I hate doing tax paper work like everybody but I would rather do it myself than let government do it. When I do it myself I am very careful to make sure I have gotten every possible deduction. If I let the government do it, most likely I will wait until the last day to review it and then I would say 'yeah looks right' without doing due diligence. If the government makes mistake of omitting a deduction or two on people's tax return then people would complain how government is trying to rip them off by deliberately omitting deductions. I also hate the complicated tax code like everybody else but that is a necessary evil I believe. US has large variations in income/wealth and one size doesn't fit all. The fact that tax code is complicated is actually an indication that there are tax breaks available for most people in many forms. US taxes are much lower than European taxes. It is easy to simplify the tax code by taxing everybody 30-40% like European countries. I would rather have a complicated tax code that results in lower taxes than a simple tax code that results in higher taxes.