5/3 If IRS has all the legal access it needs to verify whether or not
people cheat on their tax return, why doesn't it eliminate the tax
return and simply calculate the tax amount for everyone? Sure it'll
need a lot more computer and maybe human power, but the extra tax
dollars that it otherwise won't collect will probably more than cover
the cost.
\_ Do you *really* want the IRS figuring your tax for you? --dim
\_ Because you aren't required to pay taxes, only file a correct
return, what dim said x10000, and also there's a zillion different
life style deductions that they may not be aware of.
\_ which of course is a problem in itself. They need to wipe
the slate and have no deductions. Deductions don't help anyone,
for ex. mortgage deductions just make the prices of houses go
up by that much. Ok maybe they help e.g. Enron and rich fuckers.
\_ Of course deductions help. If you had any clue about tax law
you'd know that mortgage deduction phase out as you make more
money. Higher income people (like me and I'm just some slob
posting on the motd from work) don't get most of the mortgage
deduction and people making only slightly more get none. So
the next time you want to go bash the rich please at least
have some tiny shred of clue what you're babbling about.
\_ Mortgage deductions don't phase out. They aren't phased
out for me and I'm "rich." Anyway my point was that if
we all get mortgage deductions, it just makes more demand
at a given price point therefore net result is that
we're just the same only houses cost more. If there
was no deduction we'd have the same purchasing power.
\_ That is crap. You need a better tax advisor. Income
has nothing to do with mortgage deduction. There is
a 1M mortgage cap, but it does not phase out. You get
all of the interest deduction on your 1M loan no matter
how much you make.
\- well you know there are laws about smoke detectors ... so why
doesnt the govt just install all smoke detectors. obviously it
should be up to you how much "optimizing" to do on your tax return.
if you read the tax booklet you will notice there is an option
to have the irs compute you tax for you. however, they are almost
certainly just going to add up you incomes an subtract the std
deduction and then figure out the number. --psb |