Slashdot Asks: How Do You Pay Your Taxes? 386
April 15, 2014 isn't just a full moon: it's Tax Day in the U.S. That means most American adults have already submitted a tax return, or an extension request, to the IRS and -- except for a few lucky states -- to their state governments as well. I filed my (very simple) tax return online. After scanning the free options, since I live in a state -- Texas -- that does not collect personal income tax, I chose Tax Act's free services. That meant enduring a series of annoying upgrade plugs throughout the process, but I could live with that; I have no reason to think it was better or worse than TurboTax or any of the other e-Filing companies, but I liked Tax Act’s interface, and it seemed less skeevy in all those upgrade plugs than the others I glanced at. The actual process took an hour and 19 minutes once I sat down with the papers I needed. My financial life is pretty simple, though: I didn't buy or sell a house, didn't buy or sell stocks outside of a retirement account mutual fund, and didn't move from one state to another. How do you do your taxes? Do you have an argument for one or another of the online services, or any cautionary tales? Do you prefer to send in forms on paper? Do you hire an accountant? (And for readers outside the U.S., it's always interesting to hear how taxes work in other countries, too. Are there elements of the U.S. system you'd prefer, or that you're glad you don't need to deal with?)
Re:Paper and US Postal Service (Score:5, Insightful)
"Tax returns and their computations are merely a simple mathematical puzzle, which I easily solve."
None of the operations are very complex (add, subtract, multiply, divide), but knowing which numbers to perform those computations on, is sometimes far from simple. Get some K-1 income at some point, and see if you think taxes are still a "simple" puzzle.
Re:base it around my OS (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't trust tax software, so I did all my calculations using the 1040 instructions and a spreadsheet. Then I put the info back into H&R Block Online (so that I could e-file federal and state for free) and checked the PDF output against my calculations before submitting the return.
Maybe I'm paranoid, but I think that's the only safe way to use tax software.
Re:We don''t do tax returns in the UK,you insensit (Score:4, Insightful)
People should have to see their tax burden all in one sheet. Really, we should all have to write a check or use cash to pay our taxes.
It should hurt. The more it hurts, the more likely people will vote for politicians who can control spending.
Most people have no idea how much they pay in taxes.
Re:We don''t do tax returns in the UK,you insensit (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:In Switzerland (Score:2, Insightful)
If you file taxes in the US and send in your personal information to the IRS, electronically or on paper, I guarantee you it's stored pretty close to a whole bunch of Java apps.
Re:How do you do your taxes? (Score:4, Insightful)
I pay my taxes through automatic withdrawals from every paycheck. On Apr 15 I submit documentation of my tax liability and we settle up with any overages/underages.