Re:Most Danish voters oppose government plans to cut the top...
by vidarh on Tuesday September 13, 2016 @09:54AM
(#12488215)
In Norway, the tax authority will send you a summary telling you what you owe or what they owe, and if you don't have corrections you don't need to do anything.
(all bank accounts in Norway are keyed to a national ID number assigned at birth, and the banks report all interest income and loss (as interest on debt can be subtracted from your taxable income), and your employer(s) reports your income)
There are some exceptions, in cases where you have particularly complex tax matters, but most people don't have to do anything any more.
Re:Most Danish voters oppose government plans to cut the top...
by toomanybeersies on Tuesday September 13, 2016 @06:29PM
(#12492781)
I'm not sure why they don't do that in New Zealand, the numbers are all provided, you just have to type them in.
Perhaps it's a privacy thing?
One of the advantages is that you can check if you're owing money before filing a Personal Tax Summary (they have a tool to check if you'd owe money or be paid money), and you don't have to file for one if you owe money, and as long as it's less than a certain amount ($500?) then they don't care.
Re:Most Danish voters oppose government plans to cut the top...
by vidarh on Wednesday September 14, 2016 @05:23AM
(#12495192)
My guess is it's just a matter of slowly changing policy. In Norway it went paper return => online return => online summary that you had to confirm => summary that you only needed to act on if you had corrections. That process took many years, I'm assuming as they wanted to iron out any issues with one step before taking the next.
GST (essentially sales tax) is levied at 15% on all goods and services except for domestic rent and financial services (and one or two rare exceptions that don't apply to the vast majority of cases).
Your income tax rate is figured from a flowchart, it's really simple: https://www.ird.govt.nz/resources/b/f/bf9db1804ba3cfc08a6ebf...
As for tax returns, it's as simple as going online, adding up your interest earned during the year (most banks will do this for you and send it to you) and adding your dividends earned. It's a bit more work if you do any contracting or freelancing, but it's still simple enough that the vast majority of people can do it while drinking a beer or two on a Sunday afternoon.