There’s a Tax Season Villain, and It’s Not the I.R.S.

It’s the most miserable time of the year: tax season.

Americans are about to spend millions of hours and billions of dollars filing their federal income taxes, and they are pretty sure they know who is responsible for their pain: The misanthropes at the Internal Revenue Service.

But we’re here to convince you that the I.R.S. is not the problem.

Yes, it should be easy to file taxes. And yes, it should be free. That’s how it works in the rest of the developed world, and it could very easily...