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by awalton 3016 days ago
> I'll pay the taxes--I just don't want to have to calculate the taxes.

You, me and most everyone else reasonable. In some countries, taxes are as simple as the tax agency sending you a bill or a check. But, America's love of excess capitalism means our tax code is needlessly complicated and pretty much insists on as many third party businesses to be involved as possible - every company you work for, plus anyone holding your securities, plus Intuit or some other tax preparer, and so forth.

The most sensible requirement, since we're not going to get sensible tax reform ever, would be just making legal exchanges operating in the US have to send out a 1099 variant (maybe 1099-MISC could cover it? Or they could create a new one) so people aren't left scratching their heads all the time. But we'll see if that ever happens...

2 comments

> But, America's love of excess capitalism means our tax code is needlessly complicated and pretty much insists on as many third party businesses to be involved as possible - every company you work for, plus anyone holding your securities, plus Intuit or some other tax preparer, and so forth.

I don't think it's fair calling this capitalism. Capitalism is the idea the the production of goods is controlled by private entities, whereas what you are talking about is a government over complicating/regulating an industry at the behest of a company. In a capitalist society, regulation is not a thing, whereas in the corporatist society I believe we live in, regulation harms the citizens through capture and reduction in effeciency.

I agree, this isn't capitalism but more like crony capitalism or better yet -- corporatism. Government should not pick winners or losers, much less requiring them.
In France, taxes are impossible to calculate. Every accountant will give you a different number for a few percents.

If the state didn't give a bill, you couldn't figure out what to pay.

I'm curious to hear more about this. And how much of the population gets their bill prepared by the state?