Its not that I want to completely avoid them. Its that tax laws of many countries are poorly written (or applied) and not doing optimization is financial suicide.

Consider tax sheltered accounts (TFSA-RRSP in Canada, 401k in the US). Many people do not understand how they work or even what they are ; a lot of stranger tell me they ''purchased RRSP at their bank last month''.

Also consider the case of freelance consultant. If you are your own business, you must understand what is tax deductible, and what is not.

Finally, different countries have different fiscal law regarding property. A lot of people in Canada invest in real estate because they do not have an easy access to financial markets. Here, capital gains of non primary residence is not tax deductible... oops.

You get the point. The is not financial planning without tax planning. From a dev point of view, consider the fiscal laws of a country like COBOL legacy code. Do not assume it will work as intended.

I'm generally pro tax if that's a thing, but it is worth noting that many countries use tax policy to shape incentives. If everyone ignored that incentive structure and just paid the tax, then there'd be more cigarette smokers and less EV drivers.

So you could in many ways reframe "avoiding taxes" as "doing what the government tells you to do".

> capital gains of non primary residence is not tax deductible.

I think you’ve stated this oddly at a minimum. Why would capital gains on anything be deductible anywhere? Did you mean losses? Or that there’s an exemption amount that you miss for non-primary?

It is not somehow patriotic to pay more taxes than one legally owes.

Overpaying taxes (what a lot of people unintentionally do that don't have resources to navigate every nook and cranny of the labyrinthian tax code) accomplishes nothing but make the individual more poor than they already were. Minimizing overpayment is the best possible thing an individual can do.

There are governments that I happily overpay to because they’re actually a net good to the people.

Others, not so much.

I very much try to follow thr spirit of the law though, not the letter, both in laws I ignore and adhere to.

Unless your extra generous contributions are in the 10's of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of dollars per year (depending on which government you're referring to - local, state, fed), I can assure you, whatever money you send to whatever government is not significant enough to make any difference. You're far better off sending that money directly to vetted non-profits that do the things you think your area needs more of.

Not to mention, governments like the US fed will just poof new money out of thin air if they can't afford something anyway.

And... when it comes to tax law, you had better follow the letter not the spirit, otherwise you risk an unpleasant visit from your local tax auditor. Your interpretation of the spirit of the law won't get you out of their crosshairs.

I'd guess to keep more money to use for things that are important to them.

Do people actively look for ways to pay more taxes?

Paying less in taxes doesn't have to be nefarious.

When you put money into a 401K you're shielding income from taxation. A 401K is an explicit tradeoff the government has created; individuals saving more today will hopefully translate into less reliance on the safety net in the future.

It isn't illegal or even immoral to reduce your taxes to as low as you can legally. You shouldn't pay more taxes than you need to even if you believe in socialism.

If you are American and not reporting the right number of allowances on your W-4, you are giving the gov't a free loan.