This blows my mind. Here in AU, I can lodge mine online through a web portal. It's pre-filled with a variety of information including my reported taxable earnin

This blows my mind. Here in AU, I can lodge mine online through a web portal. It's pre-filled with a variety of information including my reported taxable earnings (through company reporting), my superannuation information, my private health insurance (reported by those companies), any dividend payments made to me, etc. If any of the pre-filling is wrong (in my experience, it never is unless there's info it doesn't know about), I can correct it manually. I basically only have to enter the deductions I wish to claim. Of course, if I earned money on the side that wasn't reported, I can self-report it too. The only reason you'd pay for an accountant here is if you have complex tax affairs, or wish to save yourself time. Even when using one, you're ultimately responsible for the accuracy of your tax filing, and you're supposed to review the submission they draft. I certainly believe that tax law should be understandable by the layman if all they're doing is a simple salaried employment, and by extension in all cases a person should be able to complete their tax requirements entirely on their own (even if that involves learning a large amount of tax law knowledge). There's something deeply unsettling to me about the concept of tax law being too obscure for the everyman to file themselves even in simple situations. Tax is a contract between the government and its citizens. The idea that a third-party private entity must be involved by law seems, to me, very opposed to the libertarian concepts that the US apparently holds dear.