I wish I lived in a country run by responsible adults. Where the government just sends me a tax bill or a tax refund, without all the bullshit paperwork. Because it's 2024, and they already know what the amount should be.
Granted, it's not a terrible problem compared to worse things that we have here. Like unaffordable healthcare, unaffordable housing, collapsing infrastructure, and failing school systems.
But it's still laughably bad. Of our various problems listed above, this income tax filing bullshit is the easiest one to fix. The government would prefer it. The taxpayer would prefer it. The only thing standing in the way are asshole lobbyists.
To be fair, unaffordable healthcare is the result of identical issues. A powerful lobbying group preventing the socialization of a universal human need is the cause of most issues in the US, really. What was it, like 300k in campaign donations on average to buy a senator? The number was terrifyingly low.
I really think we need to start trying to lump cash together and just outbid those fuckers to get some actual policy passed. Or at the very least make them spend more.
The tax system was designed to allow businesses (read: rich people) to avoid taxes through deductions. They want it to be a complex labrynth so that the working class doesn't understand how the taxes work because they would burn down congress if they knew how unfair everything was.