There’s a Tax Season Villain, and It’s Not the I.R.S. | NYT Opinion

Love working with the Times. I always learn a ton. Thanks for this great collab!

America needs to stop sugarcoating the term "bribery" to lobbying.

I got a turbotax ad before this video lmao

Why is this not a bigger story? In 2013 while going to school for Accounting, I had to study the various tax systems in different countries. It's an open secret that the U.S. keeps taxes complex for tax service companies --- at the U.S. citizens' expense.

This is simple: we have TWO political parties, that BOTH work for the corporations, and NEITHER works for the people.

"But the tax preparers and accountants will be out of work." They can do productive work instead. It's not an insurmountable obstacle. Changing jobs is possible.

The Dutch tax authority's slogan is: "we cannot make it more pleasant, but we can make it easier"

I am 53 and retired at 50. 1 thing I did do to retire early was to get out of the 401K and IRA programs. Bought rental real-estate and I am now a Limited Partner in about 3500+ units. I do not work.

yet again, the big solution that no one has the BALLS to actually DO is to make lobbying illegal and stop allowing deep pockets to affect policymaking

Do people actually think that the rest of the world files taxes the same way?! I was shocked when I moved to the US and people explained taxes and returns to me. Also, apparently people think about tax refunds as “free money”. No, it’s an interest free loan you gave the government.

I moved out from the US to Malaysia 10 years ago. In Malaysia, I filed my taxes by going to the government portal, my income details were automatically populated from my tax ID number, and I just had to enter in any deductions I was eligible to claim. It literally took 5 minutes and I was done. From Malaysia, I moved to the UK. In the UK, I don't even have to do that. Taxes are automatically deducted based on my earnings, to the exact penny, and there's no need to file any sort of return whatsoever. There's a separate government portal for claiming deductions, and you can claim for up to the last five tax years at once. The USA is living in the 1800s.

I became aware of these issues several years ago. Since then, I have done my taxes by hand. For me, the hassle of doing the calculations myself is more than offset by knowing that I am denying corrupt companies my money, which they will use to buy off lawmakers to make life worse for everyone. My hatred of corruption is the fuel that keeps me going when taxes get annoying to do.

As an american who’s lived and worked in Germany and the UK, I have realized that the concept of a default tax refund is also very American. These countries operate on a pay as you go tax system where the taxes taken from your salary are always up to date. Americans are essentially giving an interest-free loan to the government and (currently) forced to pay to file to get it back. If we assume an average tax refund of $1,200, that’s $100 too much given to the IRS each month that could have been spent on bills, investments, etc. which is held hostage until most people pay TurboTax for the luxury of getting it back. Here in Europe, in most cases, people with one full time job have no requirement to file complicated tax forms and don’t get a refund because they were already taxed accurately from the start. Then there’s the fact that Americans abroad still need to file their taxes to avoid penalties and risk being double-taxed, even if they don’t live or work there, which is a whole different can of worms.

"It has made an industry out of something that ought to be a public service." This is at the core of so, so many of the Western world's social problems.

When my daughter was 6 years old, I heard her walk down our hallway, angrily exclaiming, “I hate taxes!!!” Trying not to laugh, I ran after her and asked her why, to which she responded, “Because it makes you and Baba fight.” 😂. I told her we were simply intense, trying to get our paperwork in order. Still, she walked away muttering, “I still hate taxes!”

I love how the entire piece glossed over the problem that the taxes are so complex in the first place No, don't blame the IRS, don't blame regulators, don't blame Congress Blame Intuit Intuit is the minion in this story, not the head villain

This story is similar to the way private health insurance companies provide a service at much higher cost to Americans then the government could provide it for. Their profits hurt most Americans.

The huge part this video didn't mention was that H&R Block and Intuit are huge proponents of why the tax code is so complicated in the first place. They don't only lobby against public service tax filing, they also lobby for any changes that could make the tax code more confusing.

It’s interesting how the answer to the question, “why doesn’t this system work in America”, seems to 90% of the time be “because of a private company” 😂

This seems unreal to me. Here in Mexico you dont have to make anything unless you earn more than 400k (pesos) a year. Taxes are deducted automatically from your salary and everything you buy already has the taxes included in the price