Does anyone else hate taxes?

[mlmpetert]

It was my junior year at VCU, I had to take a tax accounting class as part of my major. Sec. 183 Hobby Loss Rules. Basically the IRS doesn’t want people to have “businesses” that are in fact hobbies taking the deduction from their other income sources. Example. You make 150k at your sole crushing job. Your spouse runs a “business” like a nursery, farm, craft making, car restoring, painting or something else that takes up time but doesn’t earn money. People used to call these hobbies business so they could deduct the losses against the income their spouse earned. I think in the 70’s the IRS put a stop to this by adding in the Sec 183 Hobby Loss Rules. Basically you can take losses (cost of business) against the income your hobby earns, but you cant take it against the other income earned in your household unless your hobby makes more then it losses in a 3 out of a 5 year period. This is true for all but one exception. If your hobby involves horses (breading, racing, showing, ext). If horses are your hobby you are in luck; you only have to earn a profit for your hobby in 2 out of 7 years for it to be considered a business to take a tax deduction.

I remember my teacher telling me the details around this. I think there was a senator that had family members with horses so he put in this earmark. It was at that point that I lost a lot faith in government and despised our tax system not only because of its complexity but now also because of its “unfairness”. Don’t fool yourself into thinking our code is progressive, its not. Only rich people own horses.

Back when I was 15 and had my first W2 earning job I quickly learned to dislike taxes like most everyone else. Back then it was not just because of the decrease in what you take home but the complexity surrounding them. I think it took me a good 3 or 4 jobs before I could finally fill out my withholding forms (W-4) without help, because of the terminology. I did 1040EZ's until 3 years ago and the first time I remember doing it I thought it was complicated as all hell (the 1040EZ!). Ive always done my taxes the old fashion way, because im somewhat of a masochist and it keeps me fresh on knowing limits and stuff, but this year I have a complex tax situation and I might break and use turbo tax. I haven’t decided yet. I am also a procrastinator.

My other big beef is capital gains. Why should capital gains be taxed? If you told a Founding Father his after tax money (money he already paid taxes on) that he used to invest in someone or something would be taxed again on any gains it earned, he would challenge you to a duel. He really would. Taxes on capital gains is almost as absurd as taxes on interest.

I work with a CPA and his big beef with taxes is the intellectual property America has that’s tied up in tax code. As of 2006 there were 1,274,000 accountants. Most accountants out there, particularly ones with credentials, are pretty smart people. Imagine if they were all doctors, entrepreneurs, teachers or something better then bean counters.

Now that most of us are officially tackling tax season, what do you guys hate about taxes the most?

[SolidSnake84]

having to have money deducted from you all year, and STILL having to pay out more during tax time...

[TheMalcolmConnection]

Being conflicted on whether or not I should take deductions..

Basically I LOVE getting a nice fat lump sum payout from the government come tax time, but I HATE the idea that I've been giving Uncle Sam an interest-free loan.

Now if I didn't take all my deductions to where I'd have to pay in, I'd be super pissed!

[mredskins]

When I use to have to do only a 1040EZ it was filled out in crayon every year. My way of saying f you to the govt.

Real it is the state forum that is the biggest bitch.

[mlmpetert]

Originally Posted by mredskins

When I use to have to do only a 1040EZ it was filled out in crayon every year. My way of saying f you to the govt.

Real it is the state forum that is the biggest bitch.

Even when they "owe" me money i always mail my form in. No e-file for me, im not making the IRS's job easier. I also like to staple the shit out of all my stuff, you dont want to loose anything. I also will take my refund in old fashioned check form, im not going to afford modern convinces like direct deposit to the IRS.

This is something that really grinds my gears:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040v.pdf

If you owe money you DO NOT have to fill out this form. Just staple your check to the top of your 1040. Thats all thats needed.

[saden1]

Originally Posted by mlmpetert

Even when they "owe" me money i always mail my form in. No e-file for me, im not making the IRS's job easier. I also like to staple the shit out of all my stuff, you dont want to loose anything. I also will take my refund in old fashioned check form, im not going to afford modern convinces like direct deposit to the IRS.

This is something that really grinds my gears:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040v.pdf

If you owe money you DO NOT have to fill out this form. Just staple your check to the top of your 1040. Thats all thats needed.

LOL...the IRS budget increased by 4.3% in 2009 and is expected to increase 5.2% in 2010...guess who pays their bills.

[saden1]

I don't mind paying my taxes...even with all my deductions it doesn't take me more than 1 hour to e-file. Seriously, half of my form is auto filled from the previous year. Last year I forgot to report some stocks I sold, IRS send me a letter telling me their is discrepancy and to send them a new Schedule D...I did, and a month later they sent me $100 check back.

I don't understand all the hate, it really is easy.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by saden1

I don't mind paying my taxes...even with all my deductions it doesn't take me more than 1 hour to e-file. Seriously, half of my form is auto filled from the previous year. Last year I forgot to report some stocks I sold, IRS send me a letter telling me their is discrepancy and to send them a new Schedule D...I did, and a month later they sent me $100 check back.

I don't understand all the hate, it really is easy.

Try owning a small corporation and doing two tax returns. Last year I finally received a refund from both the Fed. and the State an so this year the state sent me a 1099 so I have to report the refund as income. What the he!! is that about. I don't mind paying a fair tax rate but it tickets me off knowning that probably 50% of what I pay is getting waisted. Thats why I'm against raising taxes and when they can cut waist then maybe we can talk about tax rates. It cost me around $2700 a year to have my CPA do my tax returns and my payroll taxes. I've thought about trying turbo tax but there is just too much money on the table for me too screw it up.

[mlmpetert]

Originally Posted by saden1

I don't mind paying my taxes...even with all my deductions it doesn't take me more than 1 hour to e-file. Seriously, half of my form is auto filled from the previous year. Last year I forgot to report some stocks I sold, IRS send me a letter telling me their is discrepancy and to send them a new Schedule D...I did, and a month later they sent me $100 check back.

I don't understand all the hate, it really is easy.

Its "easy" if you hire a program or an accountant to do most of the work for you. Did your custodian provide you with all the information on the stocks you sold to claim your loss in a nice yearend tax form, or did you have go through account statements to retrieve all the information. Again if you hire someone to do it for your (your custodian) its easy. If you dont its difficult. If you want to try to understand whats going on its extremely difficulty. Tax accountants dont fall into high tax brackets because their jobs are easy.

Its not fair to have a code so complex that we are forced to buy turbo tax or hire a accountant.

Heres a good artical:

George F. Will commentary: GOP has good ideas; just ask Paul Ryan | Columbus Dispatch Politics

"Today's tax system was shaped by sadists who were trying to be nice: Every wrinkle in the code was put there to benefit this or that interest. Since the 1986 tax simplification, the code has been recomplicated more than 14,000 times -- more than once a day."

[CRedskinsRule]

Taxes are a necessity. The bureaucratic foolishness that is the united states tax code, or individual state codes is ridiculous. I think one of the biggest failures of the Republicans in the Contract years was the failure to implement any sort of rational flat tax. And the failure of Congress, and the House in particular, to ever show any restraint in spending is the impetus for much of the anger expressed in the overwhelming anti-incumbent sentiment.

[budw38]

I just wish it were easier , simplified . I would also like to see Washington dramaticly stop wasting so much . As far as Capitol gains , just keep it at 15 % < would like 10% > , and cut dividend taxes . I doubt congress will manage our money any better . And let us have saving accounts as an option in what we have to pay into SS .

[Schneed10]

Taxes come somewhat naturally to me because I'm a financial analyst by trade, but it still takes me a good 3 hours to go through my return and make sure I'm understanding all of it.

But I have to give kudos to Obama, my refund was $800 larger than it otherwise would have been, thanks to the Making Work Pay credit. Same for all of you married folks out there, you single folks saw a $400 boost.

Sometimes the complicated stuff actually goes your way.

[budw38]

Senator Charles E. Schumer .... Cato Launches New Web Site Exposing Wasteful Government Spending | Cato @ Liberty

[mooby]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

Taxes come somewhat naturally to me because I'm a financial analyst by trade, but it still takes me a good 3 hours to go through my return and make sure I'm understanding all of it.

But I have to give kudos to Obama, my refund was $800 larger than it otherwise would have been, thanks to the Making Work Pay credit. Same for all of you married folks out there, you single folks saw a $400 boost.

Sometimes the complicated stuff actually goes your way.

I don't know about anybody else but I love my taxes. Maybe it's cuz the last two years I've gotten a nice sized check back but I look forward to gettin my W2's haha. And I was definitely happy I got that Making Work Pay credit as well, it doubled my return this year. Doing taxes whether through paper or Turbotax for my feds these last three years has been real easy for me, probably because I file single and don't have to worry about all those variables that most people do, but I like it when it's simple like that. I'm not looking forward to the days where I have to hire someone to do mine for me because it's too complicated for me to understand lol.

[mlmdub130]

taxes are the bain of my existance, running your own bussiness is a real bitch when it comes to taxes, last year i had to wire a check to the state of va for $1, one fucking dollar, it had to have cost the state over $500 to process my $1, the government blows my mind sometimes