@vivante ok well that’s like saying the current financial structure is designed to keep your grocer’s money and your lawyer’s money in separate lanes. There is no such “design”; there simply was never any reason to mingle those monies. nothing about the way we pay taxes has changed.

@vivante I freely admit I do not understand what you are saying. The state government never handles or holds monies owed to the federal government so they have no way to withhold those monies.

@vivante when you say “it is more like an information gap” what is the “it” in that sentence?

More generally, when my business files a federal income tax return with the IRS and the business owes taxes, the IRS then withdraws the owed money directly from the business bank account and it goes into the US Treasury. (Same process for individual income taxes.) Where does the state ever have an opportunity of intervening in this transaction?

@vivante again, the state is not a party to the transaction so there is no mechanical way for them to withhold federal taxes.

@codinghorror joel at jdueck.net

@codinghorror hey I would enjoy that and it would be friendly!

@codinghorror pretty sure the answer is $0

@stinerman @codinghorror right, anyone who has filed a tax return should know this. I think people get confused by seeing stats about “which states send more in taxes to the feds than they get back”

@codinghorror surely you know this is not mechanically possible. States are not a party to any transaction involving the payment of federal taxes.