Hawaiʻi's Technology Community
PILOT CRASHES PLANE INTO IRS BUILDING
Surely not an example to follow, but interestingly enough pilot was a Software Engineer, trying to start a business a number of times before running into tax problems with IRS.
Which is making me ask the question, are IRS laws so 'unfriendly' that can make a man commit such a disturbing act?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Daniel Leuck on
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US tax law is complicated, which can get you into trouble. For example, I know of several small IT and software dev service companies that have gone out of business because the IRS decided that their contractors were being treated more like employees. They retroactively classified them as employees and charged the company with years of back payroll taxes. I'm sure in some cases companies are trying to get out of paying payroll taxes and benefits, but often its just small businesses that don't know the rules.
Lawmakers share equal blame. Our tax laws are absurdly byzantine.
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Permalink Reply by Konstantin A Lukin on
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Certainly sounds like a sign for some laws to be revised.., take complexity of out them, make it more user friendly..
Quite honestly, I feel somewhat intimidated every time tax season rolls around.. I think taxes should be fun. After all, it is our choice to have the government protecting us, so we can enjoy the freedom.., why not make it in a way that 'helps' citizens realize that with simplicity, not 'intimidate' them by complexity..
I understand it is not an easy task, but certainly feels like it's time to revisit this 'dark' chapter in US lawmaking, possibly being a good candidate for an item on Obama's long todo list?
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Permalink Reply by Paul Graydon on
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I'm all for simplified tax laws. As a Brit it feels so weird to have to submit tax returns each year, maybe it's just laziness but the Pay As You Earn (P.A.Y.E.) system is so much easier, and it operates on the basis that the tax payer is correct and if you're paying the wrong amount of tax each year it's the tax office's fault, unless they can demonstrate you specifically defrauded them by telling them you had kids or a spouse etc when you didn't. Every working citizen in the UK gets assigned a tax code, and that tax code defines how much of your pay should be taxed each month. Simple as that.
When your personal status changes, your employers are responsible for informing the tax office.
If the tax office eventually twigs that you've been on the wrong tax code through no fault of your own and were paying too little, they write off the mistake and make sure you're on the right tax code. On the flip side of that if you've been paying too much then they'll correct and pay you back what you've overpaid.
The only people who can't do P.A.Y.E. are those with multiple incomes or jobs, so contractors primarily, who do have to submit a tax return. It's a fair bet to say 80-85% of the population never submits a tax return in their life.
That said, reading what post from the guy it does feel a little like he tried to play the system, got burnt, and didn't really learn from it, trying yet again to play the system and getting burnt a second time.
Constantly harassing and badgering your representatives is never a good way to get them to champion your view, if anything it puts them off your view. If you want change, you need numbers. I don't honestly thing anything in his tirade is really going to be much of a shock to anyone with their eyes even half open.
Government has long been influenced by the corporations. When a politicians chance of winning is so dependent on how much money he can raise for his campaign budget it's always going to be. It's one of the reasons I find the Birthers movement so ridiculous. They're futilely arguing against Obama on the basis of him being a 'foreign national' (regardless of any evidence to the contrary) and how it's clearly illegal for him to be president, without looking at the spirit behind the law which is that of stopping foreign interference or influence in the running of the country. Late last year when the health care reform debate started seriously stepping up an investigative journalist was able to connect the dots and identify that politicians on both sides of the argument were actually raising the message of a Swedish pharmaceutical company that was operating through various lobbyists to ensure legislation was going through in a manner that suited them. Why are the Birthers not arguing so passionately about that?
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P.A.Y.E. sounds simple enough, I like how it assumes that taxpayer is correct, since taxpayer is, in a way, government's customer.. I also like automatic tax returns, since most of the 'regular' tax information could be handled by a computer anyway.
Constantly harassing and badgering your representatives is never a good way to get them to champion your view, if anything it puts them off your view.
True, but this 'harassing' and 'badgering' partially/likely has to do with lack of clarity/simplicity that surrounds IRS procedures.
If you want change, you need numbers. I don't honestly thing anything in his tirade is really going to be much of a shock to anyone with their eyes even half open.
Not the tirade, but his action is what's a bit shocking.. There should be no place for something like this even to occur in a well designed tax-filling system..
Just my 2 cents.. taxes are a complex subject, which needs proper attention. Any simplification/automation (transparency) of tax procedures could benefit a lot of people, mostly by saving time and unnecessary aggravation.., in order to focus on more important things, like economy and education.
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You are spot on. I couldn't agree more. Its ridiculous.
Brian Russo said:I'm all for getting rid of filing taxes/etc. It seems like such an absurd thing to me. The whole concept of a 'refund' smacks of inefficiency. I mean what you're telling me is your system is so complicated and crappy that you actually need to overcharge me and then give me back money?
Ridiculous.
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Permalink Reply by Derek on
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It is definitely ridiculous. But when we think about it, in doing so, we've basically given our government an interest-free loan, which, I'm sure they have found ways to use it. It would be interesting to find out how much money Uncle Sam gets from mere interest of tax revenues that are refunded.
Brian Russo said:I'm all for getting rid of filing taxes/etc. It seems like such an absurd thing to me. The whole concept of a 'refund' smacks of inefficiency. I mean what you're telling me is your system is so complicated and crappy that you actually need to overcharge me and then give me back money?
Ridiculous.
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It would be interesting to find out how much money Uncle Sam gets from mere interest of tax revenues that are refunded.
True, but imagine how much of it is spent on audits, IRS offices, training, etc.. The whole tax 'black box' simply sounds very inefficient (and pretty old). In my mind it's being more associated with 'black magic' rather than a straight forward process for citizens to support a healthy function of their own government. Seriously, how complicated can it be to establish a taxing system that is simple enough and actually makes sense? I am guessing investing some of that interest into such system could actually save $$ in the long run..
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