It's the shittiest time of the year here in Australia - every single pay-as-you-earn schlep (like me) has to put in a tax return. It's always a fucking disaster at my place, with me whining about lost receipts and confused about some arcane aspect of the law. Even this year, when I've finally relented and gotten an accountant to take care of it, it's just a complete and utter pain in my arse getting all the paperwork together. I mean, I have NO idea what's claimable, so I'm collecting any old receipt and the guy I'm now paying to work this shit out can work that shit out. Is it like this in every country? Or are some governments enlightened enough to make the process simple and straightforward?
Its the same here in the states. I know when I was self employed, cash only bitches, I hated doing taxes, simply because of the same crap. You can deduct mileage on your vehicle, or if you lease you can write the lease payment off, only if you use the vehicle only for work, or then its a percentage. Home office? Yes, but you can only claim like 10% of your mortgage as a 'home office' expense. then you have to pay all of your social security, no employee matching. Then take your gross income, subtract all the expenses. Multiply that number by .9235 and the result is your 'net income'(net income and taxable income are the same) , if your net income is lower than $80K multiply your net income by .153 that is your self employment tax, however if you make over $80k multiply your net income by .395 and that is your self employment tax. "You have 3 days to pay, thank you and have a nice day, hope your ass doesnt hurt too bad, oh hell we dont care, we know it hurts and thats why we do it....."
http://fairtaxgroups.com/ http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-416es.html http://www.scrapthecode.com/ There are alternatives
See how to get ahead of the national debt by reducing taxes. Don't laugh its been proven to work. By the same token raising taxes to pay off debt has proven to be catastrophic six times in U.S. history. And it has lots of pretty pictures to. http://web2.airmail.net/scsr/Pres_01.htm
