>If everyone who collected unemployment correctly identified the tax implications and budgeted appropriately then we would have a very screwed up problem on our hands: a drone-like population of box-checkers who shockingly ignore more important aspects of life.
I think you're being hyperbolic here. If you knew about this it takes less than 5 minutes for you to get out a calculator and figure out how much you need to have on reserve. If you didn't know about this add in 10-15 minutes to research it. That doesn't seem like very onerous to me. Some sibling commenters also mentioned that some state's unemployment application contain a checkbox asking whether they want their income tax to be withheld for them, which reduces the time spent to 5 seconds.
Yup, I intentionally made my comment a little hyperbolic, but I really want to drive attention to the "everyone" portion of my comment. The errand everyone must correctly perform punishes the most at-risk for failure. If everyone complied perfectly, then the IRS would not ding anyone, but also the population would likely resemble a sad army of soulless drones.
Instead thousands upon thousands of bureaucratic errands end up stacked on sticky kitchen tables next to crying children and loud-talking relatives. Life has way more to offer than pithy remarks from suits about box checking especially when the penalties the suits hand out deal such crushing blows to the people at the kitchen table.
I think you're being hyperbolic here. If you knew about this it takes less than 5 minutes for you to get out a calculator and figure out how much you need to have on reserve. If you didn't know about this add in 10-15 minutes to research it. That doesn't seem like very onerous to me. Some sibling commenters also mentioned that some state's unemployment application contain a checkbox asking whether they want their income tax to be withheld for them, which reduces the time spent to 5 seconds.