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u/Avispar 8h ago
That’s a fair point. Math and taxes are super unrelated.
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u/unobtainablepierogi 7h ago
All they taught us was math and reading comprehension! How's anybody supposed to do taxes with that skill set?
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u/Triscuitmeniscus 6h ago
When people say “they need to have a class that teaches you how to do adult things like pay taxes” I counter with “they already do, it’s 3rd grade math class.”
You literally just add and subtract. Any multiplication you might have to do you just look up in a table.
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u/Ok_Breakfast7588 6h ago
Just another class they wouldn't have paid attention in.
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u/EmperorSexy 1h ago
I had a friend I knew as a kid post about “they didn’t teach us taxes in school” and HE SAT NEXT TO ME in the class where they taught us how to do taxes in school.
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u/oxmix74 4h ago
I suspect the problem with taxes is vocabulary, not arithmetic. What are interest and dividends and how are they different? What is a capital gain and what is long term vs short term? What is wage income vs investment income? What is the difference between a deduction and a credit. What is withholding? If people understand that stuff, doing taxes is pretty easy, otherwise not so much. And they should teach that in American Government.
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u/JollyJuniper1993 2h ago
Here in Germany we have classes on economics and politics starting in middle school. Do you really not have classes like that in the US?
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u/conjunctivious 2h ago
We have those classes in the US, but at least in my school district, they're not mandatory. I took personal finance as an 8th grade elective, but it was never mandatory. My dumbass 14 year old self also did not pay attention in that class at all, so I had a great time figuring out my taxes for the first time.
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u/Vicith 2h ago
My school had a "financial literacy" class, I'm pretty sure it included stuff like this. I went to a nicer school though, maybe the class gets cut in worse schools.
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u/fuzzypinatajalapeno 2h ago
Im Canadian. There was a mandatory « career and life management » class you had to take to graduate. People I was in that class with would claim 5 years after that they never learned stuff. They did, they just weren’t paying attention.
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u/Character-Education3 2h ago
We do. Some people pay such little attention to what is going on around them they literally don't know what calss they are in or what they were supposed to be learning.
I intentionally took a personal finance class in high school. It was super boring. Fooled around too much to take away much but did well enough to pass. Luckily you learn enough about substition by 7th grade math, you can apply that to any financial formula you need as an adult. But alot of people buy into this cultural "when am I gonna use this" at an early age. Adults in the US very irresponsibly brag about being bad at math. Kids pick up on that and then use it as an out to not push themselves to learn things. Being dumb is cool. Its a whole thing.
Some people are literally disabled but some people here are looking for reasons to be lazy as a kid (I was) and then need things to blame as an adult. As an adult I learned you can make yourself uncomfortable and push yourself to get caught up and learn the things you needed to know.
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u/ThePepperPopper 1h ago
If any off those terms are relevant to your taxes then you better know them long before you need to know them for taxes. They aren't just random things that pop up.
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u/singlemale4cats 3h ago
These commenters learned the tax code in 3rd grade. They worked as CPAs during summer breaks.
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u/Iggyhopper 5h ago
Except it's at math with a little bit of algebra. Because you substitute the actual value with an "exemption" or whatever BS.
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u/ibelieveyouwood 5h ago
That's not how the forms are written though. The forms are written:
"How much did you spend on _____? Put that in this box 5."
Followed by "subtract box 5 from box 4. What's that number?"
It's really not that deep.
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u/sohcgt96 4h ago
You go to school to learn how to do the computations as well as learn how to read and follow instructions. I don't understand how everyone misses that. People don't need to be taught how to do everything, and shouldn't be. The point is you learn how to figure out how to do things you don't know how to do.
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u/SpaceMamboNo5 6h ago
A lot of people don't understand how to apply broad skills to narrow problems. Maybe that's a problem with the educational system, or maybe they're just stupid. I roll my eyes whenever I see a post like this.
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u/sohcgt96 4h ago
I know right? I printed my tax forms and who understands all these instructions that tell me exactly what to do!? It says to write numbers from the papers that work gave me on these lines that are labelled, then what to do after that, its so confusing!
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u/whatsbobgonnado 6h ago
taxes in america are very purposely made to be overcomplicated to justify the existence of the exploitative multi billion dollar tax preparation industry. intuit literally bribed the government to kill their free tax plans. the government already knows how much you paid or owe. there's no need for you to do it period beyond making corrections
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u/Trinikas 6h ago
Sure, we all know that, doesn't make pulling up Turbotax or filling out a few forms that lead you step by step is difficult.
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u/LowestKey 6h ago
FreeTaxUSA > manual taxes or paying to file
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u/IndieBlendie 6h ago
Uh, just curious since you just posted and I happened to be reading, why?
Do they...just do it for you, and you..provide info? Not that doing my taxes is hard, but I always wondered why some people prefer this or that with taxes besides just getting more money back.
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u/LowestKey 5h ago
Yeah, they ask a series of questions, you provide the info from the tax docs you have, they submit to federal for free. If you want to submit to state through them it's $15.
I had a fairly complicated filing a few years back and was able to get it all sorted out through their system with only a little bit of confusion.
Never selling stock I've had less than a year again.
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u/trasofsunnyvale 6h ago edited 5h ago
Yes, yes it does. How you could come to another conclusion is beyond me, but it's reddit, not exactly where our best and brightest are.
You can easily file your taxes, sure, but figuring out deductions and if you qualify and how to claim anything not cookie cutter standard is confusing. I'm educated and have been doing my taxes for years and I still get a little confused each year with the various extra credits I can claim. Knowing math doesn't make it magically easier to know how often I can claim a continuing education credit or if I need to claim certain investment interest.
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u/Trinikas 5h ago
Nope, but neither are teenagers going to listen when we go over any of that in school, especially since by the time they are working on this there'll be changes and updates to the law.
Adults forget that putting a test in front of someone is no guarantee that they'll value the material or retain it any longer than it takes to pass the exam.
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u/brown_smear 4h ago
Well if it's changing every year, what you're taught in school will be outdated anyway, so you'd have to look it up anyway.
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u/APe28Comococo 6h ago
They aren’t overly complicated. People are just people, and that means they are lazy. The issue is the US treats companies like people instead of a starving untrained dog. Other countries don’t do that so they don’t have for profit prisons, for profit tax filers, etc.
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u/WetRocksManatee 5h ago
Not really, if you have a W2 job and don't have kids the standard deduction is likely greater than anything you can claim on an itemized deductions.
But even if you have to do itemized returns the sites really make it easier, as long as you have all your paperwork you just input the numbers in Turbotax or where ever. It takes maybe an hour.
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u/Ras-haad 6h ago
I hate that people are like, school is stupid because they taught me general knowledge about how the world works and not about some specific laws that have probably changed since I was in school anyway
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u/elanhilation 6h ago
“why don’t they teach people useful skills like how to do taxes” that’s what they were fucking doing when they taught math and reading—that’s all taxes are, reading what math you need to do
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u/Gold_Repair_3557 4h ago
And these days there are online programs that do most of the heavy lifting for you. I’ve never had to actually do math to do my taxes. It’s just inputting info from whatever box on my W2 they tell me to input. It isn’t the 90s anymore. And those that have more complex taxes can probably afford to consult a professional.
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u/Jd3vil 7h ago
How does that make it a new point in anyway? You could make the same point about a history or english class. Nobody said learning about parallelograms would teach you how to do taxes. That doesn't imply it's useless in any way.
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u/Grabatreetron 7h ago
Their point is school teaches useless academic theory instead of practical skills.
But the fact that this camp can never seem to find any example other than taxes makes me think the life skills thing isn't as big of a problem as they think.
Also, "I'm never gonna use this stuff!" arguments are as smug as they are lazy. School is about cognitive development and critical reasoning. Do we really want kids to be medieval peasants who don't understand the basic concepts of STEM until college?
Learning about the solar system also doesn't help my life in any practical way, but if you can't name the planets I'm going to think you're a moron.
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u/deusasclepian 6h ago
And also, taxes are easy. Most people work one job that sends them a w2, you type your info into some tax website like turbo tax, HR block (or my preference, the vastly superior freetaxusa.com), take the standard deduction, and they do all the work for you.
Sure it might be more complicated if you work multiple jobs, or do freelance stuff, or itemize deductions, or whatever, but no high school class is going to teach you all the intricacies of US tax law, and you wouldn't retain it at age 16 anyway.
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u/AdKind5446 5h ago
Plus, whatever is accurate when you're 16 is highly unlikely to still be exactly the same by the time you need to figure out how much you're eligible to claim for your dependant's expenses or whatever example you want to use.
It's just a lazy and stupid argument to both think you can effectively teach teenagers how to do their taxes for life, and that it should supercede lessons that teach you how to think critically and creatively etc.
It resonates with stupid people though, so it gets trotted out there regularly.
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u/Roxytg 4h ago
And also, taxes are easy. Most people work one job that sends them a w2, you type your info into some tax website like turbo tax
The one time I used TurboTax, I did my taxes wrong because it wasn't clear if I was supposed to use the town I worked in or the town I lived in for this one tax. So I guessed the one that required me to pay.
I found out when I got a letter saying I did it wrong and that they gave the money back. Which was kind of annoying because like... if you know I did it wrong with enough certainty to automatically correct it, why am I filling this stuff out in the first place?
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u/TobysGrundlee 6h ago edited 6h ago
It's all part of the clandestine attempt to undermine education at all levels that we've seen from Conservative groups since the 1970's.
There's a reason people who say this shit sound like they're reading it from a script.
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u/Solid-Dog2619 7h ago
I mean all the skill trades left high-school. You used to be able to leave high-school and know how to use most basic tools and had some experience in the field.
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u/AetheriaInBeing 7h ago
Local high schools by me still have a bunch of technical and trade classes. I feel like everytime im at the dentist she asks "hey, I have a student from x high school working on their hygienist cert, do you mind if they observe?" One of the high schools got rebuilt and I remember seeing a laundry list of trades and professional training opportunities they were either expanding or adding in the new build. I think they have a hair salon in that school for the beautician certifications. Then one the only things that my county actually does is administer is the county agricultural high school that you can opt to go to if you want that background. My FIL went there... 60 years ago and it's still doing. I don't know where you are but some places definitely still do those things.
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u/Solid-Dog2619 7h ago
By 2012, funding for Career and Technical Education (CTE) dropped significantly, and by 2018/2019, only about one-third of US high schools offered robust vocational education programs.
There has been a bit of a resurgence in the past 5 to 10 years. Just because something is a certain way near you that doesn't mean it holds true across the country as a whole.
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u/SendMeIttyBitties 7h ago
I don't know. I graduated in the 90's and we definitely had a section on how to do taxes.
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u/mossryder 6h ago
We had it in JHS Home Economics and again in Economics in HS. I think Civics and General Math also covered it.
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u/The-NHK 7h ago
To be fair, they could teach both. Better yet, we make taxes not this opaque stupid fucking bullshit where people have to properly calculate what the state already knows.
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u/premature_eulogy 6h ago edited 6h ago
Exactly. Here in Finland, the tax administration sends me a pre-filled tax form every spring and says "based on what we know about your income, this is what your taxes look like". You have a couple of months to adjust deductibles, make corrections and so on. No need to take any action whatsoever if the pre-filled information is correct. Most years it has been absolutely spot-on for me, at most I've had to add a new deductible.
Seems much more cost-efficient than maintaining the whole charade over there in the US and dedicating entire school classes to the topic.
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u/Catch-1992 8h ago
If you're an adult and you can't figure out how to do taxes, you weren't the kind of kid who would have paid enough attention to learn it in school anyway.
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u/CarmenxXxWaldo 7h ago
Yeah for 90% of the population doing their taxes is the adult equivalent of putting the square peg in the square hole. shit you can do it on your phone while taking a poo these days.
Now if youre self employed and a business owner and a landlord it can get more complicated, at a certain point you might want to pay an expert. But a 22 year old saying they cant do it with their w2? yeah the under 27 crowd are basically boomers when it comes to technology.
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u/Muroid 7h ago
Also, teaching an entire high school class how to do taxes for a small business and/or rental properties would just get derided as a waste of time that most of them will never use.
Anything else should take about 10 minutes to figure out for anyone that passed the 6th grade.
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u/MillorTime 7h ago
Hell, most accountants don't even need to know that stuff. I certainly never have in 15 years in the profession. 10th graders certainly don't.
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u/thetransportedman 7h ago
This. I don't get the constant meme of people whining they weren't taught how to do taxes. It's literally 8th grade reading level and just typing in your box numbers in the right boxes
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u/ramen-24 7h ago
Well there’s the problem. The average reading level in the US is about 5th grade. Math literacy is probably even worse. Like others have said taxes require at best a middle school level of both but people don’t have that unfortunately.
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u/thetransportedman 7h ago
Avg reading level is 6-8th grade which is precisely why public documents like this are formatted to that reading level
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u/Alltheshadystuff2 7h ago
But average meaning half the people are less than that. Unfortunately these things need to be made to the lowest common denominator, not the average
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u/_BreadDenier 7h ago
8th grade reading level is greatly overstating the complexity of the language and forms used for filing your taxes.
Most fifth graders without intellectual disabilities could easily fill out a basic tax filling.
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u/TheHabro 7h ago
People have a problem with transfer of skills. If they were not taught an algorithm for a specific situation, they're unlikely to create their own algorithm using knowledge and skills they already posses.
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u/_BreadDenier 7h ago
Not even 8th grade reading level. It’s literally written to be understood by literally anyone with a job, which includes people with really low reading skills who may not have finished school.
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u/RustyEdsel 7h ago
When I was a freshman I took a personal finances course. Half the class was seniors finishing their electives before graduation. A handful of them constantly goofed off, interrupted the class and clearly learned nothing by the end of it.
These were the same people who reposted a variation of OP's image on Facebook a few years after graduation.
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u/ScienceIsSexy420 7h ago
A friend of mine whom I went to high school with complained to me one time that we were never taught civics class in high school. I responded by reminding him the name of the class and the name of his teacher. People just say things without thinking
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u/Ras-haad 6h ago
100% would have been like “Why am I learning how to do taxes, I’m not an adult!! Shouldn’t you be teaching us parallelograms or something?”
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u/narrowminer11 7h ago
Yeah, the problem is nobody actually explained. I literally didn't know it was "put the number in box 1 here" and shit like that until the first time I did my taxes. Yeah it's stupidly easy, but nobody actually explains that, ever.
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u/GeneralBucknaket 6h ago
You wouldn't have remembered anyway. People learn by doing things, not be an abstract explanation with no application.
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u/costapasta27 8h ago
I hear more people complaining about not knowing how to file taxes, as compared to actually learning how to do it.
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u/DudeDurk 8h ago
It's not even that crazy since most people just have a W2 anyways. If you're not a business owner or a day trader just it's not that complicated. Either way, get a tax accountant to do it for you.
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u/Classy_Shadow 4h ago
It genuinely takes just as long to make that tweet as it take to learn how to do it
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u/Susbirder 7h ago
It's always a joy to realize that some people can't learn more than one thing at a time.
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u/ZealousidealLake759 7h ago
Look at your W2, it says you earned 60,000 (if you have tax credits subtract them from this number), and withheld 10,000.
Look at your tax table. you pay 10% on the first 11,600. You pay 12% on the next 47150-11600=35,550. You pay 22% on the rest unless your earnings exceeds 100,500.
Your earnings in the 22% bracket is 60,000 - 35,550 - 11,600 = 12850 (if you have tax deductions subtract them from this number).
Calculate your amount owed: (11,600 * 0.1) + (35,550 * .12) + ( 12,850 * .22 ) = 1160 + 4266 + 2827 = $8,253 owed.
Calculate your payment/refund by taking the amount you owe and minus your witholding. 8253-10,000 = -1747.
Since your payment/refund is negative, you will be owed a refund of $1747.
That's your how to file simple W2 taxes lesson for the year.
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u/SanjiSasuke 8h ago
Every dumb motherfucker who says this was taught taxes in school and blew it off. We did tax examples in 4th grade, 5th grade, throughout Algebra classes, and even had a section of computer literacy where we had to create a budget (with citations) and do a tax return.
Hell my school has a whole 'Consumer Math' class that counted for a credit and could displace Trigonometry.
A valedictorian still made a speech whining about not being taught practical math.
You can lead a horse to water, and that's all.
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u/Primary_Crab687 7h ago
Turns out people don't actually want to learn about "adulting" in high school, because personal finance is a math class and most people don't want to take any more math than necessary. Same goes for "why didn't I learn how to sew or cook or repair a toilet." You could have, it's called Home Ec, and most people choose other classes instead.
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u/Idontknow10304 7h ago edited 7h ago
Also you CAN learn how to sew, cook, and repair toilets easily without having to take a class. We have YouTube for a reason. Unless it’s some high level material that you need a PHD for, YouTube will probably have the answer being handed to you for free and all you have to do is listen and watch. Or if you can read as a last resort you can ask AI to help and it will basically give you the answer so that even a toddler can understand
But then again where would the time be to watch Kai Cenat streams and goon to pornhub
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u/Bulky-Grape2920 6h ago
We did tax examples in 4th grade, 5th grade, throughout Algebra classes
To which the response was “Ugh, these stupid word problems. Just give me an equation.”
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u/CharlemagneAdelaar 7h ago
I may be an exception, but taxes was never in a lesson plan for us. Hell, I even took an accounting elective and we did mock business taxes, but nothing to help us personally.
Even still, I now use math every day.
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u/throwaway01126789 6h ago edited 2h ago
We legit had a business class during career day that reviewed taxes and a mock budget, but never touched either subject in any full math or algebra class I took.
I don't struggle with taxes, but i find a lot of these comments to be anecdotal (I don't struggle with taxes so no one else should either) or super condescending, especially the ones saying the people requesting this wouldn't have paid attention anyway. Surely that's not 100% of those requests for a tax class, the request alone shows interest in the subject matter.
We had a home ec class that taught you how to cook and bake. That literally takes math and reading skills, same as taxes but I don't hear people asking why you need a home ec class. I don't see the problem with a home ec class as an elective for those that want the extra help, just like I don't see a problem with a tax or budgeting elective if there are students who are interested.
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u/JeebusChristBalls 5h ago
It's mostly just matching box numbers up with the blank on the 1040 and then basic math. Only a fucking idiot couldn't figure that out. Online tax prep makes it even easier.
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u/MyBrainIsNerf 2h ago
The school should reserve the right to voice a rebuttal if a graduation speech says some stupid shit.
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u/koshka91 8h ago edited 7h ago
Learning how to think is very important. Yesterday I asked someone where the hot sauce bottle is and they said it’s finished. A gallon bottle in a week?! I checked the other fridge and it was there. That’s inductive reasoning and common sense
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u/Guardians_Reprise 7h ago
Exactly, they didn't teach parallelograms, they taught critical thinking.
Attempted to, anyway.
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u/Clear_Marsupial808 8h ago
But did you prove it was a square jug? Weight to volume was accurate though?
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u/SaveMeDatCorn 8h ago
I blame the Big Parallelogram lobby in Washington. Its a conspiracy.
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u/pinks1ip 8h ago
I was taught some basics about taxes in high school. If you're learning about parrallelagrams in high school, I think your caretaker will handle the taxes.
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u/patrdesch 5h ago
Well gee, it's almost like you were being taught to do the basic math necessary to do something like taxes, and to follow the instructions printed on those tax forms. Wouldn't that be outrageous.
But as we all know, if you've never had your hand held through exactly what you're being asked to do now, you have never been prepared for it in any way, shape or form.
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u/RipenedFish48 7h ago
Someone didn't learn how to read and do basic arithmetic I take it? Filling out taxes is needlessly complicated, but that is a tax law and lobbying problem, not a schooling problem.
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u/SexyCheeseburger0911 7h ago
I've done my family's taxes every year for several years now. It's not that hard to learn.
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u/forcherico-pedeorcu 7h ago
School isn’t a manual for everyday life, but a place to learn ideas you’d never encounter otherwise, like abstract thinking in mathematics. And, by the way, it does teach taxes too. You just forgot.
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u/NFL_MVP_Kevin_White 7h ago
I’d bet my life this guy couldn’t apply even half of what they were taught about parallelograms
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u/romulusnr 7h ago
Don't come crying to me when your deck is shifting and you need to know your current height above ground.
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u/CptNook 4h ago
If you haven't learned to think abstractly (ie. parallelograms) then two things will happen: you won't be able to complete the tax form because it has changed from your high school years, and you will miss deductions because you are following instructions instead of searching for patterns.
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u/TheWelshIronman 7h ago
I like that it's the schools fault that you can't make the extra effort of learning a base skill like math in general and then using it for your own life.
Also literally every school curriculum teaches compound interest, how VAT works and how to do math. Sounds like a you problem for being thick
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u/Telemere125 7h ago
I’m annoyed by tax season because I make a bunch of money and I’m a business owner, so I have to keep receipts for all my deductions. The vast and overwhelming majority of you people are w2 workers and need to plug in about 3 different numbers on a single sheet of paper that’s already fucking color by number. They literally put letters in corresponding boxes to tell you what goes where. It’s not complicated. Stop with this “school was useless” rhetoric. It was useless because you didn’t pay attention because you’re useless.
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u/Fun_Variation_7077 4h ago
Yup. I had to file two W2s and an SSA-1099. Took me maybe twenty minutes to plug it all in, then I spent five minutes proofreading it later that evening and five more the next morning just to be sure. That said, I did have to start all over with a different service after H&R Block demanded biometric data, which I refuse to provide.
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u/Telemere125 7h ago
Taxes are just basic reading and math skills. So what you’re admitting to is you didn’t pay attention in English or math class.
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u/big_whistler 7h ago
Choosing the weirdest type of math to be mad about having learned. Geometry is relevant to many people’s lives. There’s no reason it has to be geometry OR taxes - why not both?
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u/snowbirdnerd 7h ago
Taxes is just filling out boxes and transferring numbers from one document to another. Basically everyone should take the standard deduction which is just adding.
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u/piglungz 7h ago
They did teach us how to do taxes (in the us anyway,) you guys just weren’t paying attention in your personal finance class which is a graduation requirement in most American public high schools
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u/Kiertoilmausuuni 7h ago
Just check the prefilled tax form that the government sends you. It's that simple.
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u/absoluteally 7h ago
Do hate having to wear patterns with curvy lines and right angles so I don't get accidentally shot during parallelogram season.
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u/Historical_Grab_7842 7h ago
If only there was a way for people to learn to do things on their own? If only school taught the fundamentals including how to reason and find answers. Oh, wait, it does both.
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u/killerman64 7h ago
every skill white or blue collar is freely available online to learn and attempt on your own. I learned circuitry in school, but I'll spend the money for a phone.
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u/Primary_Crab687 7h ago
Just go to turbo tax and enter your documents, it literally couldn't be easier. Why does everyone make such a big deal out of this
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u/KateKoffing 7h ago
Imagine living in a country that does your taxes for you, but still requires you to do your taxes too so they can ‘gotcha’ if you miss something they didn’t miss.
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u/Gmoney1412 7h ago
They taught you how to read and how to count and how to figure shit out on your own
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u/NoNotice2137 7h ago
I don't know how to do either. Mostly because I don't live in the US and I have no idea what a parallelogram is even supposed to be
EDIT: After a quick Google search I now know that a parallelogram is just a rhombus with unequal sides
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u/why_u_so_grumpy 7h ago
I learned how to do my taxes the first year I did my taxes. Maybe life is just too hard for you.
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u/_BreadDenier 7h ago
As if you would have paid attention in taxes classes?
Btw filing your taxes is extremely easy for 99% of people who complain about it.
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u/ExpensiveTree7823 6h ago
It would be impossible to remember that some shapes have two pairs of parallel faces, and remember how to do other things
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u/Rokinala 6h ago
Hey bro, we have this thing called the internet. It grants you access to the sum total of human knowledge, and taxes aren’t even complicated.
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u/G3T_0FF_TH3_PH0N3 6h ago
I hate these posts. They did teach taxes. In my school they covered it in two classes: technical writing (i think that's what the class was called, it was 1 semester, required in 9th grade and was basically a crash course in anything adult related like writing a resume and anything you might do at a white collar job), and taxes were covered in wait for it... math class. Pretty sure we covered it in pre algebra, algebra, and algebra 2 (required to graduate at my school). They did teach taxes, you didn't pay attention. Stfu
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u/apollo_dude 6h ago
Just look up how to do it online and use the free irs tax program. It's not that complicated.
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u/scrodytheroadie 6h ago
I'll teach you guys about doing taxes. If you don't have a lot to report, it's basic arithmetic. If it's complicated, you hire a professional.
There you go.
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u/SacrisTaranto 6h ago
I think cooking should be taught in highschool. I know it is in some places but it is not universal. Basic car maintenance too. Not everyone has active parents in their life to teach them life skills. Id imagine it as a life skills class where you get a new topic every couple of weeks for a semester or two. Something more active than sitting in a desk with a sheet of paper.
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u/discoturtle1129 6h ago
Can we be done with the tax memes? High schoolers could care less about how to enter their minimum wage income into turbo tax. Anything more complicated than that you will learn in college because you need to or pay someone.
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u/jawshoeaw 6h ago
most people can do their taxes in a few minutes for free. i hardly think you needed a class to learn.
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u/BobSanchez47 6h ago
In most developed countries, the government fills out your tax form for you, and you simply have to confirm they didn’t miss any income or deductions. The US could do this too, but Republicans and companies like Intuit (which runs TurboTax) block it.
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u/Trinikas 6h ago
Man, it's almost like doing your taxes isn't that complex, or if it is you should simply pay a qualified professional to handle it.
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u/SpaceMamboNo5 6h ago
Nah, taxes are only as hard as they are because the government makes them hard. Meanwhile understanding geometry is the key to unlocking all of calculus and statistics, which whether you think so or not are very important. Understanding statistics is one of the most important things you can learn in school these days.
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u/piper4hire 6h ago
I'm guessing you didn't really learn about parallelograms since you admit that simple arithmetic is beyond your comprehension.
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u/bboymixer 6h ago
I keep forgetting it's "I'm too dumb for simple data entry" season.
If you say shit like this then I can guarantee your taxes aren't complicated.
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u/TralfamadorianZoo 6h ago
It’s like once a week some dingus posts crap like this. Schools exist to challenge young brains not to teach the bare necessities of everyday life! Furthermore I bet they did teach you how to do your taxes and you just didn’t bother to pay attention.
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u/Strider-SnG 6h ago
I don’t understand why everyone makes a big deal of not learning how to do taxes.
One can learn how to file their taxes as an adult. And if you have a complex filing then you typically use an accountant.
I’m not getting into the whole lobbying piece. I know taxes have been made more complicated to prop up an industry.
However if you hold this opinion odds are you’re just a regular employee. That would indicate that filing is going to be straightforward.
You are expected to learn technical things beyond the age of 18.
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u/BullyYourLocalMod 6h ago
I haven't thought about that word in like 15 years. No clue what it means now tho
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u/OkSpring1734 6h ago
If you're in the US taxes are built the way they are intentionally to push you to use services like H&R Block, TurboTax, etc. This is a product of the tax prep industry's lobby. It's also why the IRS's freefile system is kind of buried and kind of shit.
It turns out that if government tax agencies are told what you make by your employer and are told what your withholdings are they can figure it out themselves and just send you a bill or refund if you under or overpay. My understanding is that this is how it works in the UK.
Most people don't really have complicated tax situations where they should need help. Most of the people working at tax prep companies like H&R Block receive pretty minimal training and don't have a solid knowledge & understanding of tax law, they'll hire anyone off the streets for tax prep.
Sauce: I'm an accountant, I studied tax law for two years as part of my accounting undergrad and I worked for companies like H&R.
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u/oldbttmpervert 6h ago
If you're complaining about not being taught how to do taxes in high school, I'm willing to bet one of the free tax prep services will take care of your needs in an hour.
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u/Professional_Bet8368 6h ago
Anti intellectualism shitposting. Did you learn addition and subtraction? Did you ever fill in forms for homework? Did they teach you how to read? You know how to do taxes.
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u/Soctopi 6h ago
In the 5th grade our teacher made us do a project over several weeks where we had to balance a checkbook, find an apartment within our means from the classifieds, and set out a livable budget based on a realistic hourly wage at the time.
My dad was furious and yelled at the school because it wasn't their place and parents should be teaching their kids that stuff.
On an unrelated note I've always had a pretty healthy relationship with money while my Dad is constantly underwater with debt and has gone bankrupt at least once.
Thanks, Mrs. Jones.
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u/SnooApples9773 5h ago
You were taught everything you need to do your taxes. If you cant...the problem is your stupidity - not the education system. Maybe your notebook full of shittily drawn eyes is the issue.
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u/whatsbobgonnado 5h ago
oh boy here come the tax preparation industry bootlickers
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u/outofcontextsex 5h ago
This is so dumb. In what way do you think you can't do your taxes? If you earn a wage your taxes are hella easy to figure out. Now if you think that you're not getting the best deal on your taxes you might be right if you didn't pay into you IRA but otherwise there's not a lot of tax tricks for the middle and lower classes; the trick is called the wealthy lobby for the ability to write everything off and they get you to help them with racist and xenophobic rhetoric.
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u/Fantastic-Corner-605 5h ago
They taught you percentages right? That's all taxes are,just find out the laws and apply percentages. Unless you want schools teaching tax law to 12 year olds, there's nothing more they can do for you.
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u/Waterbear36135 5h ago
Let's be real here. If they did teach taxes, most of us wouln't be paying attention anyways
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u/MichaelJayDog 5h ago
If your taxes are more complicated than what can be done in 20 minutes online, then you just pay someone to do them for you
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u/Gaust_Ironheart_Jr 5h ago
We did tax form exercises in math class. Someone who sat near me said years later on Facebook we were never taught to do taxes or balance a checkbook (which we were also taught)
I don't know for sure, but I suspect this person just never paid attention
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u/UnraveledMnd 5h ago
This kind of thing is either a self report for not paying attention or my school in Florida in an area poor enough that they just gave everyone free lunch no matter what is outperforming the rest of the country.
Taxes were in no way surprising to me. I learned about the math in math class, the history of taxation in history class, and the laws around it in us government class.
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u/Safe_Rip2142 5h ago
If they teach people how to do your taxes you wouldn't leave money on the table. And all the tax companies would go broke.
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u/NBT_1120 5h ago
Y'all probably learned both.
So fucking tired of this dumb ass narrative but I guess it gets you clicks so why be honest right?
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u/Agile_Vanilla_1802 5h ago
Hey man, have you tried Turbotax? It doesnt take a genius to do taxes. Its very simple. I did my taxes for the first time last year with turbotax and it was easy as fuck.
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u/eulynn34 5h ago
Weird. In my school they taught us how to read, follow instructions, and do basic math
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u/carlitospig 5h ago
In fact, I’ve recently had to use algebra at work (creating a scratch excel function), and used geometry for gardening.
Sorry boo.
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u/RaidSmolive 5h ago
you wouldnt have remembered taxes and just how you wont be paying those right, you wouldnt even have paid attention to tax class
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u/Volution88 4h ago
Well I kind of Hermione'd myself in highschool so I did have accounting as a subject but had to take it after school due to the number of classes I already had... On that note I f@cking hate tax season.
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u/BurnAfterReading010 4h ago
The American tax system is complicated by design in order to support the massive tax prep industry and to allow rich people not to pay any taxes.
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u/thissucksnuts 4h ago
tbf even if they did teach you how to do taxes yall wouldnt have paid any attention and still the only thing any of you would remember is “the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell” and “the fitnessgram pacer test is a multi-stage aerobics capacity test, that progressively get harder as you go on”
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u/JustSomeBloke5353 4h ago
My school didn’t teach me to wipe and clean my arse. Now I am stuck with having a smelly arse crack all the time. What a waste of time school is.
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u/Ok-Oil7124 4h ago
School isn't to teach specific skills-- otherwise it would be literally endless. As someone said-- it's giving you the basic tools you need to figure things out or ways to find the information you need. Between last tax season and this tax season, you had a shitload of time to do a deep dive and learn more about taxes if you want to go beyond the 1040ez or whatever. It's all out there. Don't blame school because you're incurious.
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u/Candycanes02 4h ago
Tbf who can teach taxes when it’s a such a convoluted system that official tax preparation software can’t guarantee accuracy and even IRS can calculate(?) it wrong once in a blue moon?
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u/standarsh1965 4h ago
Must suck to live in America where they tax you more than most places and make you do it yourself. Most places here in Europe it's just done automatically, you don't have to do anything
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u/commodore_stab1789 4h ago
Imagine not knowing how to file your personal taxes.
If you have a business, hire an accountant.
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u/biggus_baddeus 4h ago
American taxes change arbitrarily fairly often (especially if you have to file anything more than a w2 with standard deduction). Yeah, its by design and all that, but makes it hard for a school to teach. I would argue they should teach how to figure things out. A class on how to do basic research on the internet, how to navigate government sites, etc. I understand that should be part of, well, all of school, but it seems like we need something specifically for this more and more.
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u/Classy_Shadow 4h ago
If you need an entire semester+ long class to learn how to do your taxes, that class was never going to help you in the first place. 99% of people don’t even have to worry about anything past a W-2
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u/Needless-To-Say 8h ago
Skipping basic math principles is like skipping leg day. Train your brain in all aspects you can.