[babyshake]

Perhaps this is just in my imagination, but it seems that there is an element to the byzantine tax process where it's desirable on the part of the government for people to feel that they have likely made some mistakes at some points with taxes, and this produces the feeling that the government has "kompromat" and therefore they should be careful and make sure to not do anything to get any unwanted attention. Of course, there is an analogy to be made with religion and the Catholic Church in particular.