>But we also recognize that it's in the government's interest to maximize the tax we pay, and (ideally) it's in the tax preparers' interest to minimize the tax we pay.
What don't you buy about it? If a tax preparer doesn't give me the return I'm expecting, you can bet I'm going somewhere else or using different software the next year.
And of course the government wants to maximize revenue - if they were given control over this they could easily do small UI tweaks that may result in significant increases in revenue.
Well, the article points out that tax preparers are lobbying in favour of taxes being complex and hard to file.
Given a choice between a simple tax system that gave you a $100 rebate for doing nothing; and a complex tax system that gave you a $90 rebate if you brought their software or a $30 rebate if you did nothing; the tax preparer would prefer the latter system even though doing so would increase the tax their customers pay.
And of course the government wants to maximize revenue - if they were given control over this they could easily do small UI tweaks that may result in significant increases in revenue.