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noloktoday at 3:44 PM4 repliesview on HN

To be fair regarding taxes it should be that you get all exemptions by default and the other side telling/justifying you why you don't qualify, instead of you not getting the things you should because you're not sure how to interpret the law or don't know this or that rule exists. Taxes shouldn't be that difficult, and the US version of it seems to be behind even the one I have here in europe (where my taxes are done "for me" for anything non business owner related). If the government is calculating your taxes anyway, they should just give the number to you instead of asking you a number and you better have the same as us or you're guilty of something.

Feels like a system that is deliberatly made to be more punishing for those who can't afford the help or the education to figure things out.


Replies

atonsetoday at 4:08 PM

I would agree with you on most situations (like 1040 personal income taxes especially).

But in this particular tax credit, there's no way for the gov to know automatically what percentage of payroll was spent in qualified R&D expenses, since it's day to day business operations. Which is why we are _forced_ to hire an outside firm and pay them thousands of dollars (when Claude did an even better job), just to analyze how much of our time qualified as R&D expenses.

The problem I have is that I am forced to have to find a firm to do this, and most firms won't even work with companies as small as ours. So then we're stuck and losing out on years of R&D tax credits at the moment, when I really don't need them anymore, to be honest.

simonhtoday at 3:49 PM

Or punishing to those that don’t pay for software and services to the companies that lobby for it to be this way.

chasd00today at 5:49 PM

i saw a meme once like:

IRS> Pay your taxes!

me> ok how much?

IRS> idk you have to figure it out

me> ...ok

IRS> if you get it wrong you goto jail

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gobdovantoday at 4:12 PM

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