this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2025
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[–] MrSilkworm@lemmy.ml 11 points 11 hours ago (10 children)

In the country where you don't know what you ll end up paying unless you go to the counter, because the taxes are not included, its only "logical" to not have your taxes deducted from your payslio because reasons

I ll never understand this shit, smh

[–] TheRtRevKaiser@sh.itjust.works 13 points 11 hours ago (9 children)

I'm not sure what country you're talking about, but I assume the U.S. We do have taxes deducted from payroll, and you fill out a form telling the employer (and the IRS) what amount to deduct based on estimated income, family size, and a couple of other factors. Then in April we have to file our official tax form declaring actual income, and if we owe less than what was deducted from our paychecks we receive that back as a refund, but if we underestimated we have to pay whatever taxes are remaining. The reason that filing taxes is so complicated is the sheer volume of deductions, exemptions, credits, etc that have been piled on top of the tax code over the years (plus lobbying by the tax prep industry). It's a stupid system, but it's not as stupid as some people seem to be assuming in this thread. If you set up your withholding right, you shouldn't ever owe taxes when it's time to file.

Now, if you're self-employed or a contractor (and considered self-employed) the whole thing kind of falls apart and it's a lot easier to wind up owning a bunch of money. Like I said, it is a stupid system, just not quite as crazy as some people seem to be assuming.

[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 1 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

If you set up your withholding right, you shouldn’t ever owe taxes when it’s time to file.

Thing is, here in Germany you don't even get to make the mistake of setting up your withholdings wrong if you're a regular employee. I don't think it's even possible to end up owing the state money if you're not self-employed or have considerable capital investments (which is rare for regular employees, which is probably its own issue ...).

[–] TheRtRevKaiser@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 hours ago

Oh for sure, I'm not trying to defend the American tax system as being good by any means - it's most definitely not. But for most people it's not as bad as some folks seem to believe.

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