If you live in the US and you think your taxes are bad, you haven't seen anything yet. The IRS starts to really make your life miserable once you move out of the country and live as an expat. The reporting requirements (FBAR and FATCA) border on ridiculous. As an example you need to report all your financial accounts, interest on them with no minimums, you have to know the maximum amount in each account over the course of a year, and BTW, if you are a shareholder in a non-public company, that company's statement goes into your tax filing, too. Preparing your tax return becomes a major project that you do once a year, and you really have to pay a specialized company to do it for you, because there are so many pitfalls.<p>The part that I found most surprising is that in the US there is basically no way for an individual to read the law and follow it. The law is way too complex and murky. As a contrast to that, in most countries that adopted German law principles, it is perfectly normal for a person to go read the law if in doubt.