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The truth is everyone is ignorant of the law. The law has become so vast and so complex and so lengthy and so intrusive that not one person on earth can know more than a tiny corner of it.
It's even worse for tax law. The dual tax system is deliberate. One part if for the people who pay taxes. The other is for the tax lawyers, CPAs, H.R. Blocks, and other vultures that feed off of them.
It was better when the law was the 10 Commandment or the four books of Moses. At least people could know them. And obeying them produced better people than obeying the current mish-mash does.
It’s not being a vulture on the system.
A simple system can’t answer questions like...
Why income should go to one state versus another? Why one state factors their apportionment one way vs another....do you favor companies inside the state or outside? Do you favor industries that have more payroll in your state or more sales? Do you want R&d facilities or manufacturering sites? How to handle a stock sale versus an asset sale....how do you handle transfer pricing? How do you handle differences between gaap accountIng and tax accounting....what about all of the different international accounting systems.....how do you handle deferred tax assets and liabilities...how must companies combine groups in your state? How will you handle federal taxes flowing down to your state? How do you account for the numerous kinds of business structures in taxation who have different advantages and disadvantages? How do you account for different buckets of income? How would you treat people who pollute or abandon structures and property? Do you incentivize capital investment? Do you incentivize hiring in poorer areas? How do you treat companies with different debt and equity structures? What is defined as compensation? Do you reward companies for creating new jobs that pay higher than the areas average? What is manufacturing? Where does it begin or end? Is farming an important industry? We could go on all day. It can’t be simplified.
The economy is complex. There’s no way to simplify the tax code that goes across local, state, and national boundaries. Every state has a different economy. Cities within those states have different economies...nations are different with different ways of conducting different businesses in different currencies....they have entirely different spending needs for defense or education....they have different systems entirely of raising revenue. The companies have different capital structures....they operate within different central bank cycles...
The complexity of the rules are in place generally to stop abuse and to shape behavior. This web is needed to deal with the intelligent who would find ways to avoid a simple system. A simple system doesn’t function. Even a complex system is constantly evolving to catch up to or defeat attempts to avoid it. A simple, inflexible one stands no chance.
Last edited by Thatsright19; 02-12-2018 at 08:17 AM..
The lovely thing about the divide between the uninformed and the informed is that any time one of the uninformed becomes tired of being uninformed, all he has to do is to put in a little bit of effort and he can move himself into the informed camp.
In many areas of information, a few minutes of googling will move the uninformed into the informed group. No more than two hours of googling will move the uninformed about how to pay the lowest amount of taxes to the informed group.
All of which is free, baring a couple of hours of time.
You don't even have to google, OP, I'll give you the information for free, no effort on your part: when you sell your magazines, you can take that income tax free simply by filling out the correct IRS forms when you file your taxes.
The lovely thing about the divide between the uninformed and the informed is that any time one of the uninformed becomes tired of being uninformed, all he has to do is to put in a little bit of effort and he can move himself into the informed camp.
In many areas of information, a few minutes of googling will move the uninformed into the informed group. No more than two hours of googling will move the uninformed about how to pay the lowest amount of taxes to the informed group.
All of which is free, baring a couple of hours of time.
You don't even have to google, OP, I'll give you the information for free, no effort on your part: when you sell your magazines, you can take that income tax free simply by filling out the correct IRS forms when you file your taxes.
It’s actually even simpler than that. With how simple it’s to prepare a 1040 for most of the population and the software that exists, you don’t even need to understand anything about taxes to complete the return with a pretty reasonable assurance that it’s accurate. You don’t need to understand the law or any of the forms.
If you’re smart enough to answer yes or no questions and hit the “next” box, you’re flying high.
Individual tax COMPLIANCE is basically a commodity.
A childless adult working full time at minimum wage pays $468 in 2017 federal income tax.
Where did you get the idea this worker "doesn't pay any"?\\
THIS ought to be good.
Where did you get that number? Before or after personal exemption and standard deduction?
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