You pay taxes because you have to. Simple as that. Taxation itself is a legitimate act, since otherwise the government has no need to protect you and can let someone who is protected just take your shit and shoot you if you resist. Unlike libertarians, I believe the government does have an obligation to educate their populace, building internal improvements, and supporting your health by making it easy and cheap to find a good doctor. Educated citizens who are healthy, long-lived, and can easily and safely do business benefits everyone. I believe that barring a few exceptions, the US has a very fair tax burden which theoretically could produce a balanced budget capable of helping everyone in this country.
Americans aren't getting any of that for reasons OP mentioned. And that's not even counting use of tax money which doesn't benefit anyone like funding Peruvian drag queen dance camps or Pakistani gender studies. This means the current government is indeed illegitimate and does not deserve your tax money. Taxation is a contract between citizens and the government, and when services we pay for is not provided, we absolutely have the right to correct the situation by any means necessary or at the very least, not pay taxes. The latter is not an option since the IRS will harass you to the end of the world if you flee this country without going through the lengthy and expensive process of renouncing US citizenship, so the former it is.
Because the way taxes are set up is that they withhold more than they need off every paycheque. To get a refund of your payments you have to file your tax return. Also it takes 30-45 minutes max to file which is no time at all.
I disagree with the "taxation is theft" idea since taxation has existed since the minute a caveman chief said "you no stay in my cave unless you give me best part of mammoth", but the government withholding income from my paycheck interest-free is absolutely insane to me. There is zilch reason why I should have a government mandated withholding that is
interest free instead of just coughing up the required amount when it comes time to pay my taxes. That sort of shit isn't how it worked, ever. At least Blackrock's funds all spit out interest on the shit I give them.
Paying taxes is not slavery. It's a fact of life. Now a ripoff for what I'm getting back? Depends where you are tbh. If you're in Chicago you're never seeing any returns, but a small town? Eh, they'll fix the roads and build parks.
No, it goes for the local mayor and county government to pass out contracts to their buddies that may or may not benefit you. And usually Sheriff Douchebag needs some fancy new patrol cars for his deputies, and they gotta have the fanciest gadgets to run the local speed trap so Officer Manlet can flex how awesome and strong he is.
The big difference is that these people have homes and businesses that don't have 24/7 security, so you can instruct people not to do business with them, you can march down to city hall/their meetings and tell them yourself how shit they are, and if you really, really need to, you can armor up a bulldozer and send them a reminder how fucked up they are.
