I think that efforts to suppress things like "Easy Tax" where the feds would send you a pre-filled-out form that you could agree or disagree with are almost certainly malice. There have been multiple attempts over the years and the anti-tax Norquist crowd comes down. If they can't end taxes, they don't mind it being difficult to file taxes and they say that it's because they wouldn't mind someone accidentally under paying or under reporting taxable income and it not getting caught.
Part of the political resonance with the tax issue is the cost of doing taxes and the stress it causes. If the process was as simple as verifying a document, signing it and sending it back (or heaven forbid, docusigning it and clicking 'next') then the discussion changes to "what are my taxes doing?" and "is this worth it?"
I really like your second paragraph, hadn't considered that.
I have a hard time seeing past malice, when some of the most high profile easy to target tax dodgers consistently pull it off with only good outcomes, or when the IRS is given more money to specifically target them yet doesn't.
Part of the political resonance with the tax issue is the cost of doing taxes and the stress it causes. If the process was as simple as verifying a document, signing it and sending it back (or heaven forbid, docusigning it and clicking 'next') then the discussion changes to "what are my taxes doing?" and "is this worth it?"