I live in Austria, where we have such a system. The money isn't hidden away at all, you get a letter every month detailing how much you paid income tax, health

I live in Austria, where we have such a system. The money isn't hidden away at all, you get a letter every month detailing how much you paid income tax, health insurance, unemployment insurance, retirement plans etc. The big advantage is that you never have the chacne to spend all the money you have to save for taxes; makes budgeting a lot easier. Unfortunately, this only works correctly when you have a single employer. If you have multiple employers, you need to send a form to the authorities and they will determine how much you overpaid or underpaid. And if you're self-employed, you're on your own; you have to file your taxes yourself. But in that case most people hire a tax adviser to do it for them.