Monday, March 08, 2004

If the US had tried to imitate Singapore when they designed their tax system, it would save me loads of headache and allow me to file in 7 minutes my tax return.

All tax returns would be automatically linked to my pension system, any change in my personal situation (student, marital status, etc...) would be automatically linked to my tax profile and calculations of my new tax rate or exemptions. Charity donations would be deducted in real-time. I'd be able to access in real-time my tax liability, a countdown to filing deadline and any potential changes I could make to save some money here and there given the current state of my finances. This would be a government-based system, accessible with your Resident Pass Pincode, from any Internet terminal, available at every street corner.

Instead, I spend days gathering precious documents that I don't usually travel with, hours understanding which number goes into which box, weeks procastinating and hundreds of dollars on beer to forget just how bad it was. Again.

Granted, many tax consultants and Intuit have made a fortune on the fact that the system got so complicated that even reforms have now become virtually impossible. They pre-suppose that someone can actually figure this thing out.

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