If the American people are dreading a process that ends in them getting a check from the government, you know something is wrong with the process.
Very little fills Americans with as much dread as tax season, which is a bit ridiculous, as 75% of Americans receive refunds.
Americans spend $31 billion and 1.7 billion hours every year figuring out how to pay their taxes. And, at the end of all of this, over $400 billion in revenue is lost because of mistakes and intentional tax evasion.
There absolutely has to be a better way.
There are many other countries that automatically calculate taxes for individuals, sending a refund or a balance request with enough information that people can check the government’s math for themselves. Unlike America, they don’t have big tax software and accounting firms lobbying them to make the process unnecessarily complicated.
We shouldn’t end there! We should make tax day a national holiday - Revenue Day. Give everyone the day off and allow public servants to present to America what they’re working on. Allow people to direct a small percentage of their taxes to a special project of their choosing. Provide the IRS with more funding in order to track down those who are intentionally avoiding paying their fair share.
People pay their taxes so that the government can work for them. Let’s make that happen.
Problems to be Solved:
- Filing taxes is an expensive, time-consuming, and complex process that fills Americans with dread.
- Most Americans don’t understand where their tax dollars go.
- Hundreds of billions of dollars of taxes go unpaid, both intentionally and unintentionally.
“Most important, we would thank everyone for paying their taxes and not take it for granted.”
–Andrew Yang
Solutions:
- Pass legislation allowing the IRS to automatically file taxes for individuals.
- Increase the budget of the IRS to track down people who are avoiding paying their fair share.
- Celebrate Revenue Day, highlighting the work done by public servants, the ways the government is improving people’s lives, and the projects that Americans feel passionate about and are excited to see their tax dollars go to.
- Allow each tax payer the ability to direct 1% of their taxes to a specific department, be it Veteran Affairs, Forest Service, the National Endowment for the Arts or otherwise.
If this sounds like the future you want to build for America, consider donating today!
Do you agree?
