That seems like an uncharitable characterization of a group that has argued for a simpler tax code with generally fewer loop holes (as opposed to an elaborate tax code that no one can understand, with a pre-filled form that in theory one could double check but in practice few would check).
"uncharitable characterization of a group that has argued for a simpler tax code with generally fewer loop holes"
Fewer loopholes for middle and lower class folks? Yes. Repealing the estate tax is very literally a new loophole that allows the rich to keep more money while closing that pesky mortgage interest deduction for the middle class. Taxes are just a way of redistributing money. Calling a party pro-tax because theyre moving the burden from one group to another is...interesting.
About 50% of the US government's spending is social programs. Unless every penny of that is spent on those who paid the taxes to fund it, then wealth is being redistributed.
Yes. Our two biggest budget line items are defense and entitlements. Defense very much pays out the megacorps more than the poor. Entitlement spending favors the rich who tend to live longer. Also, social security and medicare are regressive taxes.
I think you mean more of the money go to wealthy recipients, which (true or not) is different from saying there are more wealthy recipients than non-wealthy recipients (probably impossible since there are so few wealthy people).
Poor taxpayers spend 200+ dollars to file their taxes. Every single one of my employees goes to H&R block or some tax guy to pay taxes. Almost all of them have 1 job. Most of them 1 or 2 W2s and most don't houses.
A pre-filled form will help every single one them to save money.
And you can still have your pre-filled form verify by an accountant or H&R Block. No one is stopping you from that.
You should listen to the latest Planet Money Podcast - Tax hero. Republican don't support this because having complicated form will make people oppose taxes in general. That is the republican motto.
Poor taxpayers spend 200+ dollars to file their taxes. Every single one of my employees goes to H&R block or some tax guy to pay taxes. Almost all of them have 1 job. Most of them 1 or 2 W2s and most don't houses.
We own a house, two high-tech incomes, and loads of 1099Bs to deal with. IOW, I can't imagine the tax situation of your employees is any more complicated than mine. In previous years, I could whip it out on a Saturday morning. This year, it was an hour of importing forms electronically, if that (umm, thanks, higher standard deduction?).
I'm not trying to take away from your point, I'm still chafed each year that I have to give money to TaxAct (at least they don't lobby for complicated taxes, AFAICT). But taxes aren't that complicated for simple situations. Maybe have an hour brownbag or something on "here's how to enter the control # off a W2 and import it. Import from Fidelity. Sorted."?
In my experience, it's less the effort required to do it, and more about the risk of getting it wrong.
There's a lot of domain-specific knowledge that goes into filing your taxes, and it's easy to be afraid that you're gonna mess it up and be on the hook for thousands of dollars.
> Poor taxpayers spend 200+ dollars to file their taxes.
Through the Free File Alliance, TurboTax and other such software is free for anyone making less than 66k.
Maybe this problem could be solved with education? I know there are also issues where people in poverty don’t file and then miss out on $1000s they might have gotten from the government via EITC.
There's nothing stopping low income people from just filling out the forms. With a trivial income situation and no complicated deductions it's dead simple. The problem is that much of America is functionally innumerate and doesn't want to take a little time adding up some numbers.
They may be referring to the Republicans' decades-long campaign to suffocate the IRS, which has resulted in more audits for the poor and fewer for the rich, more easily allowing wealthy taxpayers to drag them on past the 10-year statue of limitations: https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-irs-was-gutted
So to be against loopholes you must support the 30% tax rule on incomes over USD 1m? I feel this conflates tax avoidance with having a very high income. Mr Buffett for one might be upset at the implication.
They may argue for that, but they also argue for a dramatic reduction in taxes overall, in terms of the number of different types, the rates, and the total amount of revenue raised.
That seems like an uncharitable characterization of a group that has argued for a simpler tax code with generally fewer loop holes (as opposed to an elaborate tax code that no one can understand, with a pre-filled form that in theory one could double check but in practice few would check).