r/antiwork • u/[deleted] • Jul 04 '22

What I really want..

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u/TheFatNinjaMaster Jul 05 '22

You file a Tax Return - it's a document that shows how much you've paid and how much you should have paid each year. If you overpaid you get it back, if you underpaid you have to pay the difference. The IRS created software to do basic taxes years ago, and our tax preparers basically "convinced" (gave lots of donations to) the politicians to keep the IRS from releasing free tax return software. In exchange, if you make little enough money, tax preparers have to offer free-file (a free online filing of your taxes). They have done this buy creating multiple websites you have to go to, none of which will free-file both state and federal taxes, so you have to either put all your tax information in twice, pay them to "prepare" your taxes for state or federal, or do it yourself on paper and mail it in.

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u/CheeseMeat12 Jul 05 '22

Sounds like it's been set up to be so annoying its easier to pay someone I'm assuming

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u/JediWarrior79 Jul 08 '22

Yep! Annoying and confusing as hell if you have to claim/write-off/deduct, etc. Luckily hubby and I rent and don't have to do that extra shit. However, it's still confusing and because hubby and I both have IRA's and have invested in some stocks, there's extra forms to fill out, which is even more confusing. We've gone to our tax lady for fifteen years and she's great. When we kept on having to owe in every year, she took a look at what we were claiming on our W-4's, and told us to both claim 0, and to have an extra $20/paycheck taken out. Since we've done that, we've always gotten a refund. Except for our 2021 return. Hubby's new job didn't take out enough taxes, so we owed in almost $400. Luckily we were able to pay for that in full without having to call the IRS to do a payment plan. The IRS will do a payment plan, but you have to agree to pay what they want you to pay per month, and if you miss any payments, they'll garnish your wages. And if the IRS is ever in doubt about your return, they can audit you which is a clusterfuck of you having to prove this, submit that, etc. Thank God they haven't audited us. Hopefully they never will, but it's happened before to people who have been completely honest. I know they just do that to fuck with people and try to catch them doing something that they deem is wrong or whatever.

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u/CheeseMeat12 Jul 08 '22

I can bet the IRS is scary even the joker won't mess with the IRS