Its not that I want to completely avoid them. Its that tax laws of many countries are poorly written (or applied) and not doing optimization is financial suicide.

Consider tax sheltered accounts (TFSA-RRSP in Canada, 401k in the US). Many people do not understand how they work or even what they are ; a lot of stranger tell me they ''purchased RRSP at their bank last month''.

Also consider the case of freelance consultant. If you are your own business, you must understand what is tax deductible, and what is not.

Finally, different countries have different fiscal law regarding property. A lot of people in Canada invest in real estate because they do not have an easy access to financial markets. Here, capital gains of non primary residence is not tax deductible... oops.

You get the point. The is not financial planning without tax planning. From a dev point of view, consider the fiscal laws of a country like COBOL legacy code. Do not assume it will work as intended.