[EGreg]

Well of course. That’s how most gatekeepers act.

Why does every employee in the US need to pay an accountant to file their corporate payroll taxes, when the corporation knows how much they paid and can just use THEIR accountant to report this same information? It would be standard across many employees. And in Europe that’s largely what’s done. But in USA this creates many “bullshit jobs”. The IRS just closed their free file under Trump admin, and even when they had it, you had no way to electronically submit business taxes, and even if you mailed those to the IRS (still allowed) some states have NO WAY for you to file taxes without an accountant!

To open an LLC in NY you must announce it in a specific newspaper they tell you. And that newspaper charges $700. Same thing — they lobby to keep this going.

[eadmund]

> Why does every employee in the US need to pay an accountant to file their corporate payroll taxes, when the corporation knows how much they paid and can just use THEIR accountant to report this same information?

How would my employer know how much money my savings, chequing and investment accounts make? I owe taxes on all of those as well as on my income.

How would my employer know what interest I pay on my mortgage, how much I contribute to charity and my other deductible expenses?

> some states have NO WAY for you to file taxes without an accountant

Which ones?

[lotsofpulp]

>Why does every employee in the US need to pay an accountant to file their corporate payroll taxes, when the corporation knows how much they paid and can just use THEIR accountant to report this same information?

You don't need an accountant, and employees do not pay "corporate payroll taxes", they usually just pay income tax to the federal government.

And if you think tax liability is based solely on amount of pay received from an employer, then I think you must not have any experience with paying income taxes in the US.

>The IRS just closed their free file under Trump admin

Free Fillable Forms is still available for electronic submissions. What closed was the government provided alternative to guided tax preparation software like TurboTax.

> some states have NO WAY for you to file taxes without an accountant!

I doubt this. Please provide an example.