In Europe, I have a pre-filled tax report. Of course, it includes only my employee's income and all the banks interest & dividends and deductions they can automatically get (wrt known family situation, loan interest, etc.).

For the rest, it is still up to me to declare additional incomes (e.g. rental properties) or deductions (e.g. donations). It does simplify though the process, especially for "W-2" employees.

The original article was talking about simple tax returns. In fact, the 1040EZ is relatively new. Much newer than the existence of H&R Block. So evidently their efforts to keep taxes complicated aren't entirely successful.

Even a 1040 "long form" (2 pages) with itemized deductions for mortgage interest isn't that complicated.

I file about a 10 page return, 1040 with schedule A, schedule C, self-employment and various others and I always do it myself on paper.

If you are at the point where you think you need TurboTax, you're probably better off just hiring a local CPA firm to do your taxes.

Of course, you also need to pay one of the tax prep companies just to file your return online (if you're above an income threshold), because you can't do that directly as an individual, either. Also due to their lobbying.

For free e-filing for anyone who can fill out the form themselves: https://www.freefilefillableforms.com/

For free worksheets to do the calculations, http://www.excel1040.com/

Filing the state return electronically is different by state, but often either doable or you can mail it in.