Why Taxes Are So Confusing In The U.S.
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- Опубліковано 6 чер 2024
- The IRS estimates the average taxpayer spends 12 hours working on their taxes and pays an average of $230 to get their paperwork filed.
"Your tax return is in no way that simple," Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Chief Tax Information Officer Mark Steber said. "I don't care who you are or what economic situation you're in; high, medium, low, no income, or unemployed."
However, tax experts say those forms and schedules are actually designed to help people save money.
"If you have knowledge about how it works, you can utilize the tax code to benefit you more in the long run," explained Fola Financial founder Sheneya Wilson. "However, most people don't have that knowledge, and I think that is what creates this fear of the IRS and paying taxes when essentially the tax code is not there to harm anyone"
Watch this video to learn more about how the tax code got to be so complicated and whether it really is a good thing for the taxpayer.
00:00 -- Intro
1:53 -- Why taxes are complicated
5:53 -- Paying for tax help
9:00 -- Reforming the code
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Why It’s So Hard To File And Pay U.S. Taxes
Americans: Hire accountants or spend hours to do their taxes
Singaporeans: do nothing and receive a text message from the government that your tax has been deducted from your bank account.
thats amazing
We get emailed about it instead in New Zealand. We're so behind
It's days, not hours.
How would SG govt know how much expense a business incurred if you don't provide it to them?
@@faYte0607 Yeah Singapore is a dirty tax haven they don't count.
IRS: We know how much you owe us but you need to figure it out. But if you get it wrong, we'll come after you and ruin you financially for a few years.
Hahahaha
Precisely.
Lol, wish they just sent us a bill like everybody. 🍷
Exactly. It’s such a waste of time for us to file when they already have the information.
@@cnbc7578 fake!!!!!!
Why can’t they just tell us what we need to pay like they already known😭😭
the big tax preparation service companies have successfully lobbied congress to prevent the IRS
@@oNeEarThCitIzeN true. You've said it there bud.. they want to take our money away. I hate this country.
they wan't a little extra for Fat Tony, you know? because he deserves it
I really don’t understand why this isn’t an automated process. Even in a 3rd-world country like Mexico, this is all automated. We do our taxes in April and everything is pre-filled in the form. You can also manually edit the form to add any deductions not already included. You send it and get your tax return within days. Most people like me do not even use an accountant for this. It is that easy!
Because the government is a monopoly
@@neue01 No, because the tax preparation software companies help lobby to keep it complicated, because without this complication their business would not exist.
Because the IRS doesn't know about any non W4 income.
Because the USA is so focused on their own greatness, that they can't accept that there is a better way of doing things. It's strange to see. The ability to change has not been a strong suit in the USA, It's a shame since the world is just starting to rev up, both on the technological and scientific fronts. I hope they don't miss out. cdn
@AndreVsHimself the government is a monopoly. I’m not wrong about this. Look it up. :)
As a monopoly they have no incentive to make taxes easier. If you had to pay Netflix’s by filling out 50 pages of self incrimination you’d never buy from Netflix. Because they have competition they have to make payment easy. Economics 101.
in simpler terms: _"we create this problem, so we could provide the solution, for a fee"_
The reason why "it seems complex" is because it IS complex.
The tax code is a social policy code primarily, only secondarily a revenue code.
You mind elaborating? (Genuinely curious, but obviously you're not obliged to).
@@RegularGuyism For instance "transfer payments" (i.e. kinds of wealth distribution) happen by way of a tax return (refund) instead of direct payments to eligible households.
A great example of this is the EITC, whereby eligible low-income households can receive back more in tax refund than they actually pay in taxes: www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/earned-income-tax-credit-eitc
In some other countries you might instead just stipulate an actually realistic minimum wage, or provide welfare payments directly to eligible individuals.
Same also goes for the tax deductions for dependents. The US basically gives you a tax break (ends up being like cash in your pocket, but most people don't see it that way) if you have children or others living in your household for whom you are financially responsible. But instead of just receiving a small amount of money every month to help with this financial burden, you instead get either tax deductions or tax credits.
Basically we use our tax code to do a lot of things other than just taxation, which is actually pretty stupid insofar as it makes everything more complicated than it should be. This also places the burden on the individual to know whether or not they are eligible or should claim these benefits.
Does a very low income single mother of 3 actually know about the EITC? Hell if I know, but it seems like we should just be giving her some extra money every month instead of the tax-return chicanery that she may not ever even know to claim.
@@peterbense5650 Important to note that shifting the social policy to a direct payment system would then allow to remove all this extra complicated tax codes and instead be a revenue tax control and collections. the burden of the average tax payer, would substantially decrease and the cost would be saved for filing the tax return.
So to people thinking direct payment is scamming me of my paid taxes to some one else’s individual economy, remember that they can still get it today through the tax codes but it creates an inefficient system that don’t facilitate easy taxation and at the same time don’t reach the people that are eligible for the current social tax deductions and claims. Creating just overheads and ineffective systems.
I live in The Netherlands. Takes me 20 minutes to do income tax...
The Dutch IRS fills in most of the data, I only have to check it and almost every time it is correct.
EU 🇪🇺 for the win 💪🏻👍🏻
Turbo tax in the US is amazing
@@mulveysituation2186 The IRS actually gives Turbo that info ( I think ). That's why it's so easy to complete.
Great job Netherlands. By the way, what part(s) that are filled in might not be correct? Is it done on the Internet and you just submit or resubmit the tax return?
Oh good, I just moved here. I hate the IRS and I can't wait to get away from them. But I'm American. So.
Missed something really important: Intuit and other companies in the tax prep space lobby aggressively to prevent tax simplification. For Intuit alone, that totaled 56 lobbyists and $3.3 million in 2020.
And yet no one is speaking up about it. Turbotax essentially got away wijt this whole charade
Completely agree
To support small businesses, I always say hire a EA or a CPA. And god forbid, don't use TurboTax Live or H&R Block's live option. It costs much more if you just find a CPA yourself.
Also, because of that, I refuse to invest in Intuit (Turbotax) stock or H&R Block stock due to their shady business tactics even though their financials are stable.
The U.S. tax code is really unfair to single people. I wish Americans were taxed on an individual rather than household basis.
In Finland you just get a letter from the government that shows your taxes, you just check it and only if you need to make changes (like you estimate that your earnings have changed for upcoming year) you change the info, which you can do online. For normal citizen filing taxes is easy. However, idk how is for business owners
If only in u.s. we could do this. Would make doing tazes much easier.
That, plus our price tags *actually show the amount you have to pay to get the product.*
Americans on the other hand have to do extra math in their heads to factor in taxes and tips. It's like the system is designed to make people hate taxes!
The IRS already has this information. Stocks, bonds, W-2, 1099 etc. It's like were going to test you to see if your telling the truth and create another complicated layer. Makes no sense!
And then they fine you if you made mistake.Horrible system.
The US cannot take best practices because of special interests
I file my taxes in Tokyo. Before I used an accountant, I would head to the local tax office. Have three or four forms in my pocket. Some young kid would help me with the translations, and after literally 20 minutes it would be completed. After I began hiring a Japanese accountant, she fills out as I recall two forms of between four and eight pages each. Done.
So you are an American making money in America doing your taxes in Tokyo?
@@voltskrafty8936 Am an America, working in Tokyo. I file both US and Japan taxes. America is the only country that requires X-Pats to file.
@@jonb3189 Actually there is one other country it's an African dictatorship called Eritrea
It's confusing because all the politicians want to penalize and incentivize all sorts of behavior. They would rather inject themselves into our actions as opposed to stay out of the way, whether they are well-intentioned or not.
Taxes is a joke. We shouldn't have to "do taxes". The government is responsible for telling us what we owe them, not the other way around. But we all know these large tax companies are the ones benefiting from all of this and lobbying to keep everything complicated.
That's the strategy of big business in general: if there's no technical reason to have high barriers to entry (aviation, medicine, heavy industry, etc), they'll create legal ones to suppress the competition and their downward pressure on profits.
@@doujinflip Bingo. If the tax system was simple tax lawyers and lobbyists wouldn't make money hiding loopholes in the system so the rich can pay no tax.
If you think the US is bad it pales in comparison to how corrupt the British system is.
In 1066 AD the country was invaded and conquered by the Normans, the country was divided up for about 28,000 families.
1000 years later, most of the land in Britain is still owned by those same families and they have never registered it to be liable for taxes so they have never paid any taxes.
A 1000 year tax dodge by the elite.
That's not how the IRS works.
The IRS is beholden to the laws passed by congress. They just enforce what is codified into law by our elected officials.
For example, the United States has no notion of a "population register" to know what people live at what given address at a given point in time. You'd need this basic information in order to be able to know what tax *rate* to apply (different states tax people differently, and a person could be a part-year resident between two states), and what deductions to apply (tax credits for dependents). You also would need centralized data about people's marital status, etc.
None of that data is consolidated anywhere such that they could pre-calculate any of this information on our behalf for us.
If you think that it should be and we should have a better system, then you should help elect officials that will help make it that way.
On surface America looks like a dream country but, after all of this I don't think that anymore 😂😂 damn the country's a mess. From tax to measuring system 😆
Yeah I know and it is surprising that so many people from the country you live in want to move here.
I like how all these accountants act like a Byzantine tax code is inevitable since Americans can earn taxes 3 different ways.... exactly the same as developed countries with simple or even automated tax systems.
The American system is just bad.
For real, like I work a 9-5 job and do a little bit of stock on the side! It shouldn’t be that hard to report my income then gains/loses. Instead we would rather make a simple task into some stressful ordeal for many.
"The reason that the US tax system can seem complex it is because individuals can earn income through different types of ways"
Yeah because the rest of the world has only one way to earn income, so their tax system is simpler.. right?
her income relies on taxes being confusing lol
No. Other countries have different tax rates for different kinds of income, too.
The IRS only knows your w4 job. They don't know anything else.
In Finland you just get a letter from the government that shows your taxes, is that easy. XD
and tax are automatically from your income.
@@kmeanxneth Same in Sweden, too... if you are an employee and don't have any business income.
Abolish ALL income taxes by repealing the 16th Amendment.
Let SALES TAXES pay for most of our needs.
And cut government spending
I live in the UK and have never filed a tax return, it is all done through my employer and if I want to claim any tax relief I can just do it online
Same thing in my country.
Same in South Africa 🇿🇦. The US sometimes doesn't make sense.
@@langelihlemakhoba9917
Our country does get somethings right✅ .🇿🇦
Thank you for watching, endeavor to write as
soon for more enlightenment or tipS
w_h_a_t_s_a_p_p
+_1 9_ 7_2 -5 3_4. -6.._9 4_5...
Short answer - lobbyists and corrupt politicians purposefully make it complicated so you pay big corporations like Intuit and H&R to do them for you
It's working as intended.
The enthusiasm for complex tax codes by these accountants is truly admirable!😂☹️
Filing taxes is easy - said no one ever.
It's by design so that The IRS and CPAs have a reason to exist.
in the US, every time someone is making money, it's hella complicated. In Tax Return, the payer, payees and tax preparer all are making money, hence super complicated.
A British view - most people would probably like a simple system, except for the people you pay to do your taxes !
Don’t really need to watch the video to know that the process is just overly complicated so that people make mistakes or don’t file what’s necessary to get what they deserve.
Lol...l live in New Zealand and Americans that have settled here can't believe how stress free and easy it is to do their New Zealand tax returns.
Unbelievable
Another system designed to keep rich people rich and poor people poor. Poor people are usually working a lot more. They don't have the funds to pay someone to do thier taxes nor do they have the time to research how to get it done possibly for free but maybe without deductions that they weren't aware of and missed out on. Meanwhile rich people hire others to do their taxes and find deductions. They get tax advice throughout the year on their purchases to make the most back from those purchases. The argument that a flat tax bracket or simplified taxes hurts working class families is a joke.
Taxes are so confusing that even people talking about why it’s confusing, is confusing to me. The government, IRS, taxes, all this crap makes me wish everything just stopped working and we were forced to live like our ancestors did. I’d probably have better chances hunting my food and providing for my family like that….than doing a simple tax return lol.
I recall one of the issues with the free file system according to an article I read was that tax companies were purposely hiding it by blocking search engines from indexing it and offering similarly named services to confuse people who knew about it. So instead of something like "Turbotax Free File", they'd also have a "Turbotax Free Edition" that they'd buy the keyword ads and have very specific conditions to file for free that most people wouldn't make and would be pushed to another paid edition of the software.
These videos are pure gold.
Well not pure gold. More like 18 karat gold 😁
Instead of "tax deductions" and "tax credits" just have the government send direct payments to those that qualify for them like they did with the stimulus checks.
People don't trust the government. Look what just happen this year
Stimulus checks were not only based on tax returns but also reconciled on the 2020 return
This sounds ideal in theory but would require that we fund and operate the IRS in a completely different way than we do currently.
For example, the US has no real concept of a population register: who lives at what address, when. That information is all self-reported. So right from the get-go the essential information needed to know what tax rates should apply and what household size was at a given point in time simply isn't available. (Which is also the information you'd need in order to send payments directly to households.)
I do think we could implement a system that would facilitate this but the tinfoil-hat wearers would think that this is government trying to "control" them, instead of a simple effort to modernize the system.
iHola! Bandit, Quetal. having them sift thru all the codes means you won;t be getting any residual cash until a couple of years later. careful what u wish for.
In Germany, you usually do not have to file taxes. Most have only one job, no income from rent, and income from investments is taxed directly by the bank. As long as you are single or married and both partners are in the same tax class, you do not have to file taxes. If you want to file to get money back or have to because you are for example self-employed, you can do it online for free. Or use a great tax program to guide you through it and see whether the returns are worth the 35€ for buying the program. These programs are usually enough for most cases except the most complex ones.
Thank you for this
Thank you for watching, endeavor to write as
soon for more enlightenment or tipS
w_h_a_t_s_a_p_p
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If the government already knows our job and what we earn, why dont they send us forms that are mostly filled out and we have go over thing to see if everything is okay. I heard some countries do this making it easier for everyone.
As a Brit whos worked for a few different companies the concept of actually doing my taxes seems strange, it's just worked out by your employer and taken out each month over here.
In Canada if you use one of the government approved tax prep programs listed on the CRA sight, they all have an autofill feature. It will fill out your taxes based on all the forms filed with the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency). For most people you can do your taxes and file online in under 10 minutes. Sadly, most Canadians don't do this, much like Americans, they pay H&R Block or whomever.
PSA, I use this autofill feature, and it actually filled out one of my T5s incorrectly because Turbotax doesn't have the right fields for converting foreign dividends.
You should see Estonia. I just watched a video on how efficient and digitized the system is for filing and paying taxes. We really need to step up!
Its a bit more advanced here in Portugal, its where Estonia copied it from ;)
Maybe the reason Americans need multiple jobs is because they have to pay so many different taxes in the first place and then politicians come up with all these new tax codes to "alleviate" the same taxes they imposed--further complicating the tax filing. It's a viscous cycle!
Our taxes were cake walks as before we moved to another State. It was quite the juggling act to do two states and federal, which i'll get to do again when we move to another state later this year... yaaayy..... Even with the unknown territory of multistate tax filing, it still only took about 15-20 minutes to file. TurboTax is extremely user friendly. Been using them for years.
One more reason to be thankful that I am Canadian. My taxes are fairly straightforward and would take me a couple of hours at most to complete. Not saying that the Canadian Tax System is simple, it is just not comolex - unless the taxpayer wants to complicate it.
Compared to completing Australian taxes Canadian taxes are still much more complicated to file. That said the US is ones are something else and the US is unique in the fact that they tax by citizenship so all US citizens are required to continue to file and potentially pay US taxes even they no longer live in the US.
So my wife is American and had been living with me in Australia for 6 years when we had an opportunity to live in Canada so that year we moved she needed to file taxes in Australia, Canada and the US. It wasn't fun at all!
@@strsmt I think the only reason we still do this is because we're used to it I don't understand why non Americans want to change that.
if your only income is a paycheck from a job you should be able to easily file a return. like they said if you have other sources of income it can get complicated. for instance successful actors often form production companies that get paid full gross without any deductions. that way they can write off things like car expenses , assistants, publicists etc.
Good information
They buried the lead by not mentioning the free filing system until about 3/4 into the video. It seems to me that the whole complexity around deductions, credits, loopholes, etc... primarily benefit non-traditional workers like those who are self-employed or the wealthy. It can also benefit other people, but it seems to me that people who receive the greatest benefit from deductions, credits, and loopholes are self-employed or wealthy.
I'm self employed and it's still a nightmare to file taxes 🤦♀️ if I could save $350 on filing every year, I would.
You are right that a lot of these deductions do benefit people other than your average Joe. For example I am able to only pay taxes on 80% of my net rental income from my rental properties due to the QBI ("Qualified Business Income")-deduction provision in the tax code. That means 20 cents of every dollar is tax free. Think about that.
www.irs.gov/newsroom/qualified-business-income-deduction
I do not think this provision is fair, but it one of the (many) side-effects of what Trump signed into law, and all his supporters cheered, even though a majority of them did not benefit from it. What kind of jobs do you think me getting this tax break creates? Zero. It just meant that I have more after-tax income to reinvest in other passive investments.
Another example is that this tax policy "reform" also made certain forms of dividend income (from stocks) only taxable at 15 or 20%. This means that if you are well-off enough to be able to enjoy the benefits of income from stock dividends that you also get the privilege of paying a lower tax rate on it than you likely would if you'd earned that same income.
If you don't want this kind of thing to happen, you should pay closer attention to who you vote for.
In Sweden it took less than 5 mins to check the info and sign my tax income declaration... online for free on the Tax's office web page...
In my contry I dont even had to check. The bill is just sent it to me.
@@rodU65 Where?
Damn America is so complicated 💀 in my country everything is done by the employer and the government
Thank you for watching, endeavor to write as
soon for more enlightenment or tipS
w_h_a_t_s_a_p_p
+_1 9_ 7_2 -5 3_4. -6.._9 4_5...
"Free File Alliance" that consists of the very private corporations profiting from the service that has to be provided by the government. You can give these corporations your financial data for free if you're poor enough, or you can pay them cash so they could take your data, the choice is yours.
Free Fillable Forms makes it so you can let the companies harvest your data regardless of income level.
Data Harvesting
Forgot to mention they change the tax code more times than days in the year... Yes over 365 times a year, meant to be confusing
All the comments seem to be, why is it so complicated in the US compared to country X?
My question is why do we even need to pay taxes considering 90% of it is paid by the top 1%? Couldn't there be an even better way to manage taxes while simplifying it?
In Poland your Tax Filling are done automatically by PL IRS or you can do it online in 30 min by yourself.
well the EU does most of the work so it makes sense .
I have been using TurboTax for 10 years. When making entries, TurboTax will ask a series of simple questions. Very helpful.
Turbo Tax will not tell you if you did something wrong or omitted something.
you can use turbo tax for free, its call freefile, dont confuse it with the free version turbo tax which is a scam
In Australia we pay our taxes at the same time as when we purchase things or get payed.
We get it all back when our tax return comes around.
Please help me understand this. I have always claimed 3 on my taxes throughout the year until I file and then I claim 5. In past years my employer would automatically take out roughly 9 to 10 percent of my paycheck for federal taxes which would more than cover what I owe at the end of the year and guarantee me a decent refund after credits. Now for the past year the same claim of 3 results in almost no taxes being taken out. I make roughly 60k a year. I recently changed this to claiming just 2 and see they only take about 5 percent towards federal taxes. This means at the end of the year I will still owe the other 5 to 7 percent in federal taxes. Do I need to just claim myself throughout the year to ensure they take out the correct 10 percent? Why and when did this change? Seems to me they are setting up so many people to owe when in the past it was never like this. I've done research stating under a certain amount of income you will not owe federal taxes. However at the end of the year they say I still owe the same 10 or 12 percent. That's fine but my question is why did they stop taking out the 10 percent federal taxes they always have when I have never changed anything in my filing status. Do they really think giving people that extra money throughout the year really helps when you will just owe it back when you file? Why change it from what has always worked? Are they trying to confuse or scam people into owing it all at once at the end of the year therefore they can make additional interest on payments if you have not set that 10 percent aside to pay all at once at the end of the year? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
It isn't difficult to file taxes if you are single with one job. It takes about fifteen minutes for me to do it each year.
I learn how to do taxes in school it's easy if your single
@live for Jesus If you only have 1 job it's easy. But believe me a lot of people have very complex tax situations that will take hours to complete and then you'd need to spend even more time reading through form instructions to see of you are missing something or can get an extra deduction.
@@shaunrosenberg4568 True, it's easy for me, but my friends have all these investments and independent businesses, others have alimony/child support.... it's bonkers listening them talk about their tax situations. While i wish i had some of the business success they have, i feel a little bit of relief about my situation during tax season. Some of them spend a lot of money to not owe the government money.
@@ShaudaySmith Yeah. At that point it's really worth it to just hire a professional. It'll save you money and if you're doing really well the tax prep fees aren't that big of a deal anyways.
@@shaunrosenberg4568 good point
Just ridiculous! I’ve yet to find one thing the Government does efficiently or easily.
Thanks to lobbyists
Also, the IRS is very short staffed.
Our system in the US is outdated and ridiculous! You should watch Adam ruins everything, the episode about taxes. Really makes you see how dumb our system is
👏👏👏 very good information.
With due respect I want to know about various tax slabs and exemptions and other facilities for reductions available .🙏
I guess my other thought for the US is discover, and utilize every tax break you can get. Real estate deprecation, donations, etc if you have more than just a straight forward W-2 it's worth the small amount of money to hire a tax accountant who can help you reduce your taxable income
I'm a US national working in Sweden.
My Swedish tax return is 6 pages.
My US tax return is over 100 pages.
Pete, its tiny country. of course less paper work
Us return first then the swedish one second
@@mitchellquartero Is this supposed to be a recommendation? Anyway if it is that's backwards: you have to know how much foreign taxes you have to pay in order to file the US one.
@@PHlophe That doesn't make any sense. Income comes from 3 categories no matter where in the world you live: earned as an employee, from a business, or from investment activity. The US system is needlessly complicated.
I've been using an online tax filling site for years now, and never have to spend more than a couple of hours, start to finish.
Which one?
@@tony2719 TaxAct.
Maybe we should just have land value tax or make it the dominant tax and cut out many more.
All high schools should be teaching this.
It's illegal for schools to teach taxes
@@cody4916 weird that 17 states already require students to take personal finance courses. According to the council for economic education. And the irs provides teachers educational plans....
Just copy the UK system, or really any of the European tax systems. Seriously, even with a relatively complicated situation with a portfolio of shares, property, etc, in the UK, most of the time you literally don't even need to fill out a tax return at all. They're basically reserved for the self-employed or for those in the top 10% of those investing or selling shares (thresholds are put in place to deliberately remove the average investor/ small scale investor, i.e. in the hundreds of thousands generally, from needing to pay tax or fill out a return, unless they are being very active in selling lots of shares in a given year thus bringing themselves over the capital gains tax threshold, for instance).
The free file system has been in place since 2003? I never heard of it until last year through an ad. I used it and it was great.
That was done by design
The tax code is unfair because the people with power have the knowledge and ability to use various methods to reduce and eliminate taxes, and actually acquire untaxed income from the government. What is taxable for the poor is usually not taxed when someone with a lot of wealth can make the same condition become non-taxable. Big expenses for the poor is the lack of the ability to reduce taxes by allowing reductions because of commuting and educational expenses, but big business and the wealthy actually find ways to use those expenses to lower their taxable paid amounts. The same scenarios apply to insurance, health, and medical expenses.
I still think tax needs to be simplified especially the federal version. The previous president campaigned on simplifying income tax but blew it and kept the old system in place. Not to mention that only so many people in poverty, but the national debt is outrageous today.
America's tax code is so horrendously complex and needlessly drawn-out that it'd take decades to fully purge it and create a decent, simplified tax code.
Solution: require a 2/3 congressional majority to pass direct federal taxes, all federal taxes expire after 6 years, and reintroduce the requisition system from the Articles of Confederation. The tax code would become infinitely more simple as it would just become state and local taxes most of the time.
I have master's degree in applied math, and i cannot understand the American tax code, is not that the numbers are difficult, is just so confusingly written that one could think it was made like so on purpose.
ha ha…like…
"Take 20 percent of line 8 or 12 depending on which is less. Then multiple line 19 buy line 8 or 13 depending on which is more."
I have a MST (Master of Science in Taxation)and the tax code is complicated because it is written by Congress, who are not tax experts. Then it has to be interpreted by the Treasury department to understand what they intended and then the public has to analyze all these authorities together for an answer.
Chico what do you do for a living with a master's degree in applied maths. just wanna know.
@@PHlophe hi! Fancy excel spreadsheets hahahahaha
Because it is, probably.
The problem is that politics has layered unnecessary complexity. I'd rather not deal with the poor quality customer service of the IRS when their answer is: "it's just how it is and you can't do anything about it" to the stupidity of its systems. It's so high risk to make a mistake because of something new or missed and it costs us more to fix that simple error than to pay for a service to do it for us right the first time.
The IRS as an institution is a pawn, so pointing the finger at them just makes you look like the uneducated one.
It is politicians who "engineer" this system.
What the congress/senate passes in tax bils is what gets codified in the tax code, and that's what the IRS enforces.
The average person wouldn't understand the tax code and will either hire a tax preparer or use tax preparation software. It has gotten more complicated over the years
That is by design. Nothing accidental about that.
The answer is easy. Those tax prep companies spend money and time to fight getting it automated and easy so they can stay in business. Its dirty , but its how it is with these companies.
If you don't have a freefile option for U.S. "citizens" living abroad, then stop threatening them with massive fines for not filing!!! Better yet, stop forcing them to file because virtually no other country does this!!!
Nice video
Wow, and I'm annoyed because I have to spend 5 extra minutes (no, really) of tax return because I have a company. Usually I only need to do anything if there's any unusual amendments.
Bryn 5 min during the lock down. you've got all day. quit moaning.
Anyone who's seen the Federal and State "long" tax forms knows why it's so hard to file taxes--no thank you. We need to have a simple, flat tax system like what Steve Forbes proposed in 1996.
Who spends 12 hours doing this?
HR block online is free.
Even for more complicated returns. It's less than 100.
Nice and spot on
Wtf 12 hrs ?...takes me 10-15 mins online via my mobile in Australia at tax time even when I'm claiming travel , accommodation, clothing expenses ...as well as power, and internet usage etc. if I'm working from home...and I've always received a credit....why do you guys make simple things hard
I work for a large tax firm and I did my taxes for free on the Turbo Tax app. Took me 5 minutes
Turbo Tax ripped me off last year. I argued with them for over an hour on the phone. Nothing. All they want is MONEY (and they make huge profits on innocent people).
I go online and I fill out a free tax form that goes to the Canada Revenue Agency. It takes minutes and I get any refund within a week. If I owe, I can set that up at the same time as I do the form. cdn
Live in sweden and we get (for a normal working person) the form pre filled (via internet or paper) and just check the numbers (max 4 pages) and just ok it either via sms or vie internet with electronic id card.
So if you do not want to change anything it takes minutes.
After all the IRS do have all the numbers for most people.
Basically how 95% of americans do it too.
Takes like 5mins for most people, if you sold stocks, or had a side gig, maybe 15mins. Once you start doing like partnerships, own a business, have employees, sold a home, then GFL....
Here in Portugal, they fill it out out for you and its available online (they abolished all paper a decade ago) for you to check and manually tick a box to consider it checked. If you dont do anything when the deadline to review it comes they just consider youre ok with it
Why taxes are confusing in the US? Like all things in the US, it's that way because someone makes money off of it. In this case, it is tax preparation services that only exist because figuring out taxes is hard and the rich because they want a bunch of deductions so they can pay even less in taxes than they should.
Ah yes, the classic "create a problem to solve the problem".
Except for this year I only spend ~15mins on my taxes a year.
It litterally took me 10 minutes to file my taxes in France
Once again it seems the US is just lagging behind
Are you serious? Man last time i did mine took me 2-3 hrs if not longer felt like an exam
Don't exaggerated dude. It takes 30 minutes to collect data for filing.
It litterally took me 10 minutes
Everything was already filled, i just had to change my adress because i moved in 2020 and that's it
@@manishthakur9851 In the US right? If so then im doing it all wrong then if it takes me that long
@UCzM0EeFaga8wg7V4GrBOqtQ im in US😑
I've lived in America and Canada. Paid about the same in taxes but get way more for my taxes in Canada. Most Americans hate the government (hate giving them their money even more) because they've never experienced good governance.
I honestly think America needs a completely restructure of their political system. It is just not working. Trump and Biden being elected out of 300 million people to run the country is evidence for that too.
This is why the US should elect more progressive politicians, who know how to manage budgets and give us (yes, pur country's initials literally spell out that pronoun) much better tax credits in return for better public education and better public healthcare. but since these are nonexistent, my husband and I are being guided to finance our retirement and healthcare through a diversified investment portfolio
Hello, how did you handle it? I believe I require a pro after reading these comments
SONYA LEE MITCHELL is the manager I use. Just research the name. You'd find necessary details to set up an appointment.
It's good you make your own research. and make sure whoever you work with is licensed n verifiable with a repute, this Sonya looks the part but i'd do my due diligence. I set up a call, thanks.
Do I understand correctly that in the US, tax returns are done on paper? Or using -paid- 3rd party software? What a drama! In the Netherlands most people can file their tax return online. All bank, mortgage and income figures are already pre-filled in. You just check if all numbers are OK, add your personal circumstances (for reductions, discounts, etc) and everything is calculated automatically. In a normal year I'm done in 30 minutes (most time used to collect and check all my bank, salary and mortgage annual overviews).
Here in Portugal it has all been online only since 2011. They calculate everything, including any eventual deductions. In fact they keep track of deduction in real time throughout the year so you can see and correct them at any time. If people don't tick the box to confirm they've checked everything is good, they just consider youre ok with what they came up with, no action is required. Americans are crazy..
All tax forms are on paper here. I get at least three 1099 forms for my investments/second job and a W-2 for my main job. It sucks filing, everything is so confusing that it makes it impossible to do it yourself
Yes, the only digital option to file your taxes completely for free without paying a third party directly in the U.S. (Free File FIllable Forms) still goes through a shady joint venture of like 12 of the private tax companies that are all in bed with each other. You don't pay them directly, but I assume they get some fee from the government, and they probably harvest your data.
And even then, the system can't accept a written statement explaining something unusual, so if you choose to do that, it's paper-only. The third-party software can't even handle it, because the limitation is on the IRS' end. They tend to not advertise that fact in their ads.
Yah, business in a simpler taxation laws could be in a form of consultation/education, planning, and data management. Actually kind of the same, but now more people are going to participate and the jobs would scale up in terms of rewards per hassle for the tax service providers
Its a business that simply shouldn't exist
@@fgsaramago that would be great actually. Like Doctors
Instead of making benefits through tax breaks and deductions, why not simplify the code and provide programs and social security payments?
I still don't get why it has to be complex, other countries have the same goal to grant their people benefits and still have simple tax processes. Am I missing something?
The more complex it is, the more loopholes for the 1% to exploit and the easier it is to bend the code to one's will. It's a bit like priests of the ancient times, being the only ones who knew how to read, so they could bend the meanings and lessons of holy texts to fit their narrative and encourage the common folk to follow it.
in iceland i log into a website on the day of needing to file, go over forms that are already filled in by my bank & employer and if all is good i press a button. takes 30 mins
and instead of having a bunch of random tax breaks here and there the government gives back by paying for services with our tax. namely healthcare & education
Just to change the subject. Have you gone to see the volcano? If so please share your first hand experience.
@@jamesodell3064 D
Thanks, lobbiests 💀
YAY we need richer rich people
Hey remember, with enough hookers and blow you too can become a lobbyist.
Thank you for watching, endeavor to write as
soon for more enlightenment or tipS
w_h_a_t_s_a_p_p
+_1 9_ 7_2 -5 3_4. -6.._9 4_5...
im from chile, ive worked since im 18, im 32 now, i never ever filled any tax report, the only time you have to fill something for taxes is when youre self employed (contractor)
If you think paying taxes in US is complicated come to India we will show you how complicated and how many different types of taxes you have to pay, some even are monthly like GST
In Finland you just get a letter from the government that shows your taxes, is that easy. XD
and tax are automatically from your income.
Everywhere it is easier but in usa.F tax system .
Every time I see a complaint from americans "school should teach us how to do taxes" I want to answer: "someone needs to teach your goverment how to tax you"
It shouldn't be so hard to file taxes. It's ridiculous. If tax prep was easy there wouldn't be accountants.
Tax prep is easy though
Interesting. I arom India and over the years income tax department in india provides simplified software in Excel and java which can file taxes. All taxes are to be filed electronically and there is a govt subsidised program for having tax helpers at very nominal cost. For very simple situations there is a prefilled form in your login.
I think the issue in us is unique (from my understanding... thankfully not American) because if the randomness off the law making process with parts of the tax code amended with 'atttached' legislation. The Indian law was more complex till the 90's and then progressively simplified. There has been pending legislation to scrap and rewrite... hopefully make it simpler too.
I am a CA student and would vouch your statement. I used to file my relative's returns and since 2 years they are filing their on their own. India's tax website is so simple. New 'Sahaj' form for salaried individual is easy to understand. People have learned to file their own return through youtube videos. Now I am worried about my career 😂
Seriously. I had 8,000 dollars in taxable income and the confusing TurboTax app took one third of my return. Basically they charged me 5 percent of my entire income for 2020, to file my taxes.
Should have use the IRS free file TurboTax Instead of the commercial version