“Like, why don’t school teach more mathematics? Less trigonometry and more about taxes. They at the chalkboard teaching us a** backwards. How about preparing us for life, instead of lab rat us” — Big Sean, 24K Gold
If you filed an income tax return this year, there’s a good chance you’ve wondered about Big Sean’s question: Why didn’t anyone teach me how to do this?
“Four of five (80%) millennial taxpayers report fears related to tax preparation — such as making a mistake (22%), not getting the biggest possible refund (17%) or paying too much in taxes (13%),” according to a NerdWallet survey. The same survey found that millennials are more likely to be worried about taxes than any other age group, by a margin of 11 points.
In theory, the befuddled millennial taxpayer could hire a professional to file their taxes — but many of us don’t have the extra cash. Even if we have the means, could you blame us for not wanting to pay extra fees on top of our taxes? Something has to change — lest our generation gets unfairly robbed by the IRS, OR we neglect our tax obligations to the government.
Only five states — Utah, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama — require high school students to take at least one semester of a financial literacy course. Even then, the courses generally focus on things like types of bank accounts, saving for retirement, and how loans work. While these are all important things to learn, they’re not the only topics that young adults need to know to be financially literate.
And no matter how you define the purpose of the public school system, it’s hard to argue that tax filing shouldn’t be part of the curriculum. If you believe that our modern school system is a product of the Industrial Revolution, and exists to produce efficient cogs in the proverbial machine — every single cog is required to pay taxes, and ought to know how to do it.
If you’re on the opposite end of the spectrum — an optimist — you believe that the purpose of schools is to help students flourish. Nobody reaches their full potential if they’re unable to fulfill their civic duties, and it’s even harder to max out that potential if you’re (heaven forbid) in debt to the IRS.
Taxes are a sensitive, politically charged topic. And yes, ideally, parents would be teaching their kids about this. Does this remind you of any other topic taught in schools?
I’m talking about sex education. Most schools teach some form of sex ed, and it is proven to benefit students over both the short and long term. It doesn’t always go perfectly, but something is better than nothing — at least the students will not be entirely clueless about this topic that affects every single one of their lives.
With taxes, we don’t have the option of remaining abstinent — so, if everyone has to do it, schools really ought to be teaching us how to do it properly.
