| ▲ | kccqzy a day ago |
| Let’s say I rent a spare bedroom my home to someone; who’s going to report that income if not me? If your income is actually fully reported to the IRS (W-2 or various 1099) filing taxes is a breeze anyways. Use one of the several free (as in beer) software to take a picture of your forms and it generates the right form that you can submit electronically to the IRS. |
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| ▲ | throw0101d a day ago | parent | next [-] |
| > Let’s say I rent a spare bedroom my home to someone; who’s going to report that income if not me? How many people are in this situation? Or have other forms of income that are not part of their full-time job payroll? I know I don't, and most of my personal circle. Even if 'only' 50% of the population is covered by the situation of having solely one income via payroll, that's still half the country not having to faff about with tax forms or tax software. |
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| ▲ | voxic11 a day ago | parent | next [-] | | Like half my neighbors have some part time work that results in income they need to report themselves (mostly taking care of pets or horses or cleaning houses) and the other half let RVs stay on their property for rent. I live in a rural area but it seems really strange to me that you would expect all income to come with a W2. Basically everyone I know has at least some "peer to peer" income that involves no middleman or business. Now on the other hand I have no idea how many of those people are properly reporting their income. Some definitely do but I suspect many don't. | | |
| ▲ | throw0101d 7 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | > Like half my neighbors have some part time work that results in income they need to report themselves […] Which means half do not: so as I stated in last paragraph, this would help reduce the tomfoolery of forms and software for a lot of people. | |
| ▲ | KerrAvon a day ago | parent | prev [-] | | Why would anyone doing that bother? The sum total of all your neighbor's income, not even the taxes theoretically required, is a rounding error compared to the taxes Musk isn't paying. |
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| ▲ | a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | [deleted] | |
| ▲ | kccqzy 20 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | As long as we are trading anecdotes, well I’d say it is extremely common among my circle. Young tech employees bought oversized houses expecting them to appreciate, and rent out extra bedrooms to help pay their mortgage. |
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| ▲ | orwin 20 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Every transaction is electronically recorded since last month in France to simplify those cases. It created a few issues for small landlords (needed to update contracts, but it was easier to resign a new one for those who didn't have a legal team or legal support), which is not great, but it will simplify their tax papers from now on. It might be an issue for landlords who skimmed off the top of their multi-tenant houses, and for the few businesses who still refuse card payment and only accept cash (my cheesemonger was a bit salty about it). |
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| ▲ | fph a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Rental contracts must be registered with the authorities where I live. Not only to report income, but also to prevent illegal renting. |
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| ▲ | piker a day ago | parent [-] | | Okay so you obviously live in a country with a far different system. The U.S. tends towards a “trust but verify” approach. Both systems have their positives and negatives | | |
| ▲ | linsomniac a day ago | parent | next [-] | | >The U.S. tends towards a “trust but verify” The impression I get is the US tends towards a "protect the lobby income streams" approach. Specifically related to taxes: the IRS has the majority of the information it needs to just send you a tax bill/credit. And cases where they don't can be rectified by submitting that information which isn't (like rental income, which AFAIK you are supposed to be reporting and paying quarterly taxes on anyway). The reason they don't seems to largely be that the tax prep industry has lobbied to keep it from happening, and shut down "free file" by the IRS. | | |
| ▲ | elmer2 9 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | How is it protecting any 'lobby'? There are many free options. I've been filing taxes since I was 15 without the help of an accountant. The government would love to just take the money out anyway, it would mean the average person would pay no deductions and have more taken out without them even knowing. It's better to have some friction when it comes to taxes, so the population has an idea of what's being given to the government every year. When it's invisible, like in your country, citizens don't actually know what they're paying and the government can just spend it with no accountability. A similar example of this is the gas tax. It's not separated out and the government continues to raise it and blame the oil companies for the increase in cost. | | | |
| ▲ | twoodfin 20 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | [dead] |
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| ▲ | hendiatris a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I think you might be misunderstanding that phrase. | | | |
| ▲ | cwmoore a day ago | parent | prev [-] | | Quizzically, the old Russian proverb “trust but verify” is not the experience I expect from US governments, but rather “punish if caught”. |
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| ▲ | mopsi a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| You add that manually to your prefilled forms. In countries that have automated these things, there are often even wizards that ask you to confirm such things before you can approve and send the prefilled forms. Tax authorities put together as much as they can from their sources and you only have to add the missing parts, if there are any. And done. |
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| ▲ | Kevcmk a day ago | parent | prev [-] |
| I am pretty shocked that you'd defend the system of tax reporting in the US. Have you seen: [Intuit: Lobbying to Save TurboTax](https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=67211) Can I assume that you also oppose healthcare reform? |
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| ▲ | kccqzy a day ago | parent [-] | | I hate Intuit and support IRS free online filing. I know their lobbying and am proud that I have never paid a single cent to Intuit. I just don’t think tax reporting should be what OP describes: the taxpayer does nothing. It makes tax evasion far too simple for the multitude of the income unknown to the government. I supported and continued to support Obamacare. Your insinuation is a rude non sequitur. | | |
| ▲ | talideon a day ago | parent [-] | | > It makes tax evasion far too simple for the multitude of the income unknown to the government. What makes you think this any more widespread in countries with a form of PAYE than countries like the US where you're expected to do the work twice? | | |
| ▲ | kccqzy a day ago | parent [-] | | Intentionally omitting some income when submitting a form is a more deliberate act than doing nothing at all. |
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