<story><title>How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013)</title><url>https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-maker-of-turbotax-fought-free-simple-tax-filing</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>xupybd</author><text>Yes you have to file an IR3 if you make other income.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ird.govt.nz&amp;#x2F;income-tax-individual&amp;#x2F;end-year&amp;#x2F;ir3&amp;#x2F;iit-what-is-ir3.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ird.govt.nz&amp;#x2F;income-tax-individual&amp;#x2F;end-year&amp;#x2F;ir3&amp;#x2F;ii...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;My favourite part of our tax system is the advice to file if you have &amp;quot;income from an illegal enterprise&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:
Just as a reply to the original point. I&amp;#x27;m not sure how complicated the US system is. I&amp;#x27;m not trying to say it&amp;#x27;s bad either, it just seems to me that we have a system similar to the one that is getting lobbied against. And I like our system, it works well for me..</text></item><item><author>jjeaff</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s almost that simple in the US if your situation is that simple. What happens in NZ if you make $400 selling vintage cabbage patch dolls on eBay?  What if you earned $1k in returns on your investment account?  What if you are renting your place out on Airbnb?&lt;p&gt;If all you have is a simple income in the US, then the 1040ez is a single page and you can file it for free online if you make under a certain amount. You can pay a few dollars to file online if you make more.&lt;p&gt;Obamacare has added an extra level of complexity now, but that is also very simple if you don&amp;#x27;t need or want the subsidy.</text></item><item><author>xupybd</author><text>I live in New Zealand. I don&amp;#x27;t have to file taxes if my income is a standard wage my tax payments are automatic. My employer deducts them from my wage and they are sent to the IRD (Our government tax dept). My student loan and super payments are also automatic. If there is anything wrong then at the end of the tax year I can file to correct things.&lt;p&gt;I also get donations rebates, this is a one page form that lists all my charitable donations. Very easy very quick.&lt;p&gt;All my details are available to me online. All transactions are there and it&amp;#x27;s very transparent.&lt;p&gt;Why would anyone oppose a simple system like this?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jwilliams</author><text>&lt;i&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not sure how complicated the US system is&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;FYI - At various stages of my life I&amp;#x27;ve filed in New Zealand, Australia, UK, Switzerland and the US (California).&lt;p&gt;I can&amp;#x27;t generalize to all persons, but I do have a decent spread of countries in my own experience - and the US was by some serious margin the most complicated.</text></comment>
<story><title>How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013)</title><url>https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-maker-of-turbotax-fought-free-simple-tax-filing</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>xupybd</author><text>Yes you have to file an IR3 if you make other income.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ird.govt.nz&amp;#x2F;income-tax-individual&amp;#x2F;end-year&amp;#x2F;ir3&amp;#x2F;iit-what-is-ir3.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ird.govt.nz&amp;#x2F;income-tax-individual&amp;#x2F;end-year&amp;#x2F;ir3&amp;#x2F;ii...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;My favourite part of our tax system is the advice to file if you have &amp;quot;income from an illegal enterprise&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:
Just as a reply to the original point. I&amp;#x27;m not sure how complicated the US system is. I&amp;#x27;m not trying to say it&amp;#x27;s bad either, it just seems to me that we have a system similar to the one that is getting lobbied against. And I like our system, it works well for me..</text></item><item><author>jjeaff</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s almost that simple in the US if your situation is that simple. What happens in NZ if you make $400 selling vintage cabbage patch dolls on eBay?  What if you earned $1k in returns on your investment account?  What if you are renting your place out on Airbnb?&lt;p&gt;If all you have is a simple income in the US, then the 1040ez is a single page and you can file it for free online if you make under a certain amount. You can pay a few dollars to file online if you make more.&lt;p&gt;Obamacare has added an extra level of complexity now, but that is also very simple if you don&amp;#x27;t need or want the subsidy.</text></item><item><author>xupybd</author><text>I live in New Zealand. I don&amp;#x27;t have to file taxes if my income is a standard wage my tax payments are automatic. My employer deducts them from my wage and they are sent to the IRD (Our government tax dept). My student loan and super payments are also automatic. If there is anything wrong then at the end of the tax year I can file to correct things.&lt;p&gt;I also get donations rebates, this is a one page form that lists all my charitable donations. Very easy very quick.&lt;p&gt;All my details are available to me online. All transactions are there and it&amp;#x27;s very transparent.&lt;p&gt;Why would anyone oppose a simple system like this?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ragix</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m also a kiwi and have been working for over 15 years and have a student loan. The only time I have to do anything is when I file an optional personal tax summary to see if i&amp;#x2F;them owe anything. It takes less than 5 minutes online and is free.</text></comment>