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A comment on Show HN: Calculator for US individual income tax, from 1970-present. Parent comment

Re:Show HN: Calculator for US individual income tax, from 19... by divbzero on Wednesday June 29, 2022 @07:04PM (#31926823)
The number of possible inputs for Income is stunning: 15 types of income in total.

There are “only” 5 possible inputs under Deductions & Credits but 3 of them are categories with several subitems:

Itemized Deductions

• Home mortgage interest

• Deductible medical expenses

• Motor Vehicle registration fees

• Charitable contributions

• Casulty or Theft losses

Other Itemized Deductions

• Other state and local taxes

• Deductible medical expenses (preference share only)

• Miscellaneous expenses

Other Adjustments

• Alimony Paid

• Keogh and IRA contributions

• Foreign Income Exclusion

• Net Operating Losses

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Show HN: Calculator for US individual income tax, from 19... by lotsofpulp on Wednesday June 29, 2022 @07:49PM (#31927152)
Because standard deduction is so high now, 90% of US tax filers do not have to worry about itemizing. According to IRS stats website, which I do not have handy on my phone.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Show HN: Calculator for US individual income tax, from 19... by throwaway2037 on Thursday June 30, 2022 @03:35AM (#31929684)
Hat tip on the reference. I didn't consider the effect.

I found an article about it here: https://taxfoundation.org/standard-deduction-itemized-deduct...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Show HN: Calculator for US individual income tax, from 19... by physicsguy on Thursday June 30, 2022 @03:57AM (#31929815)
This is kind of mental. In the UK we have nowhere near as many tax deductible things. An ordinary employed person will only ever get tax deductions for pension contributions or charitable donations. Almost nobody in the UK even has to file a tax return; data is returned automatically to the government by all employers and so there is no need unless you have certain uncommon circumstances.

There are some schemes through employers that reduce your taxable income (for e.g. a scheme to purchase a bicycle tax free) but these are handled by your employer and work by sacrificing some salary in exchange for the benefits.

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Re:Show HN: Calculator for US individual income tax, from 19... by pjc50 on Thursday June 30, 2022 @06:21AM (#31930615)
A piece of politics that is radically different is that the UK does not have a right wing which hates the Federal government; the UK right wing is not only unitary-statist but monarchist.

This results in perverse pressures to make the Federal processes that people are exposed to, such as tax filing, as bad as possible so that voters also hate the Federal government.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Show HN: Calculator for US individual income tax, from 19... by m0llusk on Thursday June 30, 2022 @11:12AM (#31933482)
Potentially interesting to note that the home mortgage interest and state tax deductions were long controversial as perverse incentives and got dropped during the Trump administration.
[ Parent | on HN ]