In France I basically go to impots.gouv.fr, click, click (identify with govt rooted personal SSL cert), double-check pre-filled revenue values, add whatever optional specificity I need, click (sign with SSL cert), done. It takes me ten minutes, tops, and ack goes straight in my email inbox.
Tax payment could not be simpler: 1. auth 2. select tax to pay in list 3. click pay
It's honestly awesome (although it requires a Java plugin for digital signing) and works on all reasonable OSes and browsers.
It can be slightly simpler: in the UK the common case is that you don't need to do anything at all, and the taxes are automatically deducted by your employer. (There are circumstances where you need to send a tax return, but they are the minority: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/need-tax-return.htm).
Too simple means there probably isn't much flexibility (IE: you are giving a ton of money to the government with little to no possibility of deductions).
What's flexibility good for? The government needs a certain amount of tax revenue to run; either they don't get that revenue, or the average tax rate is at a certain level, after all the "flexibility" is taken into account. What's more, the amount of tax revenue the government needs is lower without the deadweight loss of a good portion of the IRS's 106,000 employees, and the economy doesn't suffer the churn of seasonally employed accountants.
Someone running a company certainly should have deductions. It's this type of thinking that got 10 of the states in the US to tax you on gross revenue rather than net profits. To this day, people defend it, even though I know of at least 5 restaurants that when out of business shortly after this went into effect.
"The government needs a certain amount of tax revenue to run;"
How about we get exact numbers and when we have paid enough in taxes, we don't have to pay anything more? The problem is that there is no accountability with our money. The amount the government needs in taxes will always be more than what we actually pay.
"either they don't get that revenue, or the average tax rate is at a certain level, after all the "flexibility" is taken into account."
I would gladly have the flexibility taken away if the amount of taxes we pay makes it so everyone is paying the lowest possible amount and we don't really need these deductions. Most governments have this reversed. If you don't take the time to find deductions, you will be paying more money than you need to to the government.
Under normal circumstances, if the other party didn't give this money back, it would be considered theft.
"What's more, the amount of tax revenue the government needs is lower without the deadweight loss of a good portion of the IRS's 106,000 employees, and the economy doesn't suffer the churn of seasonally employed accountants."
Am I supposed to feel sorry for employees whose sole purpose is to find ways to take more money from me? The IRS is a ruthless organization. If you make a mistake, the IRS charges you compound interest on top of penalty fees. If the IRS makes a mistake, you might get your money back.
Every deduction you might want to fill can be filled in as you wish in the process as the form allows that. Every possibly relevant value known to the system is simply pre-filled, and otherwise manually entered data is imported year over year. For example I deduce the real costs of my commute instead of the default 10% deduction, and both the value and comments (which include the detailed calculations, because I'm nice to the other side) are there. I only have to make a few minor adjustments, and voila.
Tax payment could not be simpler: 1. auth 2. select tax to pay in list 3. click pay
It's honestly awesome (although it requires a Java plugin for digital signing) and works on all reasonable OSes and browsers.