In the past where taxes were honoured ~

[fiulpro]

I read this post on Instagram , was more of a fact page , they talked about the tax system in the old periods .
One such country astounded me , the system was simple yet effective.
So at the end of the month or the year , only the richest people were supposed to pay taxes and it was considered a big honor , then the highest tax payer was awarded in a way where he was supposed to do something good for the community , like Making road or something .
Firstly I do not take credit for the post but I do think ,this system was rather effective , how did it come to this.
People actually thought of it as a rewarding system instead of escaping from it .
Do you think it was fair ?
Do you think the government needs to look back and search for alternatives , for the loop holes ? Taking some inspiration from the past.

(Unfortunately I wasn't able to find the specific site giving information about it please post the link below if you are lucky enough to find it )

[jackg]

In the current system this might be problematic as it essentially rewards big spenders and big blowouts of money...

The people buying the roads may not have been so thrilled with the concept either as they probably only did internal servers from within the government. Atm rich people are pretty well known for their work so I doubt it'd do much for them other than be a burden. Also the richest person probably just found ways to try to hide their wealth too or give a small amount to the second richest to stick them with the liability.

[Ucy]

I honestly will be glad to pay more if I have lots of extra money. But it's OK to get everyone to pay their taxes. It's probably not OK to force taxes on people who don't deserve to be taxed.. . like people who don't use things that a society places tax on. I am not sure if it's OK to tax someone who doesn't depend on a society to survive. He/she can choose to donate to the society, and such donations should be rewarded in some ways... maybe with some kind of ratings.

[Ucy]

In the current system this might be problematic as it essentially rewards big spenders and big blowouts of money...

The people buying the roads may not have been so thrilled with the concept either as they probably only did internal servers from within the government. Atm rich people are pretty well known for their work so I doubt it'd do much for them other than be a burden. Also the richest person probably just found ways to try to hide their wealth too or give a small amount to the second richest to stick them with the liability.

I guess roads could just be concessioned to people who can maintain them, build new ones, etc. The road will still be owned by the community.   Question is, how do you make maintaining & repairing of a road profitable to the people you hand it over to without over burdening the community while trying to make it profitable? One of the ways to do this is probably to concession some part of the lands around the road to them... so that they can make good use of lands and earn extra profit from them.

[davis196]

I read this post on Instagram , was more of a fact page , they talked about the tax system in the old periods .
One such country astounded me , the system was simple yet effective.
So at the end of the month or the year , only the richest people were supposed to pay taxes and it was considered a big honor , then the highest tax payer was awarded in a way where he was supposed to do something good for the community , like Making road or something .
Firstly I do not take credit for the post but I do think ,this system was rather effective , how did it come to this.
People actually thought of it as a rewarding system instead of escaping from it .
Do you think it was fair ?
Do you think the government needs to look back and search for alternatives , for the loop holes ? Taking some inspiration from the past.

(Unfortunately I wasn't able to find the specific site giving information about it please post the link below if you are lucky enough to find it )

The tax system you are describing never existed in any civilization in the entire human history.I guess the author of the Instagram post was describing some sort of utopian society,where the rich people are generous and want to give more to the community.The tax system described in the post is everything else but effective.In every country in the human history,most of the tax revenue are gathered from the middle class and the working class.The rich people could avoid tax payments,because they can corrupt politicians and clerks,or they could simply move to another country.

[mersal]

I honestly will be glad to pay more if I have lots of extra money. But it's OK to get everyone to pay their taxes. It's probably not OK to force taxes on people who don't deserve to be taxed.. . like people who don't use things that a society places tax on. I am not sure if it's OK to tax someone who doesn't depend on a society to survive. He/she can choose to donate to the society, and such donations should be rewarded in some ways... maybe with some kind of ratings.

I bet you won't pay taxes once you made more money (I am not directly saying you by the way) because governments asking people to pay taxes at insane rate so why anyone should give their hard earned money to someone for doing nothing that is why rich people avoid taxes legally and illegally and its possible for them to do because they are making money from business not from salaries.

So what can be done to encourage everyone to pay their taxes is to reduce the tax rate to the practical level and use the collected tax amount to the people development not to your personal development.

[FlightyPouch]

So what can be done to encourage everyone to pay their taxes is to reduce the tax rate to the practical level and use the collected tax amount to the people development not to your personal development.

Well, we all know that the purpose of taxation is not just for the people development but for a lot of other things too like supporting the other powers of the state. It is true though that there are these politicians that take advantage but there are also these tax payers that do that too. Since most tax payers do the calculation of the tax they will be paying, isn't it favorable for them?

[micallco]

I think that the main thing is not how many taxes you pay to the state, but how many useful things you have done. Your useful deeds - this is a contribution to the wealth of your country. Therefore, large taxes must be paid by those who did useless things (for example, speculating in finances), and not those who simply earn a lot. For example, there are people who really do useful things for society as a whole and at the same time their company makes a lot of money.

[mu_enrico]

I never heard of it, but my guess is it's a voluntaryism utopia. Or if it's real, then it must involve some God/belief. I think the old Jewish and Arab communities have tithe or zakat. These kinds of donations could be considered as tax.

[Febo]

I read this post on Instagram , was more of a fact page , they talked about the tax system in the old periods .
One such country astounded me , the system was simple yet effective.
So at the end of the month or the year , only the richest people were supposed to pay taxes and it was considered a big honor , then the highest tax payer was awarded in a way where he was supposed to do something good for the community , like Making road or something .
Firstly I do not take credit for the post but I do think ,this system was rather effective , how did it come to this.
People actually thought of it as a rewarding system instead of escaping from it .
Do you think it was fair ?
Do you think the government needs to look back and search for alternatives , for the loop holes ? Taking some inspiration from the past.

Taxes were collected way differently 200 years then now. Also sources where they come from. It will be same in the future. Governments will tax whatever they can control and tax easily. I really dont understand people that are saying that governments will never adopt cryptocurrencies, because it will make them problems with collecting taxes. They will solve that easily.

[btc_angela]

Well it could be effective before, but in the modern era, it will be very different. And I don't think that those rich people are going to do that today. Yes there are loopholes in the current tax system around the world, and the rich and taking advantage of it, to the point of not paying taxes. I think it still boils down to the government implementation and how hard they going to work to run after those not paying their taxes.

[criza]

If this would be true, I think that every society around the globe would be much better than what it is now. This would be like a dream, wherein the wealthy are giving and sharing to the community from what they have and doesn't become angry about it but, instead it is their glory and achievement. This would possibly solve the hunger and would help a lot of family. But, I don't exclude the rich people these days that are donating to charities and foundation, leaving out their selfishness and truly help others, I just hope their would be more people like them.

In addition, relating to crypto currency, there are topics like it here that says " the new age of charities and donations are through crypto currency wherein it is highly possible these days as the world changes overtime for the betterment of the society and the digitalization of these kind of transactions.

[squatz1]

I think there is a lot to break down in what you've just wrote.

I can't think of any system off the top of my head where people were rewarded, socially, for providing the most to government, at least in the modern era. If someone is able to find something like this, I'd love to read into it a bit.

Taxes are honored as of right now. Honored, in my view of the word, simply means paying all that is owed of you. Whatever the current law of the land is in regards to what you have to pay is that you pay. And that's what most Americans and most rich people do. I would never want to pay a penny more then what I have to pay someone, and it shouldn't be expected that I go above and beyond for some reason.

Also, when people talk of something like loopholes I truly laugh. Loopholes aren't something that are abused by the rich, poor, middle class, etc -- they're created and the IRS knows about them and they're fine with how the law is interpreted as of right now. If you ever see someone going about the tax code in a way that the IRS doesn't agree with, or doesn't feel is proper, they're going to start litigation against them and the law will decide what is the correct interpretation.

So yeah, that's my little rant about taxes.

[Wexnident]

It's pretty easy to hide the amount of wealth one owns tbh. And if there were an insider inside the governing system, it makes hiding it a whole lot more easier. Even if we do say reference from the expenditure of the household, they could easily say that THAT was the last of the savings their household has. The system of the past was effective because it was OF THE PAST.

Do note that things have changed because of man kind's intelligence, and if we were to apply the same tax rules as of the past, the intelligence of man would prove to be worthy of its reputation and easily bypass any kind of law they would want. Especially if there are a few like-minded individuals both inside and outside the governing system.

[awik p]

I never heard of it, but my guess is it's a voluntaryism utopia. Or if it's real, then it must involve some God/belief. I think the old Jewish and Arab communities have tithe or zakat. These kinds of donations could be considered as tax.

if we trace indeed between zakat and tax have the same goal, namely to prosper others, and help our brothers in need. it's just that the system used is different, taxes are coercive, if they don't obey they get a fine, but if taxes grow from the heart

[mersal]

So what can be done to encourage everyone to pay their taxes is to reduce the tax rate to the practical level and use the collected tax amount to the people development not to your personal development.

Well, we all know that the purpose of taxation is not just for the people development but for a lot of other things too like supporting the other powers of the state. It is true though that there are these politicians that take advantage but there are also these tax payers that do that too. Since most tax payers do the calculation of the tax they will be paying, isn't it favorable for them?

If all the tax money has been used for the development of people and country or any other good things then people will pay the right amount of tax by themselves but when government ask half of the hard earned money as form of tax then no one will be ready to give it.

[hugeblack]

The history of taxes is related to money and conflict between classes. Initially, taxes were optional, and then they were imposed "more fairly", but unfortunately the main target of them were the rich and those who were not happy with the old system.
Taxes are currently imposed on idiots or those who do not know how to use the tax system in order to pay the least amount possible "by legal means." Those who want to pay taxes happily without caring about how to reduce them.

[mu_enrico]

if we trace indeed between zakat and tax have the same goal, namely to prosper others, and help our brothers in need. it's just that the system used is different, taxes are coercive, if they don't obey they get a fine, but if taxes grow from the heart

Well, in history, people get slaughtered because they refuse to pay Zakat.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zakat#Failure_to_pay

It's obligatory by the way,

Islam has five primary obligations, or pillars of faith, that each Muslim must fulfill in his or her lifetime. They are as follows:

...

Zakat, almsgiving, is the third pillar. Social responsibility is considered part of one's service to God; the obligatory act of zakat enshrines this duty. Zakat prescribes payment of fixed proportions of a Muslim's possessions for the welfare of the entire community and in particular for its neediest members. It is equal to 2.5 percent of an individual's total net worth, excluding obligations and family expenses.

Source: https://www.saudiembassy.net/five-pillars-islam

Kindly go to Politics and Society board if you want to discuss more about this.


There are two sides of human, x and y, push and pull, good and evil, yin and yang, etc., you cannot embrace one side and completely neglect the other. Some people want to feel good/right by voluntarily paying taxes, however, some will not.

[FlightyPouch]

So what can be done to encourage everyone to pay their taxes is to reduce the tax rate to the practical level and use the collected tax amount to the people development not to your personal development.

Well, we all know that the purpose of taxation is not just for the people development but for a lot of other things too like supporting the other powers of the state. It is true though that there are these politicians that take advantage but there are also these tax payers that do that too. Since most tax payers do the calculation of the tax they will be paying, isn't it favorable for them?

If all the tax money has been used for the development of people and country or any other good things then people will pay the right amount of tax by themselves but when government ask half of the hard earned money as form of tax then no one will be ready to give it.

Half? No, they will not be asking half of someone's income or profit. They may do some double taxation to some but they have their reasons, and they are not asking for half of it but just a percentage of it. Taxation is based on the people's ability to tax, you should always keep that in mind.

[Linkkoin]

In the past, due to the religious reasons and ethics based on them, the rich had the moral obligation to help poorer ones. "The more wealth I have, the more people I could help". So then beside paying taxes, they had been founding churches, hospitals, bridges, universities, sometimes feeding poor etc.

As a result, their reputation had been increasing among other living, and stayed in the history - as the buildings or institutions had often been named after the founder.