[Magdalen] Quick return.

[Roger Stokes]

On 14/02/2015 22:00, Jim Guthrie wrote:
> From: Roger Stokes
>
>> presumably, resident in the USA?  I understand that US citizens 
>> resident anywhere in the world should file tax returns even if they 
>> have no income liable to US taxes.  If they wish to move to and work 
>> in the USA then they have to get their tax affairs up to date first.
>
> Lots of Americans don’t file. The chance of getting caught is pretty 
> slim, with fewer than 2% of taxpayers audited -- and most of those are 
> high-income people with strange deductions. And of course, there's the 
> right wingnuts who claim the Income Tax is un-Constitutional so refuse 
> to file.
>
> I had an employee once who disclosed he hadn’t filed in more than 10 
> years. And what was really stupid, was that most (or all) years he had 
> refunds coming. "They need it more than I do."

I beg to disagree.  As Judge Learned Hand observed 80 years ago "Any one 
may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; 
he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; 
there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes." The 
government legislates taxes to fund what they think they need. If John 
or Jane Doe thinks they do not need all the nett income this gives them 
then they are free to donate the excess to whatever cause they wish.

Roger