As many of you may guess, at the moment I live in Italy, where the tax rate for companies and people is quite high. Being an engineer that think about "systems" this got me wondering on what is the supposedly maximum stealing tax rate before society implodes.
we need to agree on what we are talking, otherwise we will just be blabbong about nothing. In this section I will just outline what is the definition of words I will be using so we will not get confused.
I will be using a simple definition: TAX: Any kind of money of good that you are forced to give to a government or local authority One of the key point is that you are forced to give the tax in any case, there is no possibility of avoiding it if you fall within the "rules"
A very simple definition of stealing: Stealing: Another entity (person/company/government) takes something from you and gives nothing back The key point here is that nothing is given back. Note that what is stolen did not disapper, it is just being "used" by somebody else
in this article, I will assume yes. A key point here is the possibility for an individual or company to "shop" around and find out who gives "more" for what is given. If you can find the same "good" for a lower price and you are "forced" to pay the higher price, then the differential is stealing
I really wish to ask to all of you if any study has been made that discover what is the max stealing TAX rate before society implosion. It is important to note that we are talking abount stealing tax rate (from now on STR), clearly there is nothing logically wrong for a state to take all your money (100% tax rate) if it gives in return the equivalent in "goods" that you cold buy on your own.
In this example I am assuming that all taxes you pay result in goods or services that you wish to have and that even if you shop around
you will not fing someone that provides those goods or services for less.
In this case th STR is zero and even if th actual tax rate is 100% we could agree that there is no risk of society implosion.
Someone may argue that a government takes from one and gives to other citizen, this is clearly some sort of stealing from one individual to give to the other.
It could be argued that it is not stealing if you have the reasonable chance to "be the other guy", meaning that you could possibly use the goods or services
that the "other guy" is receiving.
In this case we assume that 10% of you taxes are stolen by te government, meaning that of what you pay 10% will not come back as goods or services. Things gets difficult here, since social security is in the middle and it really starts to get complicated. However, one thing is clear, you (the payer) perceive that 10% of what you pay will never come back to you in any form. That 10% is simply gone within the government or given to "people" what will never have any chance of repay what they receive
In this case, 50% of what you give to government is stolen, it really depends on what the overall tax rate is, for this to become a problem. If for example you pay only a 30% tax rate and of this 50% is gone you may find this acceptable
Ultimo aggiornamento 03/03/2007