Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Tax Time Nightmare another gift from corporate America.

Check out the following expose from Ezra Klein about the tax software scheme by Intuit and H&R Block to make lots of money from an unsuspecting publilc. This is something I didn't know anything about.

For most Americans every dollar made, including our current family status, is already known by the IRS. It would be simple for the IRS to send you your tax form already filled out, waiting for your signature. You could also check the box and opt to do it yourself.

But the big financial software companies have successfully lobbied to kill that option. Here's a great video where Klein spills the beans on another corporate ripoff:


If I'm not itemizing deductions (like 70 percent of taxpayers), the IRS has all the information it needs to calculate my taxes, send me a filled-out return, and let me either send it in or do my taxes by hand if I prefer. This isn't a purely hypothetical proposal. Countries like Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Chile, and Spain already offer "pre-populated returns" to their citizens. 

The United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan have exact enough tax withholding procedures that most people don't have to file income tax returns at all, whether pre-populated or not. California has a voluntary return-free filing program called ReadyReturn for its income taxes.
Obama and Reagan both backed this idea:
The Obama administration supports return-free filing, and Ronald Reagan touted the idea in a 1985 speech:
"We envision a system where more than half of us would not even have to fill out a return. We call it the return-free system, and it would be totally voluntary. If you decided to participate, you would automatically receive your refund or a letter explaining any additional tax you owe. Should you disagree with this figure, you would be free to fill out your taxes using the regular form. We believe most Americans would go from the long form or the short form to no form."
The Republican talking point for decades plays on the myth liberal Democratic Americans like taxes in general, and don't mind paying more. Without this silly caricature, they can't make the argument that freeloading off the work and legacy of generations before them is okay:


5 comments:

  1. Yeah thanks for all the debt too.

    Baby boomers... the laziest, most self entitled, greedy, narcissistic generation to exist in modern times.

    Taxation is theft. Pure and simple. But the leftist freeloaders will never understand that because all they do is take, take, take. And the government mind control has been so successful it has convinced you that government has a right to apply force to others in order to redistribute wealth from the productive members of society to the unproductive members of society in the name of "just us."

    Communism...the enemy of a free people.

    http://political-economy.com/thomas-jefferson-on-taxes/

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  2. Anonymous of course has it wrong like all conservatives. Private Property is Theft and all land owned has its' roots in theft, rape and murder. But, Anonymous Conservative Drone will support the party which seeks to return him into wage slavery and shackle him into corporate bondage.

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  3. And as to Anonymous's pouting about government force, after you and your right-wing dupes destroy government, who will you turn to for redress when Koch Industries dumps a load of petcoke on your backporch?

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  4. Ha ha! Funny Grung. You are delusional.

    Consider this... if private property is theft, then why does the grocery store exchange food for currency instead of just give it all away?

    I'll have you know that I didn't rob, steal, rape or murder anyone to acquire my house with the little small piece of land it was built on. Did you?

    The rest of your idiot rantings aren't even worth my time.

    Good luck living in your reality. You'll definitely need it.

    The government isn't your friend. The word literally means "mind control." Look it up if you don't believe me.

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  5. Anonymous, your delusions rest or your active ignorance and violent stupidty. Of course, the land your house sits upon was stolen. And since you can't refute my points and respind with typical right-wing garbage mouth I win, when you destroy government you won't have any recourse when a rich and powerful group takes your house from you.

    ReplyDelete