Your Opinions on Taxation

[DarkRange55]

That could not be a more broad question. But please feel free to share your thoughts on how you can want to generally structure the tax code or what kind of taxes we should or should not have or if we should have any all - like nature of the taxation what do you think?

 

[InversedShadow]

A lot of taxes is theft that we agree on, governments let us live while agreeing to ridiculous regulations that shouldnt be even a thing in many cases, imagine paying for a rain that falls on ur roof or quality air that u have to breath, some carbon stuff or even paying for income and then we have taxes for just paying moooney out..
Everything as absurd as that is insane, and yet there are people that have wayyyy too much money and governments aren't targeting them enough..

 

[Dejected 55]

I feel like most people that complain about taxes don't understand taxes.

Sure, there is wasteful government spending. That's something everyone should want to eliminate... but I mean "wasteful" as in they pay $10 for something they can get for $5. The problem is, people argue over what they want but don't want others to have... so "wasteful" spending ends up being about someone deciding they want government to support them but not their neighbor.

Then there's all the stuff that people want but don't seem to understand taxes cover that.

Do you want to have to pay for the fire department to come to your house if it is on fire? Or emergency services? Some places this is covered by taxes, other places it is not. There are stories about people whose house burned down because they didn't pay a subscription fee to their local fire department. Taxes would have helped there.

Or police... What if you had to write a check or swipe a card when you get robbed? Or assaulted? You get attacked, call the police and have to pay them to find who attacked you... then you have to pay for the costs of the trial and then the cost of putting that person in jail. You'd get to pay directly to feed and house that person while they are in jail. Does that sound awesome?

Taxes are intended to be a way to pay for all the services that government either MUST provide or the majority of the people have demanded they be provided.

Sure, it gets abused... like a lot of other things... but I guarantee you that if you stopped having to pay taxes tomorrow AND all those things you take for granted went away... you'd be asking what happened.

People are always going to abuse and fuck up things... but taxes are just a tool like any tool that people can abuse or use incorrectly. We should be demanding better performance from our elected officials. But people don't care enough for that. Also, we're too tribal... and we'll let our team screw us over as long as the other team loses. It's fucked up.

 

[dumbnhappy]

Taxes are important as there are little ways to fund public resources without them. I'm currently an accounting student in uni, and let me tell you, the rule book changes year to year. FASB and the SEC continue to work to improve how things work, I am unsure how I would make taxation better. My opinion is that the rich should be taxed heavily, and the poor lightly. It is supposed to bring a balance to society. Actually there is 1 thing I would change. I would employ more auditors to the IRS to investigate overseas banking and the laundering of money being done by the ultra rich, haha

 

[Skallagrim]

Contrary to what people think, in the modern era, taxes aren't collected from you to pay for things. Taxes are actually the government's way of destroying money.

They create programs, get contracts done, stuff gets built. They government actually does that itself. Payment goes out - to the contractors, to the police, nurses, teachers, whatever. That's extra money in the system.

More money in the system, but no more value. That means inflation - the money in your pocket has less value, it's diluted.

So, the government "destroys" it through taxes.

If the level of taxation matches the stuff they've organized, you get less inflation. Otherwise you get more of it.

 

[Forever Sleep]

I don't know how we would get away from them really. Especially certain types. Council Tax for instance. That in part, pays for our rubbish to be collected. Without it, we'd need to trust people to take their rubbish to the tip. Presumably, they would need workers so, they would make a charge. So, some people would ineviatably fly tip or, just let it all pile up in front of their house and, we'd be overun with rats.

We need certain services to function as a society- emergency services, education, sanitation. If it were only voluntary to contribute, many wouldn't bother and everything would start to fall apart.

I suppose the more questionable taxes are income tax, VAT, death duties. Why TF should goverments get money when we die? What an insult really. Many condolensces for your loss but, now you owe us money! At least it's over a certain amount I suppose. Stamp duty isn't fun but, I suppose we are choosing to live on land in a country bound by certain rules.

Those taxes are more troubling though because presumably, they go into a money pot controlled by the government. Council Tax also goes into a pot controlled by the local council but, it feels like there's more scrutiny there. Not that I have massive faith in the council but, I don't trust our governments at all!

They'll likely give some to their CEO mates for some project that may not actually benefit the public. Our UK politicians spent £1.4 billion on defunct PPE during covid, to help out their mates. Downing Street was refurbished for Boris Johnson using a £30,000 public grant. How is that justified? The whole thing cost £200,000 but again, his mates chipped in and he got into trouble for not declaring it. Again though- Why? Why did they contribute? A nice home warming gift? I doubt it. They want favours back- from a person that is supposed to be acting for the good of the country. Not being 'bought' by corporations.

So effectively, paying taxes would be fine, if our councils and governments weren't corrupt. It's not paying into a system that's the problem. It's what they do with the money.

Plus, the fact that they look after their own. I imagine many of the wealthiest people can afford to pay accountants and legal teams that enable them to find loop holes to not pay.

Maybe not a tax exactly but the BBC licensing fee in the UK is so unfair too. If you don't pay, they send round people to badger you. So, you pay it just to get them off your back. I reckon I've gone years in the past not watching BBC programming. It's such a farse. We should only have to pay for what we watch. Our government enforces that with a law though so really- it is a form of tax.

 

[Scythe]

Until the fuckers at the top legalize euthanasia for anyone and has a track record of euthanasizing people who only has mental illnesses, people with extreme beliefs (ex. They hate maintaining their body), and people who cannot strive in humam society (ex. people who hate working) I don't want to pay my taxes. Medical staff should also be prohibited from saving people who tell them not to save them. Whether through a note, or verbally telling them. And no more forcefully locking suicidal ppl up in psych wards.

Basically, just let people die, I don't want to pay taxes to a government that doesn't support my autonomy.