If it also does my taxes automatically, sign me up.
Dealing with taxes takes like 5 minutes each year. It is all electronic. Just like you can sign anything electronically using encryption keys for any nationally reckognized ID system in Norway. I just electronically signed papers to start a company. 15 minute process online.
Its pretty much the same in the USA if you just have income from a standard job. You send them your W2 form with the last year's salary and make sure everything is right. If you're self-employed, earned income some other way (capital gains, etc), or live in a state with additional state income tax, you have to fill out some more forms.
Then it gets a bit complicated calculating deductions. Which means you have to put in some effort if you want to lower your effective tax rate. There's deductions for everything under the sun since the tax code is very complex. You get some money back if you paid interest on student loans, have kids, bought a house, spend money on office supplies, gave to charity, etc. Some people spend a few hundred on a tax advisor to do it for them and still come out ahead. Many people simply don't bother and let the money go. The IRS only comes after you if you underpay, not overpay.
The US is deliberatly difficult because
1) Companies make a fortune selling "solutions" to this, thus spend a lot of money ensuring it continues
2) Americans don't like taxes, so by making it more obvious the government is taking your tax money, and making it painful in the process, to fund their military, it helps cement that idea there's should be a small state
The US takes 27% of the GDP in tax, the UK 33%, although personal taxes for normal people tend to be about the same, its just that the US pretty much requires an accountant, or at least some expensive proprietary software, and hours of your time.
That would be another thing that would be great for the GAO (U.S. Government Accountability Office (U.S. GAO)) to produce reports about.
Where are (my / your) Tax dollars going? How does that compare to other countries, in absolute, per person, GDP and other metrics, etc?
They do report that.
https://datalab.usaspending.gov/americas-finance-guide/spend...
https://datalab.usaspending.gov/about/
""Who We Are
This site was created by the Office of the Chief Data Officer at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (Fiscal Service), which is part of the Department of the Treasury. Fiscal Service is responsible for managing public debt, central payment systems, and government accounting. Our team is comprised of data analysts, developers, and UX designers who are passionate about putting trusted data in the hands of the people.""
So that site is created by the disbursement arm of the bureaucracy, which explains the overly generic output bins as well as no metric for adjusting based on taxes paid in by an individual, nor for area of the country. I was rather hoping for something with an order of magnitude or two of greater depth that dynamically adjusted the context of graphical representation based on what mattered to the viewer.
I don't think taxes goes to healthcare (either in France or the UK). I think that's paid up for with your social security contribution?
NI is about 19% of tax revenue, Income Tax 27%, VAT 18%, local taxes (council tax and business rates) about 10%.
It doesn't include other receipts, things like profits from state owned business.
Total government revenue (about 10% higher than total taxation) does not cover total government expenditure, hence a deficit, and some branches of economics considers revenue and expenditure separate in a system which controls its own currency.
Either way, the US spends more on government healthcare (per head of total population) then the UK, the decision not to have universal healthcare isn't a funding one
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_hea...
The US as a whole in 2019 spent 16% of its GDP on Health, 4% on Military
The UK meanwhile spent 10% on Health and 3% on Military
Caused a few wars though
There is no CBDC needed for that.
(In fact, all the article’s fears about payment prevention and free speech restriction are all possible without CBDC, and already in place in some segments that gained popular support, which minorities and SW have been complaining about across the decades.)
For most people, no. However, as you make your way up the income bracket or acquire investments or property it gets more and more complicated.
…and if you mess it up the IRS will be sure to tell you what you’ve done wrong and what you actually owed.
(check username)