• starman2112@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    if they can handle about an hour of basic paperwork,

    People make it out like tax filing is like travelling to Ry’leh and transcribing eldritch runes, but it’s made pretty dead simple. Put the number from one box in piece of paper A into the corresponding box in piece of paper B. If it has you do a math, you can just… Do a math. Pull out your calculator and subtract the amount you’ve paid so far from the amount you owe. Is the result a negative number? Congratulations! You’re getting a return! Is the number positive? Oh no! That’s how much you need to pay the IRS!

    I get that for some people it is significantly more complicated than that, but if you work one job where you make some number of dollars per hour and you don’t invest in the stock market or cryptocurrency, it’s virtually idiotproof.

    • duffman@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      8 months ago

      People are afraid of trying and making mistakes because the consequences may be severe. When you get into stocks, crypto, homeownership, etc, the forma start piling up. I had a company mess up our taxes one year and correcting it, with a tax professional, took hours.