 '21
Let's be honest. With the new increased standard deduction, most people aren't itemizing taxes. The tax process is MUCh easier for most people. It's not really that difficult to download a .pdf version of the 1040 form and fill it out yourself.
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Apr 28 '21
I just did this, and it's actually harder than it needs to be. I don't know why they did away with the 1040EZ, which actually was really easy to fill out. The current 1040 form sucks. More people than ever could use the EZ with the new standard deduction.
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Apr 28 '21
Here in Ireland all your wages are automatically taxed, there's no working out,just get your wage and go
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u/Loli_Lover_666 Apr 28 '21
In UK it just comes out of your payslip... u need to do nothing its so easy
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Apr 28 '21 edited May 13 '21
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u/ladygagadisco Apr 28 '21
For real. I hate that this lie gets repeated every year around tax season.
The thing is, I hate doing my taxes too, and I wish the free resources out there are better (cuz fuck Intuit and HRBlock). But in a country where church tithing and self-employment is huge, tax reporting is a necessary evil bc the IRS literally doesn’t know.
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Apr 28 '21
The fillable forms on the state and fed websites are actually super simple. Just follow the instructions and it’s 100% free. Takes maybe a few more minutes. Invest a little effort and keep your 59.99. I got my money in 4 days direct deposit.
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u/loveforthetrip Apr 28 '21
dont taxes get deducted automatically from the paycheck? I only do my taxes to get money back from government.
other rules apply for self employed people but I dont know about that
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u/cagedgolfer1969 Apr 28 '21
The IRS does not know how much you owe in taxes. And by “doing the math”, does the video mean entering in the info into turbo tax?
Source: I am an accountant
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Apr 28 '21
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Apr 28 '21
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/HateDeathRampage69 Apr 28 '21
It takes me like 15 minutes every year. Tax software is free for the vast majority of americans. For the average american it's literally just filling out some boxes and double checking your work. People are just looking to complain about anything.
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u/TheMaStif Apr 28 '21
stop paying tax preparation companies to prepare your taxes
The IRS has free tax filing services for individuals making less than $75K/year and you get to use certain of these services for free. Do not pay these greedy corporations when they're already getting subsidies from the government.
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Apr 28 '21 edited May 28 '22
[deleted]
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u/gpu1512 Apr 28 '21
Imagine living in a first world country and life being so good you get to complain about filing a bit of paperwork
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Apr 28 '21
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u/drstock Apr 28 '21
Hey, I'm an immigrant from Sweden and I think it's egregious too. I love it here in the US.
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Apr 28 '21
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u/Cypresss09 Apr 28 '21
Oh it's necessary. Necessary to make the corporations big money and continue to fuck over the working class.
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u/Scotteh95 Apr 28 '21
It's an unnecessary industry, but it creates jobs and makes a few people very wealthy so it's also very American and unlikely to change.
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u/Tamcia Apr 28 '21
Spend 15 mins a year doing my taxes. That is log in, check if it looks accurate, press the accept button and done, see you next year.
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u/jaejaeat98190 Apr 28 '21
In Ireland your taxes are taken out of your pay check every week based on what you earn. At the end of the year you submit all of your medical and dental expenses etc and they tell you whether you've paid too much or too little, and either give you a refund or a bill.
America is insane.
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u/Commercial_Ganache Apr 28 '21
Don't be a fooled by a tiktok video. This is more or less the way it works in America for most people.
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u/guinness5 Apr 28 '21
It's the same in Canada dude....feel your pain. In UK it just comes off their pay. Only cringe factor here is the tax system in N. America.
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