[firic]

Good customer support doesn't cost much more than bad customer support. They are people earning close to minimum wage who provide good customer support. The problem is that the IRS doesn't care to provide good customer support because they have no need to.

[Certhas]

Test your hypothesis. By that argument tax collection agencies in all comparable states should behave similarly.

Just below the article someone comments that the Australian tax office has excellent support. Several European ones I have been in touch with have been very helpful as well (UK, Germany).

One thing that does differentiate the US from those places is the existence of a strong political force hostile to the idea of federal government ("drown it in the bath tub").

So the hypothesis that this is a home made political problem rather than an inevitable structural outcome of incentives fits the data better.

[TomMarius]

I can tell you from personal experience that many EU states have absolutely terrible tax agencies, even worse than what was described - namely Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, Croatia, Hungary. Everyone here "knows" it's because they have absolutely zero motivation to provide good services.

[firic]

Don't just look at first world countries. Even though the USSR had high taxes I doubt that their tax authority had good customer service.

[joering2]

They actually did. Some family members lived there thru previous system and praised it many times. The current regime is a joke but the previous one (even more horrible) cared only about collecting taxes. New system dont care up to the point you go to jail, no big deal to “it”; in USSR the whole concept was of a working unit. Unity in strength of every individual working. You cant work when you behind bars. They once had supervisor fired on spot because indeed he was explaining tax related problem wrong.