My country just tells you.

Yeah. Basically, we get a pre-filled form with most of what can automatically filled in, already filled in. Of course some stuff like donations (which are deductible) and other stuff that are not automatically linked to you have to be added by hand, but for a vast majority of people there is no such thing.

So basically, open the pre-filled form, check that the incomes and your current situation is correct, send it back, then you basically get the amount (which can be either automatically collected through direct debit at a given date, split monthly, or paid manually).

We usually argue about why and how much tax we pay, but I never had any heated discussion about the tax system itself.