I was blown away at the sort of things that you can 'write off' once I started working freelance with my wife. You get raped in this country if you are an 'employee'.
The way the tax system works is kind of insane. When you are really poor, you pretty much just get it all back at the end of the year. If you are doing okay up to middle class working as an employee you simply have to fork out a big chunk of change to the government every year.
If you are middle class up to just below what I'd consider wealthy, this is where you get bent over the most. I think that this is why politicians are always going on about the middle class. When I finally started making some good money in my career, I was blown away at how much money I had to pay in taxes.
I have to say, I am all about some kind of a fair tax where no one has an advantage. Like something simple, such as all purchases are taxed a certain percent. Why does it have to be so damn complicated? And why does the same money get taxes so many times? Why do we have 'property tax'? That seems really wrong to me. If you own something it should be yours, in my opinion. Of course maybe there's something I don't understand, who knows.