[renholder]

>There are no criminal penalties for mistakes on your tax form.

Odd, I thought you faced the penalty of perjury[0]?

[0] - https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2017/02/15/fudging-y...

[rayiner]

Technically, the social security administration gives out social security numbers. But that aside, more than 40% of children don't live with both biological birth parents: https://ifstudies.org/blog/more-than-60-of-u-s-kids-live-wit.... So your automated calculation will get it wrong almost half the time.

> All of those tax credits you mention are given by our respective tax agencies when we become employed and/or we change status with the tax agency and/or we obtain a new job (depending on how you avail of tax credits).

There are many tax credits in the U.S. that aren't tied to changes in job status. Every year, I have to dig up receipts for what we spent on daycare, what we spent out of our HSA accounts, etc. The government doesn't track any of that.

> Odd, I thought you faced the penalty of perjury[0]?

Perjury requires willful (i.e. knowing and purposeful) false statements in your tax return. I guarantee you that if you make false statements using Ireland's online system for claiming tax credits, you're under penalty of perjury as well.

[renholder]

>Every year, I have to dig up receipts for what we spent on daycare, what we spent out of our HSA accounts, etc. The government doesn't track any of that.

Aside from the daycare costs (as an aside, creche in Ireland is quite decent[0]), isn't all of that is still reported to the IRS? Your HSA isn't sitting in some dark corner that the government doesn't know about, ever since the Patriot Act, yeah?

I'm fairly certain it is reported to the IRS because Americans find getting bank accounts overseas quite cumbersome because your government strong-arms agreements that demand that Americans' overseas bank accounts are reported to the IRS. Surely, more domestic reporting shouldn't come as a surprise or shock.

>I guarantee you that if you make false statements using Ireland's online system for claiming tax credits, you're under penalty of perjury as well.

What do I get for a broken guarantee[1]? :)

This batering back and forth really only arrives at the conclusion that I originally posited:

Those of us in the PAYE system[s] would abhor having to do things the American way and this wasn't meant as an affront (and I apologise if anyone may have taken it that way).

Our tax agencies are responsible for keeping track of these things and the only things we're responsible for is reporting status changes and/or providing receipts for other proofs of burden (such as Independent Contractors who file as Directors of Umbrella Corporations and need to write-off business expenses).

[0] - https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/education/pre_school_e...

[1] - https://www.revenue.ie/en/personal-tax-credits-reliefs-and-e...

[hundt]

Do you live in the United States? It doesn't sound like it. This is not the way things work.