Re:Filing taxes: It shouldn't be so hard
by arkitaip on Wednesday April 03, 2013 @04:24PM
(#5488799)
In Sweden the most basic variant of doing your taxes - i.e. you have no business, stocks, properties, etc - only requires that you send a SMS (SSN + auth code) verifying the pre-filled data that the tax authority has filled out for you.
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| on HN ]
It's the same in France. Simple. No arguments, no stress, no fuss.
The complexity in the US tax law is largely due to the kickbacks inherent in the system. People donate money to congressmen, who shove favorable tax clauses into legislation.
The result is a tax system even the IRS can't understand.
In the USA the 1040EZ is the nearest equivalent, it's one page and takes about 10 minutes to complete by hand. Most people with any real assets or income can't use it though.
It's even easier in Finland, you don't need to do anything, it's all automatic. If you want changes to be done to the prefilled form, you can do it online.