CA State Offers To Prepare Simple Tax Returns

Makarand writes "California is ready to roll out a program for taxpayers where the state will offer to fill out their tax forms for them if they are simple enough. Taxpayers will merely have to go online, download and review the completed forms prepared for them and confirm their return. This program is supposed to save money for the state, reduce tax related headaches for many and bring into the tax system those who are not paying any taxes currently. The state will take information it already receives on W-2 wage statements, put it in the right boxes on the tax return, and do the math."

Comments

oh, I wish I wasn't running out the door ...

[timothy]

a) States (and the Feds) should be ashamed that they have not been doing this since they first required W2s

b) Muggers have long since been polite enough to tell you up front how much you are supposed to give them ("all of it"); the government is still finding out how much of the teat it can slice open before the cow keels over

c) What percentage of adult Americans pay end-of-year taxes at all? (I don't know; I've heard wildly different numbers -- you tell me, and tell me where you get the number from!) I say "end-of-year" to distinguish from other taxes, such as sales taxes, that people pay without filling out special forms.

d) If the folks who create the Federal income tax form can deign to ask me if I'd like to contribute to a free-money pot for politicians running in order to spend even more of my money (ha!), why can't they also ask if I'd like to contribute to the National Endowment for the Arts (ha!) and other non-essential spending (ha! again)? Why don't they ask me if I'd like to contribute to the Fund for Global Military Adventuring (No, thank you. Please return me to the main menu.)?

e) Why did Bush give up his only slim chance to win my vote by nixing all talk of a national sales tax after his one mention of it?

f) If not a Nat'l Sales Tax, why doesn't some politician repeat what Jack Kemp said about a postcard-sized return? Our tax code is Byzantine, tough to understand fully without a full-time background in it, even in the simpler forms. It's worse if you want to take advantage of any of the many, many loopholes. Most taxpayers haven't a chance.

Grrrrr.

timothy

Re:Wow.

[catbutt]

Except that we live in a democracy, so you have to sell that to the voters. And it is certainly not in the interest of most voters, since it benefits the few rich far more than the regular people (compared to our current system).

By the way, that is not really a flat tax, since it increases with income. A true flat tax would charge the same amount to everyone.

Re:Absolutely!

[That's Unpossible!]

Look, ass. I'm on here defending the right of everyone to keep the money they've earned, including rich people like you. Even though I'm not financially rich yet, it is a goal, one that many people share. In the meantime, I fight an uphill battle against people with similar financial situations as myself, trying to convince them to turn away from class warfare.

So you could help out the cause of individual liberty a bit more if you didn't rub your success in people's faces. In other words, shut your fucking cake-hole.