Every year around this time, i.e. tax time, messages pop up in our Twitter feed referring to a story we did a few years back about tax filing.

It's become something of a PSA. Why? Because filing taxes is a fraught business.

Thank goodness there are companies like, say, H&R Block who can step in and simplify it for us.

Your life is busy, growing. We might say it has layers. That means tax complexity. We get it,

and we're on it. They do get how complex the tax system is because their business model is based on it staying

that way.

CNN's Jessica Hussman says that when tax prep companies aren't helping you through our

overwhelming tax system, firms like Intuit, which makes TurboTax spends heaps of cash to ensure that it stays sufficiently

overwhelming. Last year, Intuit spent almost $2.5 million lobbying. The H&R Block spent more

than $3 million, and they're also spending money giving direct donations. So what is it like

doing taxes right now? I'll just tell you how I do my taxes,

and maybe that will be representative because I don't think that I'm very good at it. So I keep

all of my documents in a pink shoe box, and I stuff them in there all year long. A couple of weeks

before April 15th, I sign up for one of these paid tax services, and I

meticulously go through all of my returns from the company that I work for, from any

freelance work that I might have done, and I take all of the receipts that I've also saved,

I spread them all out over the floor, and I add those up, and I try all of the receipts that I've also saved, I spread them all out over the floor,

and I add those up, and I try to figure out which box I should type these numbers into.

And it takes hours, and in the entire time, I have this sick feeling in my stomach that I've lost a return,

or maybe I'm being too generous with how much I've spent on my business

all year long, and then I hit send and hope for the best. It could be so much easier than that.

How could it be better? Well, you know, think about all the things the IRS already knows about

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