If it wasn't automatically removed from our pay I bet many of us would have already stopped paying. It's bullshit we can't just decide not to pay, only power we have is not filing which for many only gives us our money back.

[–] MBech@feddit.dk 8 points 3 days ago

Looking at it from an objective point of view, that would be an incredibly stupid move from the government.

One of the reasons Greece got fucked about 20 years ago, was because people weren't paying their taxes, because the government was practically allowing people to not pay if they didn't want to. As a result the greek economy got super fucked, super fast.

It's a great weapon by the people, but it won't work because people are selfish. It won't be used as a weapon against the government, it'll just be most people not paying taxes because their neighbor doesn't and "why should I pay, if I don't actually have to? Someone else will do it, and if they don't I'm not going to anyway".

[–] Skyrmir@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Change your exemptions to a half dozen or more. Your employer just uses a table to decide the withholding amounts. I would suggest putting the money in an interest bearing account. You probably won't make much, but you would get to keep the interest.

[–] too_high_for_this@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The IRS removed exemptions/allowances from the W-4 in 2020. Now you just claim dependents, itemized deductions, and other credits.

You can still file as exempt from withholding but they might penalize you if you weren't supposed to.

[–] Skyrmir@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

They could technically go after you for lying on a w-4, there's about 0 chance of it actually happening, if your returns are accurate. Especially now that they're under staffed.

On an individual level it's an extremely low reward enforcement action, even if it turns into a movement, there's still not enough staff to deal with a tiny fraction of the population. Especially when there's zero damages after filing.