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Comment by smeagull | Hacker News Reader

In my country I don't need to do anything. They calculate the tax, and if I owe anything extra, or am owed a return, I get mail about it.

But there are downsides too, we also have free healthcare and the last school shooting was more than 80 years ago.

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Yeah, but are you free, though? /s

I know in Vietnam, they kind of do this too. Employers pay employee tax directly from the paychecks and it is based on salary. So a lot of the companies report that their employees make less, or they pay the employee part of their salary in cash (if it a cash business).

I'm curious how you know they aren't cheating you somehow? Also, how could their numbers be off (high/low)? In the US, there are all sorts of 'deductions' you can take and potential areas where you may owe more, which is why you can't just rely on the IRS to do it for you... they wouldn't know the data.

> But there are downsides too, we also have free healthcare and the last school shooting was more than 80 years ago.

sigh...

> I'm curious how you know they aren't cheating you somehow?

How do we know that now, in the US? I don't know the details of tax calculations; I get money deducted from my paychecks, I pay a website so I can copy information from many confusing forms onto one confusing form, and then I get some money. It's inscrutable to most people.

And frankly, the for-profit system is currently cheating us, so...

I think PP is saying that the government won't know what deductions to give you if it's a "one-click file" system. Sounds like the proposed solution by the IRS won't be a one-click file system, but something like TurboTax where the filer can elect their own deductions.

Most things involving money are intentionally set up to be confusing. The pet insurance scam is a great example of that. 99% of the time, you're better off putting that money into a savings account and letting it compound a bit against inflation.

Tax laws are insanely complex. Even if you hire an accountant, chances are they are going to miss some deductions or not optimize things perfectly for you. Especially given their whole business model revolves around getting as many clients as they can and being overly busy just a few times a year.

If you really want to be sure, you have to learn this stuff yourself. There are a lot more people willing to take money from you than there are to help you keep it.

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