This is exactly how it works in the US, too.

The reason this topic continually comes up is that people in the US are stupid and bad at math, and the IRS is very heavy-handed and issues penalties for minor tax errors, so people are afraid to interact with the process without a trusted intermediary.

Literally none of this is true.

The irs is neither heavy handed nor particularly quick to issue penalties.

There is an extremely effective and powerful alliance between certain republican politicians and tax industry corporations that work to convince people taxes are hard and the gov can't do them and they need an agent.

It works.

Okay, the official IRS policy is that you don't have to file taxes if you don't owe anything. What happens if you do not file your taxes, but the IRS believes you owe them money?

I mean, it depends if the amount is $10billion or $10, but generally they start by sending you a letter at wherever they think you live saying "hello, please write us a check for $x, thanks".

Then they do that... again. At some point they probably put your name on some kind of list of Bad Taxpayers but unless we're talking millions here they probably aren't sending agents after you in specific.

I mean, I don't file anything. For my car tax, I go to the site, enter my license plate, and a couple of other details, and the number shows up.

I enter my credit card number, and pay. That's all.

Same for other stuff like housing tax, too.

That's how it works in the US also, though personal property and real estate taxes are collected at the state and local level (if they exist, which is dependent on the state and local government).

For most people in the US, filing their taxes is a very simple process, which is why it's so annoying that Intuit has successfully lobbied to integrate themselves into the process.