The blogosphere seems flooded with tax-bashing. Personally, I'm cool with the way taxes work. It seems like there could be easier forms and a centralized tax clearinghouse to avoid state/federal confusion, but I suppose that's pretty tricky to implement when not everybody has a computer. A site I frequent mentioned that the folks who voted 'red' know that a tax return is just the payback of a no-interest loan to the government. The thing is, it's better than figuring out the exact amount you owe ahead of time (which you are technically supposed to do, but, like declaring interstate sales tax, doesn't always happen) and for me it's probably worth the difference to get a lump sum amount that can be stashed rather than petering away that extra few dollars each week. As a capitalist I realize that I'm supposed to go buy durable goods with my returns, but since GWB wants to drill in ANWAR I'm going to save it all out of spite.