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Comment by Maarten88 | Hacker News Reader

In the Netherlands we have had this for years. You login with the tax agency and download a pre-filled tax form. Wages and Income Tax is pre-filled, as are Bank savings and morgages. The pre-filled form is complete for over 90% of people.

The 10% for who it is not can add or correct things that our IRS may not know correctly (i.e. foreign holdings or bitcoins).

You then digitally sign and submit it. It's quite easy to do yourself and I think most people here do (couldn't find a percentage). I could find that 97% is submitted digitally, only 3% is on paper.

We do have commercial offerings, those are used for the more complex scenario's, mostly by accountants and tax professionals

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Japan is like this, only most regular employees never have to do a thing. Our employers take care of everything and our December pay packets are adjusted so that the correct amount of tax for the year has been paid. Banks also take tax out before paying interest to account holders.

You can also go to a tax office sponsored by your city hall and have a preparer assist you at no extra charge.

It's mostly the same in Spain. Our IRS equivalent sends you a draft that you can approve digitally. If you have something to add or change, there is an online form that you can pre-load with the government data and then edit anything you need. You sing it digitally and you're done.

Before that, there was a market for tax advisors that filled taxes for ordinary people, but it's gone. Only rich people or people who own complex business or investments need an advisor to fill their taxes now.

Here in Norway i don't need to download anything, the tax authority website has all the tools I need and most of it is already filled out and ready to go. All I do is check that it is all correct things (rarely), add the bits that they can't get automatically (offshore bank accounts, stocks on the new York exchange, etc.), and hit the button to say submit it.

It immediately gives me an estimate showing how much I have overpaid or underpaid.

For people with simple tax affairs, nothing offshore and not self-employed, there is nothing at all to do.

Same goes for here in South Africa. And that's coming from a country whose government is well known for its inept service and corruption. Most tax-related things, generally "90%" of them, can be done fully online without ever having to set foot in an official office, or speak to someone on the phone.

Same for France, the taxes can be handled on Internet (it will become compulsory some day). Everything is filled in and it literally takes 2 minutes to have it done (the gig adverts about taxes show someone who does the taxes when leaving for dinner for instance)

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