Re:H&R Block and Intuit Lobby Against Free and Simple Tax Fi...
by koyote on Monday January 21, 2019 @04:30AM
(#18958995)
Of course, it's very difficult to directly compare such things for a single individual, never mind the median individual (you'd have to account for the fact that the UK taxes include medical insurance as well as a pension on one side and lower sales tax in California on the other side, and so on...).
My point was that taxes in countries where the tax return is automatically performed by the government aren't necessarily higher than in parts of the US. In other words, OP's comment above was nothing more than FUD.
Re:H&R Block and Intuit Lobby Against Free and Simple Tax Fi...
by rusk on Monday January 21, 2019 @05:22AM
(#18959271)
> I'm not going to argue for a hypothetical.
Huh? But you said:
> [their] complaint is primarily that if a system is too simple, it's much easier to raise taxes.
which sounds pretty hypothetical to me! In fact this whole discussion is hypothetical!
> The reason? CA has a lot more deductions for people of my income or lower. CA can get you in all kinds of other taxes, but not income tax
To me, this sounds like a pretty good justification for a simpler tax system ...
That's a big disclaimer.
I'm not going to argue for a hypothetical. I actually ran the numbers once. My state's income tax rate is high, but lower than CA's. For my income (above median), one year I actually calculated my tax for CA (as in actually got the forms and filled them out).[0] Despite the lower tax rate, the my state's income tax was higher. The reason? CA has a lot more deductions for people of my income or lower. CA can get you in all kinds of other taxes, but not income tax.
Also, just checked. Other than the deductions, for single people, you hit the second highest bracket at a little over $8K in my state. To get to that same bracket in CA, you have to earn over $50K. CA tax rates are low for lower income people.
[0] It's a long story why I did this - it was not fun at all.