I haven't run afoul of the IRS, but my state tax collection agency didn't even bother notifying me of underpayment, they just sent my account straight to collec

I haven't run afoul of the IRS, but my state tax collection agency didn't even bother notifying me of underpayment, they just sent my account straight to collections to have me hounded by debt collectors. After contracting with a lawyer we determined that not only had I paid my taxes that year, I had OVERPAYED and the state actually owed me $500. When I resubmitted a corrected form for the state tax assessor, they sent me a letter saying the time-limit for requesting a refund for that year had passed and I could go kick rocks. Experiences like that aren't unique and are enough to put lots of people off trusting the government to be on their side for resolving disputes like this. Most people don't separate out their state or local authorities from the feds. It's all just "government" to them. And even the IRS can make life extremely stressful by auditing people who aren't all THAT rich to begin with (because people with real money have lawyers who make it expensive to go after them). I, personally, think the solution is to make the federal (and state) bureaucracy more service oriented rather than treating everything like a punitive law enforcement role. But apparently not many people agree.