• AeonFelis@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Wouldn’t the ban on tax preparation companies hurt mostly the middle class? The rich can just get full time accountants to handle all their finances, and these accountants will also optimize their taxes as part of the general service they provide.

    • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Change the tax law saying that under 1 million moneys individuals can’t be held responsible for IRSs errors.

      Also even complex income tax preparation should not take you more than an hour to fully review yourself. If it does, it’s a bad system & probably like that by design.

    • Bassman1805@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Banning tax prep companies is a bad, poorly thought out idea.

      Simplifying tax prep is the avert. Doing what the rest of the developed world does, where the IRS sends you a receipt and you can either accept that or manually file if you think you owe less.

      Banning tax prep companies just hurts people who have a nonstandard tax situation. Small business owners, people with tax relief from disabilities, all manner of normal people in niche situations. Don’t take away the tools they need, remove the opportunity for parasite companies to prey upon average people.

      • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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        4 months ago

        The nonsense is there specifically to benefit the tax prep companies. Getting rid of one without the other isn’t… Anything anyone is advocating for. You get rid of both, simultaneously, because you have to, and because it’s right. How you make it work? Tax the rich, mostly

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          We should definitely give most people a better option for filing taxes but can’t imagine being able to get away from that as you get wealthier, have a business or certain non-salary income sources.

          Tax prep services will always be necessary, but not for the majority of individuals

          • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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            4 months ago

            But there are very little income sources that the IRS couldn’t have direct access to - just build a national system connecting banks, brokers, international transactions, etc. Put the reporting burden on companies and other gov bodies.

            These are complex admin systems that wealthy counties build, part of an overall digitalisation of government systems. I mean, I can’t think of a single government related thing I can’t do online (or on the phone). Every citizen can be issued 2FA once identified (and/or a digital certificate), the rest we pay taxes for them to set up.

            • AA5B@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              IRS has no reliable way of knowing my cash tip income, that I won the Irish lottery, that I sold my vineyard in France for a tidy profit, etc. without an audit, they have no way to follow a shell game of payments criss-crossing among my 500+ companies to be able to tax my real estate profits. They can’t know the depreciation I’m writing off for expensive office furniture is for my summer home

              • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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                4 months ago

                If I understand you correctly - isn’t that profit tax? And companies have the burden and obligation to report.

                And I was talking about common folk or like 95% of USA. You are right about cash-tips. We just dont pay taxes on it. But it’s also not an integral part of, well, anything. Its more of a p2p transaction.

                • AA5B@lemmy.world
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                  4 months ago

                  Companies have the burden to report but if you have many you can play games with payments across each other to concentrate the profit or loss to advantage yourself. Depending on how it’s incorporated m, that may belong to the business entity or you. As far as I know, IRS generally treats each business entity separately, so unless they have reason to audit, may not be able to follow a chain of payments across them.

    • Landless2029@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      The IRS actually wants to make tax prep easier. Companies like TurboTax and the like are predatory.

      They lobby congress to keep taxes complicated. All to milk people for $20-$35 each at tax time. Many countries either file taxes for you or make it super easy.

      Think about it. You do your taxes and send them in… but the IRS sometimes sends out corrections. I’ve received MORE sometimes and others get audited to pay more. That means the IRS knows what you owe already…

      Ideally it would be similar to basic online tax prep. But posted by the IRS (which has started already!!!)

  • adhdplantdev@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    Missing a lot things. Gerrymandering can still occur without the electoral college, tax things seems neat in theory but need to deal with corporate taxes, term limits on the supreme court would make things worse (research indicates an age out system would be better), Police system will still be fundamentally broken, companies will still continue to maximize profit to everyone but the shareholder deficit, stock buybacks are creating major issues and allow companies to game Wallstreet, are just a few things that I think are missing here that need to be addressed.

  • kromem@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I’d suggest adding:

    • Establish new “Common Ground” party with a platform mandated to only reflect issues and positions with a 2/3rd majority support among the American public in multiple 3rd party polls from different pollsters

    Political ideology falls along a normal distribution. Very dumb to draw the line down the middle rather than capturing the norm and excluding the edges.

    Let’s have progress demand a shift in the national attitudes over time rather than let minor shifts of a few percentage points every few years in a deadlock determine progress or regress.

  • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I will take 1 of those, watered down and neutered, and it would still make more sense than the landfill fire we live in right now.

  • Jentu@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4 months ago

    President decided by sortition (like jury selection) with a less military-focused role, cabinet members decided by voting on a list of working professionals in the applicable field (aka someone who works in agricultural sciences to be secretary of agriculture), housing as a human right, functional petitions that can initiate a direct vote in a special election on any issue with enough signatures. Ban prison labor and for profit prisons. Ban private schools and invest heavily in public schools. Employees of public services like libraries, schools, gov jobs pay no taxes. De-militarize the police. Sever the relationship between police and current/former prosecutors (possibly by only getting out-of-county prosecutors to oversee cases involving police?), enshrine prisoner voting rights, enshrine Land back policy, no corporate ownership of single family homes. Rent for an apartment has to be split to be exactly what the mortgage currently costs for the owner of the building + overhead, repairs and community agreed upon updates (if the building has no mortgage anymore, it is lowered to be only what is needed for overhead etc.- being a landlord shouldn’t be profitable, it should be a service), salary has to be clearly marked on every job posting and if it is found out that they are underpaying what they advertise, the labor board can fine the company by percentage of total profit increasing 2x every time it happens. All jobs are union eligible except for police. State tax benefits to influence city centers to become car-free. Loitering is a protected activity. Ban EULAs that can change at the will of the company. Force companies to pay out money to those they stole data from and sold. Ban the NSA, TSA, FBI, and CIA. Ban the stock market in some way that wouldn’t be awful. Ban more performant car/truck tires that’s causing our microplastics problem in favor of almost entirely naturally decomposing tire compounds. All vehicles and machinery are subject to the emissions standards of cars. Farmers are always allowed to set up a stand and sell products from their farm in parking lots (even parking lots of grocery stores). No unmarked police cars and no police sirens at night. No 24 hour news cycle. Crackdown on javascript’s power on the internet. Break up apple, google, Microsoft, and any other behemoth I’m forgetting. Ban court fees. Ban non-competes. 3-4 day workweek. On top of location representation in our federal government, include wage representation and age representation as well. Surprise, all businesses are co-ops now! There’s probably way more, but I can only fantasize so much lol

  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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    4 months ago

    Probably get rid of the supreme Court altogether and have cases that it currently hears be heard by a random selection of federal judges.

    Probably also need to get some people smarter and more specialized than me to figure out how to capture the wealth of the wealthy. Like the whole “take out a loan against your assets, use that as money, pay no taxes” thing needs to go.

    While we’re having fantasies, can we expand the 14th amendment "no insurrection " bit to be more clear?

    And if we’re feeling spiteful, add a “no one who has held office as a member of the Republican party shall be eligible for any role in government, nor any role that engages with the government such as contractor, advisor, lobbyist.” Just gut the whole party.

  • Abolish corporate personhood? No. Someone obviously doesn’t understand what corporate personhood is or how it exists.

    If there is no such thing as corporate personhood, how do you tax a corporation? How does a corporation own any property? How does a hospital exist? How do groups of people pool capital? How does one sue groups of people who have pulled their Capital and caused harm?

    The jurisdiction of all law is based on personal jurisdiction. Corporate personhood is considered a “legal fiction,” it doesn’t exist to protect corporations, although it sometimes does, it exists by necessity and by operation of law. It would exist even if you didn’t want it to, it would just have to be called something else. The alternative is that groups of people cannot pool resources toward a common endeavor, or, they can, but it’s a lawless and ungovernable enterprise, with nobody having any enforceable rights.

    House and Senate merge? No. Read up on bicameral versus unicameral legislative power as limitations on power, and in America the Senate’s role as a saucer. It makes sense especially when the Congress is a huge body to begin with and when dealing with classified information and covert matters of state; in which case a higher tier with a smaller group and longer terms makes sense to protect our secrets.

    This is the also the only idea, along with Supreme Court term limits, that requires a Constitutional Amendment. The others are much more feasible and reasonable. …

  • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    idk about merge the senate into the house. I like the idea that there is one chamber where each state has the same number of votes and one that goes by population. but hard agree on removing the house rep cap, as-is every branch of the fed is weighted toward smaller, more rural states (senate, house with rep cap, potus via electoral college, scotus because senate and potus pick scotus)

  • FontMasterFlex@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago
    1. Ranked choice voting is great, yes please.

    2. Why? Explain your reasoning. Voting needs reformed, but this isn’t the way. I certainly don’t want NY and LA deciding every election ever.

    3. No. Why? What on earth would this accomplish. The house and senate are separate for a reason. We need the checks and balances they provide.

    4. Again, why? The house reps are by population of the state/district. We don’t need MORE bureaucrats.

    5. Yes, please. US “healthcare” is in shambles. It’s a complete disaster and the only people that benefit are Insurance companies.

    6. I get the idea, but it’s a terrible idea. Fixing the rest will even out the income situation. Turning ALL your citizens into entitled brats is not a great idea.

    7. Absolutely not. Eliminate mail in voting except in extreme cases that need to be applied for. Instead, institute a FREE Govt Issued photo voter ID. Expand voting areas and hours. Make Voting day a paid holiday. I don’t wanna hear any racist shit about “poor black people can’t find the voting places”. Bullshit. Make AT LEAST one HS Gym a voting area in every county. Make it EASIER to vote in person. It’s a duty, honor, and responsibility for people to vote.

    8. , 9. , 10. , 13. Soft Disagree. Our tax system no doubt needs an overhaul. You’ll have everyone “making” more than $50 getting around it somehow. Look into the Fair tax. Eliminate ALL taxes. embedded, import, state, local, federal, income, capital gains, etc. implement a level sales tax on everything. Don’t want to pay taxes, don’t buy shit. everyone pays their FAIR share that way, and there is no way for the rich to get out of paying. This would eliminate the IRS and ‘tax preparation companies’. Which I don’t really understand this issue with those companies. No one is forcing you to use them. And there is absolutely NO WAY i want the IRS doing my taxes FOR me. fuck all that noise. But again, implement the fair tax and IRS goes away anyway.

    9. Lifetime appointments are bogus, but i think i a role like SCOTUS, longer terms are required. I read something here about aging out and I like that as an option.

    10. sure, on board.

    11. Guess i don’t really understand this. Explain?

    Plenty of other things. Term limits for congress.

    Make congress abide by the rules they set for us including insurance, healthcare, stock trading etc. While we’re at it, create a congressional village of sorts. You’re assigned a house/duplex/dorm etc while you are SERVING in congress. no more “NEED” to have a house in DC and in your home state. If congress people can’t survive on their $150k a year salary, what hope do the rest of us have?

    Eliminate lobbyists. That’s just “legal” bribery.

    We need to fix immigration. having an unbridled flow of people come across the border isn’t good. I have no problem with people wanting to come to this country, but there’s a reason we have a limit. There needs to be a complete overhaul of the process.

    Make secondary education WAYYYY more affordable, or free.

    Stop giving out so much foreign aid, and close military bases anywhere they are not directly needed around the world. we are not the world police. you can’t pour from and empty cup and our cup is empty to the tune of 30some TRILLION dollars. Once we fix our money problems, then we can start handing it out again.

    Start holding government officials, included law enforcement accountable. End qualified immunity. Start enforcing laws we already have instead of the glut of new ones every single year.

    DEMAND that congress pass a balanced budget every year. no more of this dog and pony show of ‘govt shut downs’. If the govt shuts down, those in charge should be fired and replaced by people willing and able to perform the duties they were elected to do.

    Allow Cities, Municipalities, States etc to SAVE money. By that I mean, don’t treat yearly budgets as “use it or lose it”. We as citizens are told to save, save, save, yet every govt entity spends every dime they have every year so their budget doesn’t shrink the next year. Putting safeguards into place so the money can’t be used as bonuses etc would allow govt entities to have a “rainy day fund” per se.

    Eliminate the words “school lunch debt” from our vocabulary. Feed children that need it. and feed them good food. not the radioactive waste that gets slopped up in school cafeterias across the nation.

    Eliminate the ability for the govt to use Social Security like their own little piggy bank. If they INSIST on using the money, it needs priority in repayment @ the tune of 150% of money borrowed. This would be the mandatory first thing on the following year’s budget.

    If we can afford to send people to war, we need to be able to afford to take care of them afterwards.

    This is just off the top of my head. The problem is nearly every “solution” here would require people in power to give up that power. That’s not going to happen easily or quitely.