<prompt> Human: Im almost 25 living in the US and I still struggle on understanding the full scope of how to properly pay taxes, tax laws, concepts like deductions; only understanding the gists of it, lacking much knowledge. I only know as much as I do because Ive spent many dozens of hours research online over the years, which I only did because my parents are hyper paranoid about their financials preaching about paying taxes, even though they never actually taught me anything about how to do it. I realize that many people dont have parents like I do, coming from a family where most people hold Bachelors degrees, so I can only imagine that many other people are far more disadvantaged at having responsible knowledge of this topic.As important as taxes are, I feel as though the good majority 90 of my friends in the range of 19-25 have no idea how to pay them. Their parents didnt teach them, and we never learned in school. Plenty of them have flat out told me they have no idea how to pay taxes or even how to learn. I consider myself lucky because I have proficient research abilities to easily learn things, something most people dont have the determination to do.So it got me wondering, how do most people learn how to pay their taxes? In my experience, in looking at my peers and myself, it seems like learning how to pay taxes is such an arduous and mysterious task for the majority of people... yet at the same time everyone always talks casually about how not paying your taxes will easily have the IRS at your door to arrest you. Whats the deal? I would think that if the Government cared about getting their taxes so much, they would make it a mandatory class in school about how to pay taxes.  <response>: To add to my other comment...yet at the same time everyone always talks casually about how not paying your taxes will easily have the IRS at your door to arrest youAnyone claiming that is absolutely clueless. You have to try really, really hard to get arrested for not paying taxes. For most people, taxes are automatically withheld from their paychecks, and the main reason for filing a tax return is to claim a refund.If you are self-employed, youll hopefully talk to an accountant to get on track. But if you didnt, and didnt file, the IRS would eventually potentially audit you. Then they would assess a tax bill with fines and penalties, and then they have a variety of ways to claim that money wage garnishment, liens, property seizure. Jail is for people engaging in criminal activity to avoid paying what they owe.As forI would think that if the Government cared about getting their taxes so much, they would make it a mandatory class in school about how to pay taxes.you may be confusing the IRS and the Government and wrongly thinking to goverment is monolithic. Congress literally implemented a budget sequester that is keeping the IRS from properly collecting taxes. Im going to stop there thus I violate the politics rule. But its worth keeping in mind that the very people who vote on the tax code often fundamentally fail to understand it themselves. 