Re:Killing TurboTax
by chrisseaton on Wednesday March 03, 2021 @01:42PM
(#26332620)
> My tax returns should be a single text document that I can keep in git and copy/paste/update each year.
But why do you even need a tax return? Most countries don't need it for the vast majority of people. Why does the US?
I 100% agree with you. I think it creates lots of weird artefacts. I really like the continuous nature of the crypto world and smart contracts, and think the world will slowly pay off the technical debt of wierd arbitrary schedules and move to a smoother, simple, more transparent system.
Complexity covers corruption.
Why not just pay the nice mafia boss the protection money, and stop complaining?
First and foremost, it's a matter of principle. It's just not right to have the tax code written in the way it is written. It is written by special interests. If we all just said "complexity is no problem, we'll all just pay a small fee to accountants", not only will that "small fee" keep going up, but it will get more complex, and special interests will be better served to the detriment of everyone else.
Pragmatically I do hire a CPA, and in general like paying for the high level strategic advice. But the tax compliance services should be unnecessary. My tax returns should be a single text document that I can keep in git and copy/paste/update each year.