Tax season has arrived, and many people dread it every year. The citizens of Northern Europe, however, are not among those people - their taxes are just too simple to stress about.

Nordic countries file their taxes in a unique way. Instead of filling out papers and answering questions, they receive a completed digital document containing all of their tax information, and can send a simple text to confirm that the information is correct. After that, they’re done.

The only difference between taxes in North America and Northern Europe is who takes care of them. Canada’s residents file taxes individually, or hire someone to do it for them. Finland, on the other hand, has its government handle taxes, and merely asks for confirmation from each resident. This is why they can text “yes” to complete the entire process, unless they qualify as a special case.

For North America, it all seems too good to be true, and most would agree to introducing a tax system like this. But due to the economic benefit several companies get out of individual tax filing, the method is unlikely to change.

Even without the financial upsides, adapting a new system would still be more trouble than it’s worth. The inhabitants of Nordic countries have a tight-knit relationship with their government and the people around them, while practically the opposite is true of North America.

In addition to the previous flaws, switching to the Nordic tax model would make wealth much less common, because few to no loopholes for rich people would exist. Lower- and middle-class citizens would be largely unaffected in this aspect, but the damage would be noticeable to everyone.

Although tax season is unpleasant for the majority of North Americans, the pros of the model definitely outweigh the cons. Things will remain the same for now.