“If you don’t have any complicated things that you want to do”-like listing business expenses from a sole proprietorship -“it takes you five seconds,” he said. Andreas Hatzigeorgiou, a chief economist with the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, told PRI that individuals with more involved filings can always spend more time on their taxes, if they like. Some even get a text message with their prepared tax information, and if they respond “yes,” their taxes are done. They just get a document from the government with all the relevant information already filled out. In Sweden, the vast majority of taxpayers don’t do battle with tax documents and fine-print questions about itemized deductions. In Estonia, it famously takes the average person five minutes to file taxes. Eight OECD countries, including Finland and Norway, fully prepare returns for the majority of its taxpayers. “Rather than some crazy, wild idea that’s never been tried before, this is doable and a lot of countries do it,” said William Gale, a tax expert at the Brookings Institution.
The IRS could easily send tens of millions of individuals their nearly completed taxes by mail-or even, by text. In fact, about one-half of American taxpayers earn all their income from one employer’s wages (which the IRS can see) and interest from one bank (which the IRS can find out without much effort). But the excruciating pain of tax season is just another example of negative American exceptionalism. In the United States, the third choice sounds like a fantasy. They receive a document from the government with all of the relevant information already filled out, and they check a box to say, “okay!" Because their taxes are done for them, for free. Basically, they do whatever they want with those millions of hours and billions of dollars.
Each tax season, tens of millions of American households have a decision to make.Ī) They can collectively spend hundreds of millions of hours preparing tax information that the federal government already has.ī) They can pay other people billions of dollars to do it for them.īut let’s add a choice C: They go for a walk.
0 kommentar(er)
