[patio11]

Taxes pay for government services, which the citizenry of the United States broadly speaking wants, though they quibble every 4 years about the relative mix and funding levels. Tax laws are complex, highly technical, and require application of a voluminous body of rules to the infinite variety of potential fact patterns.

Many citizens, particularly those who have complicated fact patterns in their personal lives, are not capable of calculating their own taxes or would prefer to avoid doing so. Tax accountants and attorneys assist citizens in their obligations to calculate and pay the taxes required by the law, without paying more than they are obligated to pay.

I have a great accountant. (Hiya Cameron. waves) He sherpas me through my increasingly complicated international tax situation every year, which will never include renouncing my US citizenship but does often include such scintillating topics as "Does the US Revenue Code consider Japanese Self-Employment tax to be an income tax or not? If it does, should my income tax return for 2013 reference Japanese self-employment tax paid in 2013 or accrued in 2013? Is it most to my advantage to treat that as a necessary expense incurred by my business or as a deductible foreign tax or in some other fashion defined by the US-Japan Tax Treaty?" I pay Cameron so that I don't have to spend a week figuring that out, and can instead ship software, write emails, and otherwise move the business forward.