alt Hacker NewsI like one of the memes online that describe filing tax as you’re taking a test that the government knows the answer to, and if answer the questions wrong, you go to jail.
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People say this, but it's wrong. If you made an honest attempt and get it wrong, you might pay a fine. You have to deliberately lie to go to jail.
It's a bizarrely simpleminded and incorrect meme, then.
The government doesn't know the exact answer - if they did we wouldn't have to file at all. Have a kid? Buy a house? Go to college? Make $60k selling illicit drugs on the black market? Get a $200 bank signup bonus? These all affect taxes. One could argue in a dystopian way that technically "the government" as a whole does know these things, but suffice to say, the IRS doesn't, necessarily.
The whole point of filing is that our tax code is ridiculous. We shouldn't get mad at filing, but at our ridiculous tax code. But it'll never be fixed, there's way too much pork stuffed in it from both sides.
Also, nobody files 100% correct taxes. Show me the person, I'll show you the crime(so to speak). You do not go to prison for making mistakes!
That's not accurate, the government doesn't know how you're going to file, deductions, quite a few details.