The latest statistics I could find for Denmark (2009) say 80% accepted the tax as prepared by the government, around 18% edited it online and 2% sent in paper.

Recently most things are automatically filed and unchangeable, even down to something like charitable giving -- if you send Amnesty some money every year, they are responsible for telling TAX so you can get a deduction. If there's an error, you have to contact your charity, not TAX.

If you paid too much money in tax, there's one specific account every citizen has, that's used by government to send you money. No checks.

How people file isn't a problem in the US: in 2010, 70%[1] of tax filers (~90 million people) filed electronically and that number has almost certainly increased since. The issue in the article is whether the IRS (our federal taxing agency) should be allowed to file returns on behalf of citizens (i.e., do most of the work for them).

[1]: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/42275764/

I wouldn't consider "how" people file a problem. I choose to file on paper still, and will until I can upload my tax data from my machine directly to the government's computer without passing through some third-party provider that I don't trust to keep my data safe.

Most of these are pre-prepared returns. Nobody edits their tax return via SMS or phone - it's just acceptance of the one that have already been sent to them.

SMS tax filing? #want

It really is that good - as a Swede, you get your prepared statement (and unless you've done a major or irregular thing in the past year, like buying a house, or trading stock on an exchange outside the European Union) that prepared statement is correct. Part of the statement says "If you agree without modifications, just text 1234234 to the number 1234454".

And a few seconds later you get a reply SMS that confirms that your taxes are indeed filed for this year.

Done. Simple. And awesome :)