The idea is not to make the taxes deliberately complex, it is more about the notion of who is telling whom what is owed. A system where the citizen says "hey go

The idea is not to make the taxes deliberately complex, it is more about the notion of who is telling whom what is owed. A system where the citizen says "hey government, I think I owe you this much in tax because x" is fundamentally different than a system where the government says "hey citizen, you owe me this much in taxes, here's your bill". In the second situation, the average (complacent) citizen will not look twice at the bill, but rather just pay it and get on with their life. In the former situation, the citizen is forced to have a 3rd party create a statement that says "I owe you this much because x" and because of natural incentives, the company will try to claim the maximum number of [incentives, loopholes, deductions, whatever you want to call them] so that the client saves the most amount of money. Of course the company takes its cut and I'm not arguing that greedy companies are the perfect solution. I'm just saying that there is more to the argument than simply it being a matter of lobbyists getting their way.