[PopeDotNinja]

In the USA, any non-shady organization will send you a 1099-<some_code> report of how much income you generated. You're supposed to submit that form when you do your taxes, which is kind of dumb, because a copy of the 1099 was already sent to the IRS. USA tax filing is not efficient for reasons...

gives Intuit the stink eye

[TAForObvReasons]

The threshold for a 1099-MISC is $600. Plenty of non-shady organizations won't file extra paperwork.

Another 1099 example: For most states Stripe won't issue you a 1099-K if you don't meet both $20K volume and >200 charges. Is Stripe shady?

[protomyth]

Heck, a buddy showed me a form letter the IRS sent him when he was first starting out and didn't make a whole lot of money (< $500 living at home). He had filed taxes and the IRS had sent him a letter telling him he really didn't need to file and please don't do it again until he had a higher income. He is doing much better now and keeps the letter as inspiration.

[pc86]

But the IRS isn't aware of what deductions you have and what credits you qualify for until you tell them. This completely changes your tax liability.

When you actually understand the system, it makes sense why it is the way it is.

[nelaboras]

But what are those based on? Do you really need to reenter/recalculate them each year?

Countries like Estonia prefill the tax filing and they say somewhere above 90% of people don't need to make any changes when they file. Most people file within the first day and get their rebate within less than a week. If you had no significant changes (eg opened foreign bank accounts or sjmjlsr) you likely have no need to change anything. There's little fraud possible as data gathered is good and even less mistakes are possible. No one spends a day on their taxes and few need tla tax advisor for regular filing. This is increasingly common across at least Europe but sadly in few countries does it reach such sophistication yet.

Are you sure the US system works that well?

[PopeDotNinja]

You get forms from your financial institutions, jobs, and healthcare companies. Some of the forms aren't even available until after your taxes are due.

[boomlinde]

> You're supposed to submit that form when you do your taxes, which is kind of dumb, because a copy of the 1099 was already sent to the IRS.

Isn't that just an escape hatch if you do have additional income to report? The tax office should present it as such. Here, the tax office gets that kind of report from a bank. If I agree that it's correct, all I have to do is sign a prefilled form digitally. Unless I've generated income elsewhere, doing the taxes as an employer literally takes less than 5 minutes.

[bluGill]

It isn't though, even though the irs has that information for most people we have to fill out tax forms as if the irs had nothing.

[boomlinde]

I mean practically, as in the only practical use of it is as an escape hatch for when your income isn't accurately reflected by the forms.