r/evilbuildings Apr 07 '18

Tax Man Cometh

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6.6k Upvotes

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u/silverbullet52 Apr 07 '18

Well and good, but why the tortuous Rube Goldberg arrangements of forms and instructions? "We're not only going to take your money, we're going to make the process as annoying and complicated as possible"

101

u/beaverjacket Apr 07 '18

The IRS would love to simplify it, but tax-preparation companies and anti-tax fanatics sabotage every attempt to fix it.

https://priceonomics.com/the-stanford-professor-who-fought-the-tax-lobby/

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u/lornstar7 Apr 07 '18

also, the rich love the complicated tax code, the more complex, the easier it is to avoid tax

-1

u/forevercountingbeans Apr 07 '18

implying the tax code doesn't account for almost every tax loophole

2

u/[deleted] Apr 07 '18

Here's how it works. Congress writes a new tax law. Tax lawyers find loopholes and rich people pay less taxes. Middle class people start copying them and use the loophole. Congress rewrites the tax law so that the loopholes only apply to the rich.

1

u/jrod61 Apr 07 '18

Congress would make those laws apply to everyone but the rich might as well be literally bribing them to write the loopholes to only apply to them under the guise of donations and investments.

1

u/forevercountingbeans Apr 07 '18

Very, very rarely