May 3 was the deadline for declaring one’s taxes in Sweden. As I am far more efficient under deadline, I left everything until the last minute. It turns out I gave myself far too much time — paying taxes in Sweden is the easiest thing in the world.

How easy? A few weeks ago, a piece of paper arrived in the mail. It’s a 1-page tax-return form… already filled out with my consolidated salary from last year. You can amend it (or not), sign it and give it back, and you’ve done your taxes. But you can do even less: You can text-message your approval, or amend it online, using your on-line banking security codes. And today, Skatteverket, the tax agency, already had statistics [Swedish] for us: Over a million Swedes filed electronically (out of almost 9 million Swedes; no word yet on how many filed in total), of which 87,189 did so via SMS.

As the tax agency headquarters are in my neighborhood, I decided to deliver my papers by hand. Skatteverket is open until midnight on tax day, and I headed for it in the gloam of a foggy, humid evening. Huge slotted boxes outside the office were being stuffed by 1-page returns — no envelopes, no attachments; it was a bit like voting. Meanwhile, friendly Skatteverket workers had fanned out along the approach routes, collecting returns from people on their way to declaring. One worker even stood in the middle of Götgatan as drivers opened their windows and gave her their paperwork.

It was an impressive, efficient performance. When it comes to tax collection, big government clearly is best.