Too Many Words. I'll Vote For A Rapist Instead.

If you claim to be exempt from federal income taxes, you can withhold those on your paycheck. Talk to your HR department. If you switch jobs, when you sign up for everything make sure to explain the situation. As in, I am exempt, as I did not make enough money last year. Do not charge my paycheck for federal taxes.

To add on to the other explanations: The thing you heard about 10 years ago was likely Trump's tax bill that increased the standard deduction - a set amount that you can deduct instead of having to do a lot of math - and took a way a lot of deductions.

A deduction just means "you don't pay taxes on that money."

It's pretty straightforward for most people if you're filing for yourself. It only gets complicated if you do itemized deductions which only makes sense if your total deductions are greater than the "standard deduction" (which I think is like $12,500 or something? The tax app does it for you).

You decide how much withholding that your job will do when you are hired (you can have it changed if you want). You can choose to have them estimate based on how many dependents you have and deduct that from each paycheck. It will usually be slightly more than you actually owe, so you get a return when you file once a year. Or you can choose to not have them deduct anything, and then pay the IRS the total amount when you file.

The latter is probably the smarter way to do it in that you're not essentially loaning money to the IRS, but in a country where most people live paycheck to paycheck, people don't like the idea of having to write the government a 4 to 5-figure check every year.

No, not entirely.

We have taxes taken out every paycheck that is kind of like an estimate of what you actually owe. At the end of the year, you file complicated paperwork to determine what you actually owe. Big tax companies lobby hard to keep it this way.

For anything more complicated than a very basic life, people often use a tax company (like TurboTax or HR block) for help, which costs money. For even more complicated ones, people may use an accountant.

It's a ridiculous system and the lobbyists keep it like that

Its both. Your taxes are deducted from your paycheck then from January to April you have to "file taxes" often with the assistance of a tax service or accountant then either pay extra or wait several weeks to get the amount you paid "too much" into.

Its crazy to me that its incredibly hard to convince Americans not to go to work.

Do they think the police are going to evicted 1/3 of the population? (Assuming we were wildly successful)

Do they think the government wont recognize how important it will be to stabilize the workforce and offer relief, lest risk more strikes?

Do they think, myself, your neighbor, wont empty my pantry so you can be fed another day and we can carry on?

The only problem is you thinking you need to sit it out. Its the exact opposite, if you cant afford to strike youre the one who needs to fight. Youre the one who is getting fucked the hardest.

Yes, we need to meet a threshold to where we cant be ignored. No its not easy, but look at the alternatives. Carryon like this until we are actual slaves to disgusting GOP masters (Id rather be dead) spit. Open war against the world's most advanced military?

No, cut off the corporations and make them answer to you. After all, they are you.

And quick reminder that the IWW will help anyone (including you, dear reader) unionize their job, no matter what it is, and even if you can only get one or two others on board with you!

"still legal"

Since when has that ever mattered? Remember, the first unions and labor strikes weren't legal but that didn't stop them. They didn't become legal until we forced the State to meet us on equal terms.

I'm sorry but that's bullshit.

strike is more efficient than not paying taxes

that's the bullshit. The government, like any organization, is utterly dependent in financial input. Without it, they fall over. Withholding taxes is the strongest move that protesters can make.

They'd just use it as an excuse to cut more programs.

Hell, according to the CBO, the current bill is guaranteed to cause an imbalance in the budget, which thanks to existing pay go rules means across the board cuts to everything, including Medicare.

This way they didn't purposely or directly fuck over Medicare. It was just an oopsie.

That's a tremendous amount of concerted effort that that plan would take. I don't see it happening.

Eating hot chips and twerking sounds like a recipe for a Pollock mud mask to the front three rows.

As someone who may've taken the extended family on a 20k holiday when crypto boomed pre-panda, I would certainly describe the experience as unreal.

That golden droplet ain’t money trickling down.

On the other hand, austerity politics (aka "don't spend money in order to reduce the national debt") tend not to work, either, because they offload maintenance to the future. Repairing broken infrastructure costs more than keeping it from breaking in the first place.

I suppose you could just raise taxes but even with WWII-level tax ceilings it's damn expensive to run a country.

Yeah... I see a lot of internet tough guys on lemmy talking about how they're gonna stop paying federal taxes. I think they're in for a rude awakening if any of them actually go through with that (especially after announcing it publicly).

it's funny because it's true