It makes me sad that all these spun cycles could have been put to use doing something productive if only the tax code were simplified and the IRS automatically pre-filled our taxes, as is done in other, saner countries.
Oh hey look its the "America backwards" trope again. How tiring.
Sure. The IRS could change things. But you're also able to do a lot more in America that they can't track. Other countries (e.g. Sweden, etc) are far "simpler", and homogeneous. For example, the depth at which one can trade various instruments, produce companies, etc is far far greater in America than almost anywhere else. This necessitates a somewhat (perhaps not as much as today) complicated tax code.
I would say this is very productive. The tax code isn't actually the problem. It's corporate interests like intuit who, through regulatory capture, make it impossible to truly solve the problem. Honestly, it cannot get easier than a 1040EZ which is what mostly everyone uses. In fact the 1040EZ is so easy you basically fill in the things to confirm the number the IRS already has is correct. OP, like myself, need more complicated solutions. I have a fairly vast portfolio of different investment types and OP has a business. In both cases, investing time into making the IRS's life difficult pays a return on par with bonds.
Not tiring at all, when it's not a trope. This forum contains a surprising number of posts of sometimes ridiculously blind US-praising that is rooted in simple ignorance of how things run elsewhere and in the US.
Concerning taxes though, I'll have to (quasi) side with you. 1040EZ is as easy as it gets. One could of course argue that in that case, in which the IRS has the numbers already, why do you have to be forced to do your taxes at all (think Germany).
The greatest fallacy of the pseudo-intelligent is comparing different first world countries to each other without considering demographics. It's a fallacy you have committed, along with everyone else who says "America is backwards lol". That is why it is a trope. It has nothing to do with American exceptionalism and everything to do with a relatively poor understanding of how we arrived here.
America is a punching bag for the rest of the first world because it has problems literally no other first world country has to face. Problems that are too innumerable to list here. Without considering the various reasons America is a Special Case (TM) in many ways, you're missing the greater point. Sure we could have a German tax system for the simplest filers. We got to the 1040EZ because we believe in theory governments should stay out of our business. Fundamentally this is a driver of the majority of the policies in America, and when viewed from the lens of other western countries it seems backwards because every country listed in comparison has a stronger, more involved, and (in my opinion) more dangerous government. Perhaps not dangerous now but given enough power and enough reason could become dangerous faster than America's current government system. In fact, the unparalleled level of power corporations in America have over things like tax law parallels the level of dangerous power governments have over their citizen's taxes elsewhere. It's an iteration on the same old process of control. Missing how they're the same it's simple to arrive at the conclusion America is the only "backwards" one. Usually this argument devolves into tax utility, which I won't get into here because that's a philosophical argument beyond the scope of the mocking of America that ALWAYS comes with this nonsense.
You should try to read and understand posts before you try to pull out your own "pseudo-intelligence". Nowhere have I written "America is backwards".
You're using 'how we arrived here' as a cheap excuse of an excuse to justify a status quo that is worse than it is in other places. That's the trope of American exceptionalism right there, to somehow find consolation in 3rd world conditions through repeated 'but we are god's own country, screw that even China has a higher life expectancy'. Really, the trope here is how the proud patriots of the richest, most powerful country in the world simultaneously feel superior to everyone, yet feel butthurt and threatened by essentially anything else on this planet that doesn't exactly act/think/look like they do.
> Sure we could have a German tax system for the simplest filers. We got to the 1040EZ because we believe in theory governments should stay out of our business.
That makes no sense whatsoever. As you write yourself, 1040EZ simply lets you confirm what the government already knows. The difference to the German system is that you still have to jump through hoops, roll over, and catch the ball when the government tells you to. I guess you also see the 'Obey the speed limit' signs in Texas as manifestation of supreme liberty, contrasted to the oppressive German 'no speed limit'.
Most other Western countries have much more powerful (= effective) checks and balances, as should have become exceedingly clear by the failure of the American system to keep an even openly criminal President and his attempted coup in check. That game is still not over. Most of Europe learnt that lesson by studying what went wrong in Germany 90 years ago.
Clearly you think that the government should stay out of your business. I think the opposite. I am also an American citizen. There are a large number of Americans who believe that America is backwards in many ways. The fact that you live in America means that you have to deal with this reality to some extent. You're of course free to leave high-handed comments anonymously on an internet forum, but you should recognize that that's all you're doing. Being more strident will not increase the validity of your position, nor will it reduce the number of people who disagree with you. Probably the opposite, if anything.
