US Tax Code Complexity
The cluster focuses on debates about the excessive complexity of the US tax code, its role in enabling loopholes, policy incentives, and lobbying by companies like Intuit to prevent simplification or government alternatives.
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You don't. The complexity of the tax code isn't a bug, its a feature because people don't want a simple code, they want a simple code _with_ all the exemptions they're likely to use.
Tax laws need to be much, much simpler. The more complicated they are, the easier it will be for people to sneak by without paying and for loopholes to exist. It's the same thing that happens when a program drifts away from triviality - the probability of bugs increases greatly. Make tax laws trivial, and most of these problems - and most of the need for the IRS - would go away.
Meh, tax code is still grossly over-complicated in the US, simplifying it would help everyone.
The problem is not who prepares your taxes. The problem is how complicated taxes are.
Because the tax code is too complicated.
Not really. At least in the US, the tax code is lobbied to be kept intentionally confusing so that TurboTax et al can continue to make a lot of money off doing it for you.
You're not wrong in saying that tax codes in general are complex. The problem is, they're complex for a reason.Tax codes are a tool of policy makers. They allow wealth and income distribution. They allow compensation. And they allow policy makers to promote or penalize specific behaviors or activities.Look at the legal system as a code base (in French, 'law' translates to 'code'). And imagine having 538 product owners, each asking for 'just one feature&#x
Complexity of the tax code is just part of the system Intuit wants. If taxes were simple you wouldn't have to pay for unique software right?
Intuit isn’t the problem. Politicians are. See Milton Friedman on this subject. A complicated tax code is used to reward and punish people. The tax code was complex long before Intuit came around.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TruCIPy79w8
A complicated tax code isn't the problem. The tax code can be as complicated as can be, so long as it is computed automatically by the state from the data it already receives, which is the part that Intuit is blocking.