OMG!! It's Tax Time!
I'm not a rabidly political person (my stress regarding the antics of the current administration notwithstanding), but this New York Times article had me flabbergasted.
The gist of it is, the government already HAS ON RECORD your wages and interest income. Millions of Americans don't have anything more complicated than that to report each year.
So WHY, my good citizens, are we forced to read through a ginormous instruction booklet (so torturous that it might as well have razor blades for page edges) so that we can effectively fill out a form to provide the government with data it already has?! The article mentions that many people pay a professional tax preparer even when they do not have a complicated return, because decoding the form and instructions is such a daunting task.
I guess I'm having a hissy fit because of the hours of torment I have spent over the years making sure I filed my taxes carefully and accurately, only to be hit with this realization that it is all *completely unnecessary*. And while I do my preparation myself and so am not suffering what amounts to a "tax" on anybody who has to hire an accountant, my time and mental health has most certainly been impacted. In not a good way.
The writer of the article describes a system that would involve the IRS sending a proposed return, based on the information it has collected, giving the taxpayer the option of signing off on it and being DONE with the process in mere seconds. If the taxpayer wished to go through the gyrations of all the itemizing and other hoop-dee-doos, that would be their option. This makes wonderful sense to me. Sooooooooo.... WHY, exactly, are we not already doing this???!!!
Anyway. This concludes my hissy fit. Thank you, carry on.
The gist of it is, the government already HAS ON RECORD your wages and interest income. Millions of Americans don't have anything more complicated than that to report each year.
So WHY, my good citizens, are we forced to read through a ginormous instruction booklet (so torturous that it might as well have razor blades for page edges) so that we can effectively fill out a form to provide the government with data it already has?! The article mentions that many people pay a professional tax preparer even when they do not have a complicated return, because decoding the form and instructions is such a daunting task.
I guess I'm having a hissy fit because of the hours of torment I have spent over the years making sure I filed my taxes carefully and accurately, only to be hit with this realization that it is all *completely unnecessary*. And while I do my preparation myself and so am not suffering what amounts to a "tax" on anybody who has to hire an accountant, my time and mental health has most certainly been impacted. In not a good way.
The writer of the article describes a system that would involve the IRS sending a proposed return, based on the information it has collected, giving the taxpayer the option of signing off on it and being DONE with the process in mere seconds. If the taxpayer wished to go through the gyrations of all the itemizing and other hoop-dee-doos, that would be their option. This makes wonderful sense to me. Sooooooooo.... WHY, exactly, are we not already doing this???!!!
Anyway. This concludes my hissy fit. Thank you, carry on.