What a bizarre system. Tax should be taken from your payslip. There should be no need for the individual to figure out anything, unless they are self employed.
It is taken from the payslip. But then they have us verify what they already know and if you make a mistake you're punished for it! It's bullshit.
I want so bad for the US to do it the way every sane country does it; they just send me a thing so I can make sure they're accurate and only need to take action if they fuck up.
You can thank Intuit, the company behind TurboTax, for making taxes as difficult as possible. They spend a lot of money lobbying to make filing taxes more difficult.
But what about the tax preparation industry? Won't anybody think of the shareholders? For shame.
Yuuuuuuup.
That's how it is here in France. It is calculated according to the previous year income, so if you get a raise you'll have to pay a little bit more at the end the following fiscal year, but that's often very little. Last time I got a 2500€ yearly raise, I had to align something like... 100€ 😆.
Taxes are taken from the payslip, but there's a bunch of other things that can affect your income taxes. For example, you need to pay income tax on bank interest and capital gains tax on investments you sold during the year. There's also a bunch of deductions that reduce your taxable income - for example, if you have a mortgage, you can deduct some of the interest.
Of course, the IRS should already know most of this stuff, so I'm not sure why they make us tell them again.
Taxes are not the problem. Billionaires grabbing the money on the other side are the problem.
Know the difference
Taxes are also the problem in countries like the US and China wherein income tax only exists to remove currency from circulation. There's plenty of other ways to do that in a digital world.
The rich would just use crypto
The people most capable of carrying the tax burden are the people most likely to cheat their way out of paying taxes.
It's very hard to find the motivation to pay taxes to a federal government that doesn't represent me. "No taxation without representation" drove the revolution against our original king after all...
Now that it's clear the Federal government is just using tax money to give to billionaires, it's going to be extra painful this year. It genuinely just feels like a protection racket now. Pay money to the ruling class, or their enforcers will haul you away to prison.
In the country where you don't know what you ll end up paying unless you go to the counter, because the taxes are not included, its only "logical" to not have your taxes deducted from your payslio because reasons
I ll never understand this shit, smh
I'm not sure what country you're talking about, but I assume the U.S. We do have taxes deducted from payroll, and you fill out a form telling the employer (and the IRS) what amount to deduct based on estimated income, family size, and a couple of other factors. Then in April we have to file our official tax form declaring actual income, and if we owe less than what was deducted from our paychecks we receive that back as a refund, but if we underestimated we have to pay whatever taxes are remaining. The reason that filing taxes is so complicated is the sheer volume of deductions, exemptions, credits, etc that have been piled on top of the tax code over the years (plus lobbying by the tax prep industry). It's a stupid system, but it's not as stupid as some people seem to be assuming in this thread. If you set up your withholding right, you shouldn't ever owe taxes when it's time to file.
Now, if you're self-employed or a contractor (and considered self-employed) the whole thing kind of falls apart and it's a lot easier to wind up owning a bunch of money. Like I said, it is a stupid system, just not quite as crazy as some people seem to be assuming.
To add one thing to the only reasonable comment I've seen in this thread: if you're poorer, your taxes are probably easy and straightforward. If you have money and your taxes are more complicated, you can probably afford to have someone do them for you.
I can't agree with this enough, though I think part of the problem is that it isn't what's easy to complete your W-4 accurately, there is an entire worksheet to use if you file jointly that is sorta difficult to do well, especially if both people make fairly different amounts. If you just choose the basic withholding it's very likely the bigger breadwinner isn't withholding enough and you'll end up owing about what the comic shows (at least that is my experience, as well as some friends).
I think the real problem in the US is that everyone is left to do their tax paperwork from scratch every year when the IRS could send you a personalized return prefilled that you then claim the deductions and credits you're due and account for any descrpenices (which sure, is what your W-2 is supposed to be, but it isn't really that, you still need to use the worksheets on the 1040 or pay someone/some software to do it for you; a prefilled 1040 would be a way better system).
It also doesn't account for the huge variations in state taxes. Many states have income taxes, some are reciprocal with nearby states and others aren't, the deductions and credits and even what is taxable is all different. The whole thing is a mess. Then lord help you if you live in a state with local income taxes or one where your local taxes are different than school taxes(like PA) and the whole thing is a half day exercise in frustration to complete and you're still left wondering if you did it right.
Yeah, I'm not by any means trying to say that the American system is the best way of doing things. It's definitely not, and to be honest I've never quite managed to get my state withholding right - I almost always owe a little bit (usually a hundred dollars or so). But some folks seem to have gotten some strange ideas about how bad it actually is.
Yeah, we almost always owe a tiny bit (usually less than $100, often less than $50) to the state. I don't really understand how I can get so close but still miss it every year but overpay federal taxes when it's all based on the same W-4 I give to my employer.
If you set up your withholding right, you shouldn’t ever owe taxes when it’s time to file.
Thing is, here in Germany you don't even get to make the mistake of setting up your withholdings wrong if you're a regular employee. I don't think it's even possible to end up owing the state money if you're not self-employed or have considerable capital investments (which is rare for regular employees, which is probably its own issue ...).
Yeah I've heard of so many content creators that stream for a living that gets absolutely screwed over at the end of the year because since they own their own business they have all of the business tax and they hadn't been putting in throughout the year so for them tax time always hurts
I ended up owning $38
fucking win! I'm not going look at the total paid in thought, it's much much more than $1.2k
Haha, my last tax filing I owed another $40k.
My own fault for not paying taxes during the year though.
This government doesn't deserve our tax dollars. Theyve made it clear they're funneling as much as possible straight to the billionaires.
Just don't pay.
And what would that do?
They already run a deficit, so they'll run a bigger deficit. Printing money is a flat tax on everyone. So not paying taxes is just applying a flat tax on others.
Plus you get to go to jail and cost me money to support you there.
I'm all for effective protest, but this doesn't seem to be it.
Taxation is theft
Good luck getting that tariff money to pay for local roads and schools.
I'm sure that Elon Musk will agree with you.
Before the feds went fascist, this was hyperbole. Now it's simply the truth, for federal, anyway. At least my state taxes are still being used for public benefit.
If Americans want a proper country, yall better get used to paying 40% taxes like in Europe muhahahahah!!!
Ok, some parts of Europe..
Bracketed income tax is a thing for a reason, and it is a good reason.
more income == more tax.
If I'm making less than $20k/year, there's no reason to give a shit about my taxes, just let me live yo.
If I'm making $200k+/year, then we have a conversation on our hands.
If I'm making 2,000k+/year, then we have a problem and the conversation should have have been completed by now.
edit:
exact numbers are not relevant. if you have a functioning brain, then you know what I mean.
How fucked are you if you don’t file?
I didn’t file last year, because I’ve been in a clusterfuck of borderline homelessness and odd jobs for the past two years. Idk if I am even able to file this year if I didn’t last?
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