Tax Day in America 2013

Happy Tax Day 2013 to all of my fellow Americans. For those of you who don’t live in the USA, today, April 15th, is the day that Americans are required to file their federal income taxes. In a pseduo-social farce, taxes must be postmarked today (that is, stamped by the US Postal Service as received) so some post offices stay open until midnight to collect, and postmark tax returns.

2013 Tax Tables graphicWhile U.S. income taxes are needlessly complex, the fact remains that most people whose only income is reported on W2 forms could very easily do their taxes via a simple interface. In fact, there are those who advocate the IRS pre-completing the base taxes for Americans. Of course, this runs into very stiff, and frankly very underhanded, resistance from those who profit on the misery of Americans completing their tax reforms. Apparently, this year, Intuit, makers of TurboTax have a campaign going where seemingly “independent” and (formerly) respected members of the community are publishing letters against such a thing.

Penalties for not filing taxes on time can be relatively stiff on a percentage basis. If you can’t get your taxes done in time, don’t worry you can easily file an extension for your taxes.

Oh, and by the way, if you own your own business or have any non-W2 income, today is also the due date for your first estimated quarterly tax payments.

Happy Tax Day!

If you want to know more about how the makers of TurboTax do shifty lobbying against easy tax completion.

TurboTax’s phony “grassroots” campaign against easy taxes.

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