I like taxes. I know that may be an unpopular opinion but I like a lot of what they support, such as schools and roads and clean water and fire trucks and social security and air pollution controls and building codes and protection from creatures that howl in the night. (Civilization, you get what you pay for.)
I don’t like doing taxes. I’d be a lot happier about the whole transaction if I didn’t have to pay twice, once in money and once in time.
I’m a less usual case because I pay in two countries, but most people have fairly straightforward taxes. There’s no reason to make those folks jump through all these hoops—the government already knows what most of us are paid.
Many countries use return-free filing. Under that system, most taxpayers get a quick “thanks, you’re good” and that’s it, done. (Changing the US system would take a lot more work than just waving a magic wand, of course, but doesn’t no return sound nice?) I predict we’ll see a lot of articles about this very topic come mid-April.
What would you do with the time you’d save if you didn’t have to fight through filing paperwork or work more to earn enough to pay someone else to do it?
Whatever you want, that’s what.
Aaand now it’s time to get back to it.
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J.R. Johnson 
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