Should taxation be reformed into something else? - Basically because taxes don't work.

[The Wicked Mitch]

They must hate everybody except themselves then. Only the very wealthy as far as I know is regularly found to be exempt from taxation.

They do, anyone existing within the system of needing to exchange their time for, well, anything really is considered subhuman cattle by those in charge.

 

[libRT]

While anarchy objectively is the best simply because all forms of government have a cost and they all aim to control human behaviour, if everyone behaved there would be no need for government and so no cost. Theoretically the idea is nice but practically we're no way near any chance of that happening, even if we were its unrealistic to think it would be maintained for very long. Maybe when capitalism is nearing its end game.

Having said that though, would be nice to have localised government, so the people it affects have control over it, same with taxes, maybe with the option to flip to other nearby districts every year, or create a new one.

 

[Barry McKockner]

At $500k, mandatory minimum payments start and progress as income goes up. No more people paying no taxes.

 

[murph]

I hate taxation in general, but it's made way more complicated in the US than it needs to be. Every year I file a tax return. Every year the IRS challenges it and assigns penalties and interest. So I am paying someone to do my taxes, and the IRS is also doing my taxes. The difference isn't worth the legal fees to challenge, so I end up paying it.

I wish they'd just send me a bill, and I could say "fair enough" and pay it, or challenge it if I think it's absurd. But if I pay it, I never want to hear about it ever again.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

I think the government will be reforming taxation for us, since--tinfoil hat time--in the future, they could make taxation "voluntary", but if you don't pay (spend your FEDcoin on it), they will take away your access to society. For instance, if you don't pay the road tax to drive on the roads and the carbon tax for the electricity in the car you and the other people in your pod share, "your" car won't stop when you put your key in and you'll probably have your food rations slashed (because the Tesla Cybertrucks need to use the road too). If you don't pay the healthcare tax, you won't be allowed to buy medicine or see a doctor.

Not paying some taxes will mean you will starve, like if you don't pay the environment tax, you are banned from buying food or receiving free water, because that means you aren't helping offset carbon with the bugsteaks and soy you're eating. I could see a "social justice tax" existing too to help "marginalized people", and not paying that means you have to pay more on all your other taxes or maybe even go straight to not-prison (an even smaller pod for wrongthinkers).

All of this will be enforced by a digital ID you will show which includes everything about you on it (i.e. name, vaccination status, etc.).

This will be done because it makes more sense than current taxation when most of the money will just go to UBI and it goes along with some of the WEF's goals in terms of "flexibility." It also gives everyone a "choice" in paying taxes (people love having choices after all) and fools people into thinking their tax money is being directed to something useful. I don't know if the government will ever do this but all it really takes is one "intellectual" billionaire hanging out with the WEF and Bilderberg and it becomes "sound policy" just like when Blackrock's Larry Fink helped create ESG social credit scores.

 

[eternal dog mongler]

I hate taxation in general, but it's made way more complicated in the US than it needs to be. Every year I file a tax return. Every year the IRS challenges it and assigns penalties and interest. So I am paying someone to do my taxes, and the IRS is also doing my taxes. The difference isn't worth the legal fees to challenge, so I end up paying it.

Don't forget that most workers in the US are withholding and then getting a refund during tax time, which is...basically giving the IRS an interest-free loan from your paycheck throughout the year.

Whoever designed this whole system was on crack.

 

[Skitarii]

Tax business operations rather than income like they do in UAE. As much as I'd clamor for a tax on unmarried and childless couples, all it would do is drive young, talented labor out of the country. The only place where I see it working is Ireland, where the sunk costs of moving out outweigh those of paying a little extra tax for not having kids

 

[Michael Pemulis]

The only states that have not had taxation (and I mean ever, going back until the dawn of civilization) instead had a stranglehold on some lucrative industry that made them so much money they didn't need to bother with taxes, they're called 'rentier states'. Some of these states still exist today, mostly (entirely?) in the Middle East with oil. The ruling oligarchs are so attached to their oil profits that the risk of a popular uprising taking it away isn't worth how ever much money they could get from them with taxation. Enlightened self-interest causes these governments to maintain infrastructure and peace and reasonable prosperity, because the system needs to work to keep lining their pockets. These governments actively simp for the public, rather than demanding to be simped for like every other government.

Of course, this has some downsides. First, it's not viable unless you have an industry that could work like that. Second, it takes the opportunity to hold that industry away from the public. And finally, these are pretty much always dictatorships run by a ruling group that basically constitutes a mafia.

 

[Retink]

They must hate everybody except themselves then. Only the very wealthy as far as I know is regularly found to be exempt from taxation.

Politicians are extreme narcissists, so it checks out.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Some thoughts

Income taxation is nice in how it can allow you to use progressive taxation, but some people argue that tax policy has never been effective in the long run at preventing concentration of wealth (The Great Leveler). A single uniform value-added tax, on the other hand, would generally be the easiest tax to levy and difficult to evade.

Property taxes are rather nice because property is pretty inelastic, so you don't get much of a welfare loss from it. Henry George (Georgism) argued that we should use it. It's not viable for running a government of the current size, but many municipalities already depend on them, and it could be relied on more.

Government monopolies/state-run industries can be used as an alternative to taxation, but are also dangerous in terms of giving the government the ability to manipulate behavior.

Tariffs have the benefit of being like a sales tax while also encouraging your own manufacturing. Barriers to trade aren't good in general, but you need revenue SOMEHOW, and that seems preferable to a lot of alternatives.

 

[MySonDavid]

I would be fine with taxes if our government weren't run by corrupt scum and squandered on bullshit.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

I would be fine with taxes if our government weren't run by corrupt scum and squandered on bullshit.

I think taxation itself is mostly fair now, but what they're going to is often absolutely worthless. A lot of "experts" talk about how we need more taxes, and maybe we do, but first they should prove they can actually use the tax money they already get.

 

[zuG]

You are taxed by inflation. Inflation encourages you not to hold money because your money is increasingly worthless over time.

Only focusing on the domestic, we could theoretically dispose of income tax entirely and just use inflation, but the government likes to train obedience and so much inflation would cause issues with the USD as a reserve currency. The rapid rate of inflation recently is causing problems internationally.