Tax preparation is one of the great American inefficiencies

Along with automobiles, courts and the military. Taxes are completely ridiculous. The system of taxation doesn't work well at all. It's such an extremely bad business model. It enriches itself through endless amounts of work (i.e., more paid man hours, larger business, thus more high paid managers/presidents/ceos/civil servants) at the expense of hundreds of millions of hours of peoples time. Not to mention the industries of tax preparation and accountancy that exist simply because our taxation system is so complex.

We need money for things like roads and schools and firemen, but why's it gotta be some damned complicated? There's a balance between fairness and cost-effectiveness.