Comment by Dalewyn | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Dalewyn | Hacker News Reader

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>The US system is incredibly complex.

To give some idea for our not-American friends, here's a very general, far too simplified gist of how the tax system is laid out:

* Federal taxes, overseen by the IRS.

* State taxes, separate and independent from Federal taxes and overseen by the governments of each State.

* County taxes, mostly separate and independent from State taxes and overseen by each county's government.

* Municipal taxes, mostly separate and independent from County taxes and overseen by each municipality.

Taxpayers need to file their taxes with the IRS (Federal), their State, their County, and if applicable their Municipality. No, these taxes are not handled together in the bureaucratic machine (for good reason; individual rights and all that).

The reasons for the complexity are rooted in how the United States is structured politically, where having certain rights and freedoms at each level of governance is a very big deal.

But literally even JUST THE FEDERAL taxes is incredibly complex.

As far as income taxes, the state income taxes have always been pretty simple for me. City even simpler, and I've lived place with and without them. Most of the complexity is federal (although in part because state and city take the income from the federal as their starting point). But that's enough! And sure, adding more on top doesn't help.

The federal taxes keep adding complexity, even for people with relatively simple situations. It's true for low-wage earners who don't have many assets, federal taxes can be... relatively simple. Maybe as simple as European ones. I dunno, it's a mess.

This problems exist in many other countries with fully automated taxing for salarymen.

This complexity does not require a private tax prep industry for 99% of taxpayers.

All of the various tax collection agencies already manage to do all the work necessary to determine my tax bill. They do it every year.

Here in Germany, the state tax authorities coordinate collecting taxes and forward them to the federal government.

Not all counties nor municipalities have yearly local taxes.

MOST counties and municipalities do not have local income taxes.

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