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The IRS should be calculating what we owe.

They do. That's why you occasionally get bills saying "hey you miscalculated by 70 bucks." They already do the work, they just still make us do it too for.... Reasons.

Or dispute it . This is how it's done almost everywhere else but the tax lobby have a best interest in this not working this way.

Or....you know bring back home ec classes that teach kids how to survive in the world instead of assuming parents will be able to do it

As an example of how this could work based on how it does where I live;

• When you get a job, open a bank account or a shareholding account you fill in a form telling them your IRD number and tax code. There is a flow chart on the back of the form to help you work out what your code is, but it is derived from the amount of income you expect to earn throughout the year and if you have any special statuses that significantly change how you pay tax (eg, of you have a student loan or owe child support)
• Before you are paid (your income, dividends, interest, profit from share sales etc), the party paying you uses your tax code to determine the percentage tax you owe, then sends the tax plus a filing directly to the IRD on your behalf
• At the end of the tax year, IRD looks at all the filings, totals up all your income, totals up all the tax you've paid, checks if you are eligible for certain tax credit, and works out if you've paid the right amount of tax
• You get notified of the outcome, and get a chance to correct it (eg, if you've made charitable donations and want to claim a credit based on that etc)
• Once the filing is finalised (which happens automatically if you do nothing) you either get a bill in the post, a cheque, or the money deposited directly into your bank account if you've nominated one - unless you owe them less that $10, in which case you get a letter saying that they've written the debt off and you owe nothing

No muss, no fuss. If you've got an interest in a trust or own a company then it gets a bit more complicated and you might need an accountant to file for you, but for 95% of people it's free, happens automatically, and they aren't stuck with a big bill at the end of the year

Agree. Then TurboTax and other tax preparers wouldn't be able to rip us off to the tune of billions of $ too.

Agreed, I use them and paid $15 for state filing only. There are other services if you want extra but they've been my go to for a couple years now

Used them for the first time this year and it was a great experience. Still can't figure out what add-on made it not work in my desktop Firefox but that's minor.

Norway here, I've been working since 1995 and I can't ever recall having to "do my taxes".

Sweden: has sane taxation system US: how are we supposed to get middlemen in there to profit off the populace? No no, this won't work.

Just out of interest I checked the UK's system called PAYE, it's was fully introduced in 1944. The only people that have to deal with bullshit tax returns are people that are probably going to be making enough money to be able to afford someone to sort it out for them anyway.

Another tip: turbo tax and other tax preparation software charges you money only to file your taxes. You can fill out all of the information on their website for free as long as you don't file, then use all of the numbers they crunch as a guide when you do your own taxes manually. Basically, you know what all of the numbers are supposed to come out to based on what turbo tax calculated, so if you're getting something else when you prepare your own taxes you know there's some mistake in that section that needs to be corrected.

Awesome tip