A right-wing MAGA influencer called the “direct file” tax program a "far left /…/

Here in Estonia, the castle of “far left” in Europe (shh, don’t spoil the joke, comrades, we want them to think we’re dark red here ;) )…

…for something like 15 years already, you file your taxes like this:

• some day in February, your internet bank reminds you to send a report to the tax office
• you click “send”
• some day in February, you read in a newspaper that “you can file your taxes now”
• you open up emta.ee, log in with your ID card, and see a pre-filled declaration
• if you’re lucky (99% are), it’s been filled correctly and you click “confirm”, otherwise you click “edit”
• you get to see if you have returns or need to pay extra
• if you have returns, you can choose if you want the money (typically if it’s big, you do) or want to donate the small change to a non-profit

It typically takes about 15 minutes.

If it’s a bad year and the automatically filled declaration was incorrect, things will differ of course - then you wait until next winter for a court to resolve the dispute. If you can write a complaint in legalese, it costs about 20 €, but if you need a lawyer, you shell out real money. I’ve had a bad year once. Most people never have one.