re: #53 calochortus

Everyone whines about how complicated their taxes are and they want them simplified by removing all of the deductions except the ones they get.

Even if they would end up paying the same amount with or without the deductions, they like the feeling of paying less taxes because they own a house, or have kids, or whatever their biggest deduction is.

Yeah, and actually most people’s taxes aren’t that complicated. (Incomplete source: Doing taxes for the big green company for a few years.)

The people who have really complicated taxes, that cost several hundreds of dollars to prepare, really didn’t have complicated deductions so much. The complication was figuring out what their *income* actually was. They had their own business - what precisely were their costs so we could get to a total profit line? They inherited property and then sold it - what precisely was the value at the time of inheritance so we could get to the profit? Etc., etc. Once you have a total income, a couple of deductions and then a quick check of a percentage chart to get the tax owed is *trivial*.