It's very hard to find the motivation to pay taxes to a federal government that doesn't represent me. "No taxation without representation" drove the revolution against our original king after all...
this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2025
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Now that it's clear the Federal government is just using tax money to give to billionaires, it's going to be extra painful this year. It genuinely just feels like a protection racket now. Pay money to the ruling class, or their enforcers will haul you away to prison.
Out of curiosity, were you of voting age in 2016?
Yes, and I voted for Hillary, for all the good it did.
I ended up owning $38
fucking win! I'm not going look at the total paid in thought, it's much much more than $1.2k
Taxes are not the problem. Billionaires grabbing the money on the other side are the problem.
Know the difference
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(7 replies)
Isn't it actually better to owe rather than have a refund? Because if they owe you, then that means they over-withheld from you paychecks throughout the year and its essentially the government borrowing money from you without any interest.
They do give you interest, but it's not as good as you can get from investing it elsewhere. And if you owe student loans, they can yoink your return before you were otherwise going to pay the debt.
In the Norwegian tax system, if you pay too much taxes trough the year from your paycheck, you get interest on the amount you paid to much. Likewise, if you pay too little taxes throughout the year, you will have to pay interest on the amount you have yet to pay. So the system is supposed to be balanced in that regard. The interest is on the level of a savings account (3.51% annual atm), so you could make an argument that saving that in a index stock or good bond is a better ROI though, so still recommended to try to not pay too much during the year.
The US federal government pays interest. The interest rates are quarterly.
I got paid interest on a tax correction & the rate was pretty good: over 5.5 APY, better than a high-yield savings account. I'll owe taxes on it, though.
How do you pay too many taxes? Aren't you supposed to be able to know how much to pay?
Taxes can get extremely complicated depending on your situation. In my relatively simple case as a contractor, I'm on the hook for calculating and paying taxes quarterly (since my employer(s) don't do it for me). The exact amount I'm meant to pay is yearly income/4, which means I need to predict how much I'll earn throughout the entire year, which is impossible without a crystal ball.
So I just pay what I think I'll earn, and at the end of the year calculate the difference from what I actually earned, and either send or receive a payment from the government. From the IRS point of view, whatever interest they end up paying me is probably less than the cost of government having a cashflow issue throughout the year without those quarterly payments.
Okay well that makes a lot more sense for someone that has to pay quarterly I guess. I guess this is a US thing. Luckily I never had to do my own taxes in Canada and looks like I'm never going to have to learn, but I'm interested in US accountingd
Employers deduct a part of your salary as taxes on every paycheck (usually monthly). But how much they deduct is based on your tax profile which is created by the tax authorities. It's typically based on expected yearly income. However, you are allowed (and encouraged) to update this number yourself.
So say you swap to a lower paid job, or work less overtime than you planned, you can change your expected annual income to reflect this in taxes paid. If you don't however, then you effectively pay too much taxes as your employer is basing the taxes on too high numbers.
Another reason is that you may have tax deductions that only gets computed into the total when you fill out your full tax report. So if you didn't bake those into your tax profile at the start of the year, you might get returns on your taxes (with interest).
You can also downplay how much taxes to pay through salaries, in which case you will owe back taxes when the full tax report is made.
I assume they have the same issues with waiting in the end of the year to round up stocks and other interest/dividend income.
I actually wish I could do this in Australia, for the reasons you mention (from a self-interested point of view).
I'm glad tax witholding is mandatory here though, because the government has to pay for stuff throughout the year, on services which we all benefit.
And it reduces the number of people who have illogical emotional reactions on having to pay taxes. (Much less resistance when you get a touch back, than have to pay more)
We do also pay taxes for stupid shit, like our tribute of $300 B AUD to the US for submarines. But alas, such is government spending. We can't all agree what's actually good.
Should have stuck with France.
I look at it like a non-voluntary piggy bank. I set the amount I'm going to withhold from every pay check, and anything over, gets given back. Sure it's interest free but if you look at an actual bank, interest rates on that money sitting in a savings account is pennies. And if you're someone who is bad at not spending your money, having it held for you with no real way to withdraw it is helpful when budgeting.
Besides, it's easy to over pay, it's pretty difficult for most people to net zero on tax payments without ending up owing money. And the amount you owe, could be something you hadn't budgeted for. I owe $450 this year. I don't really know where I'm getting that money. Most people will be less happy owing money than over paying and getting a refund.
If Americans want a proper country, yall better get used to paying 40% taxes like in Europe muhahahahah!!!
Ok, some parts of Europe..
Bracketed income tax is a thing for a reason, and it is a good reason.
more income == more tax.
If I'm making less than $20k/year, there's no reason to give a shit about my taxes, just let me live yo.
If I'm making $200k+/year, then we have a conversation on our hands.
If I'm making 2,000k+/year, then we have a problem and the conversation should have have been completed by now.
edit:
exact numbers are not relevant. if you have a functioning brain, then you know what I mean.
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