Income tax also feels like a hidden fee since it's automatically deducted from your paycheck and is out of sight/out of mind for most people, despite it taking anywhere from a quarter to a third of your income. If people had to pay a monthly tax bill every month, I think they'd think very differently about their level of taxes. Note: I'm not actually advocating that, I think it sounds awful. But the hidden-fee experience feels very similar
I don’t know where you’ve worked but you can choose to not let your employer deduct anything. Normally it’s done automatically to ensure that you don’t get it with an unaffordable tax bill at the end of the year.
In the US, employers are legally required to withhold. You can only ask them not to if: "the employee must have had no tax liability for the previous year and must expect to have no tax liability for the current year."
