Yeah. Some of that complexity has affected us. We sometimes have capital gains. And my husband keeps track of which shares he sells and what their basis was, which takes a lot of record-keeping. And there was a time when we hired a full time babysitter and the taxes were very burdensome. But a lot of the form, even if you are self-employed, is straightforward. And i believe that a very large majority of Americans could have had a “sign here if this looks correct” tax experience if the IRS had been allowed to build that.
One question that just occurs to me is how many people have health insurance via the ACA, i.e. Obamacare. Anyone who does has to attach another, quite complicated, tax form to figure out the correct amount of subsidy. Those are probably not wealthy people, for the most part.
My taxes have been complicated by the following factors in different years:
Working multiple jobs
Working freelance
Withdrawing from pissant retirement accounts ($1000 is a lot of money when you’re really poor after a contract job ends in your early 20s)
Working abroad
Buying property
Renting property
Inheriting money
Some of these, some complications make sense, but many of them didn’t need to be that ridiculously complex. When combining the “abroad” with the “freelance,” I started getting in trouble with the IRS, because their own rules have a slight Catch-22. (You have to do something in two different ways on forms that force you to pick one of them.)
They should have those everywhere! Especially in Japan. That way we could have Chip Truck at Budokan*
*I always thought the actual album was entitled “Live at Budokan” which is what I have always called it but there’s actually no “live” in the title.
Benchmark obfuscation. If you can generate a bag of cash privately and can afford a tax guy with some wit you can avoid all sorts of govt fees and get hooked up with obscure incentives. Once you have a bit of cash you can protect and grow it with a competent money manager.
Getting a chunk of change young enough to matter is the catch, but the wealthy just give it to their kids.
That is the reason.
I believe that some tax legislation in the past was genuinely motivated by a sense of fairness and some as a means of “social engineering,” a way to push individuals in a direction which benefits society at large. I could say much the same thing about the NFL rulebook, however, and now both are nightmares to navigate.
That is the Bait. The Switch is the lobbyists handing new legislation to elected officials (who will want to become lobbyists when they’re out of office) for govt approval, but written by lawyers working for corporations.
They all know.
Great example is Farm Subsidies. Only 3 percent of Americans are Farmers and it is a tough necessary job and so the public is sympathetic to giving ma and pa a few tax breaks so they can keep their farm. The FARM SUBSIDY BILL is passed with flag waving and fanfare and a few provisions help ma and pa, but most are huge tax breaks to the thousand acre industrial farms that will soon gobble up ma and pa’s business. So next year 2 percent of Americans are Farmers.
I have to admit, while 99% of the signage in Japan is in Japanese* with no accomodation for English speakers, I got along marvelously well with about 25 words and a lot of pointing. A polite society they are, even if they are trash-talking me behind my back (I was one of the very very very few brown people I ever saw there, I saw one other Indian family, a few black people, and almost no Spanish).
*This made for a few hilarious moments where we would come upon a sign that the only English word would be “Attention!” or “Danger!” :eek: What am I paying attention to? Scared!
I also loved the vending machines everywhere soooo much. It was 95 degrees every day I was there except one day when it was 97 so I used them constantly.
Japanese SUVs! I wish I could get one of their tiny little SUVs here in the States.
Azores: I loved the laid-back atmosphere. Someone said it upthread. No one ever rushed you at restaurants. If you lingered over your drinks they didn’t keep coming back to check on you. They brought the food and left you the fuck alone. They didn’t ask you if you were doing ok, or if you needed a box. You could summon them and they would rush right over but it was so relaxing.
Public transportaion is a good one. I took the bus for many years here and it’s always dirty and smells like pee because of some homeless guy. Not polite but the truth unfortunately. And I got hit on so much on the buses. Japan everyone minds their own business. I was warned about groping and all that but instead people were so in their own circle they didn’t seem to want to touch. I remember crossing Shibuya crossing - twice - and being amazed that no one seemed to bump into anyone.
I loved the cat robots in Japan and then I saw one here!
I actually really liked the tinkling and the chimes in Japanese restrooms, I felt like it was more privacy. Especially if you are a bit pee-shy.
Reminds me of one of my favorite (read: most frustrating) things I ever had to do with the government. When I got married I had to update my name on my title for my license. I did this at the DMV. The DMV and the title burea share a building. Like, there is a divider and DMV counters are on the right, and title bureau counters are on the left. Do you think they share documentation? NOPE! You have to file in both places, separately, with different forms. Did anyone tell me this? NOPE!
More hazelnut flavored stuff.
I guess you could say I’m pee-shy-curious.
Traffic lights wlith a flashing green.
Before the green turns to yellow, it blinks twice on-and-off.
This reduces the driver’s need to guess whether he has time to make it through the green light up ahead…
Japanese cars in general. I drive a truck because it’s the only thing that’s comfortable to me as a big guy. But when I visited Japan about 15 years ago, my host had what would be a “compact sedan” in North America, but with so much interior space I could fit in it quite easily. How the hell can the Japanese build a car like that, but we can’t get them in North America?!?
They must pass the safety standards of California, the 5th largest economy on Earth by itself. Need space for the crumple zones and airbags so either the car gets bigger the interior gets smaller or both.
Need a cite that Japanese cars don’t have these.
Apparently, everywhere but the U.S. sells cokes during the Christmas season that turn the label into a bow.
Traffic lights with flashing green means something quite different here. In Vancouver, it’s flashing green when the perpendicular road only has stop signs. So flashing green is “you have right of way, but check for cross traffic just in case.”
Edit: we have separate signs for “the light is about to turn yellow” on faster roads. It’s designed so that you only see them if you won’t make the green.
That’s pretty cool.
Interesting. The yellow light, after all, is to warn you it’s about to turn red. How many steps back are we going to wind up taking this? The light in the other direction(s) isn’t going to turn green until the one in your lane goes red; you don’t have to beat the yellow, you only need to beat the red. At least, not around here. Are some places ticketing people for being in the intersection on the yellow?
Thanks for that. I’m always confused when I drive to Vancouver. But never bothered to look it up.
They started using yellow center lines earlier than that. They were common in the 60s when I learned to drive.
I’m in Australia.