it's not a matter of you respecting them. it's a matter of whether or not it's economically or legally worthwhile.

if the fine for cheating on my taxes is less than the tax i'd pay (and the returns I'd get on investing those taxes) it's worth it.

People behave according to incentives. If the penalty for under reporting your taxes was 20 years in jail and it was rigorously enforced, people would not cheat on their taxes as much. However, the punishment is:

In cases of substantial understatement, the accuracy-related penalty is 20% of the portion of the underpayment of tax.

So basically if I get caught, all I do is pay more tax, which might be scary to lower income people, but for rich people who can get MASSIVE returns on their untaxed income, it is stupid not to do it.