Yeah the whole US mortgage interest exemption is a special US thing, not a natural tax exemption available worldwide

Here in NZ there are NO tax exemptions for normal humans (well there is one single one for low income families with small children) - it means that our taxes are incredibly easy to file - if you have one employer you probably don't need to file at all, if you want to it's 2 pages on a web form, if you don't file and the IRD owes you money they'll probably pop it in your bank for you.

Oh, and our high marginal tax rates are ~10% lower than I was paying in California, and that includes free public healthcare