You can’t tax an economy into prosperity

[Tungbulu]

The answer is no, for me government can't  tax into prosperity, While government reduce the taxes on few sector, like education sector, vocational institutions or transportation  because these provide prosperity in the long run in economic growth. in many  developing countries, they imposed taxes on the citizens because they have  borrowed the loans from IMF and the World Bank. Government use these taxes into their own popularity or these taxes circulate in few elit class. They used this money to upgrade their own status and spend low for public interest.
To repay these loans government impose taxes from all basic to luxury items. Which create or widen and gaP between the poor or rich. I think the government should define balance system .So here i agree with you، government. The one who have higher income should pay more taxes and those with lower income should pay low taxes. This balance lead the economy towards prosperity but might be its difficult to imagine in reality .

That’s quite a sound reasoning Mate, and I find your points agreeable. The idea about taxing a nation into prosperity is just as absurd as it sounds. Real economic prosperity comes from productivity,investment and innovation and not inflicting heavy taxes citizens. The moment tax pressure starts getting excessive, especially in developing nations, rather than building the economy, it does quite the opposite, it slows down the development and prosperity of that country because a lot of businesses (that are meant to bring development to the country) would become discouraged, investments would drastically reduce, driving the cost of living up.

[Floxynice]

The answer is no, for me government can't  tax into prosperity, While government reduce the taxes on few sector, like education sector, vocational institutions or transportation  because these provide prosperity in the long run in economic growth. in many  developing countries, they imposed taxes on the citizens because they have  borrowed the loans from IMF and the World Bank. Government use these taxes into their own popularity or these taxes circulate in few elit class. They used this money to upgrade their own status and spend low for public interest.
To repay these loans government impose taxes from all basic to luxury items. Which create or widen and gaP between the poor or rich. I think the government should define balance system .So here i agree with you، government. The one who have higher income should pay more taxes and those with lower income should pay low taxes. This balance lead the economy towards prosperity but might be its difficult to imagine in reality .

That’s quite a sound reasoning Mate, and I find your points agreeable. The idea about taxing a nation into prosperity is just as absurd as it sounds. Real economic prosperity comes from productivity,investment and innovation and not inflicting heavy taxes citizens. The moment tax pressure starts getting excessive, especially in developing nations, rather than building the economy, it does quite the opposite, it slows down the development and prosperity of that country because a lot of businesses (that are meant to bring development to the country) would become discouraged, investments would drastically reduce, driving the cost of living up.

If a government wants to grow its economy and then thinks that of all the means available, they can only choose to charge higher tax on their citizens, it shows that they are not serious about improving the country's economy. Taxes whether on the rich or the poor can demotivate people from being productive, that is when they know that working extra hard would mean giving a higher amount of money to the government. It becomes even a worse case scenario if the government is corrupt and cannot give full account of what they do with tax payer's money.

The economy will prosper when the citizens are productive. The government should give them tax incentives to encourage and motivate them, not to charge higher tax as their income increase.

[Tungbulu]

The answer is no, for me government can't  tax into prosperity, While government reduce the taxes on few sector, like education sector, vocational institutions or transportation  because these provide prosperity in the long run in economic growth. in many  developing countries, they imposed taxes on the citizens because they have  borrowed the loans from IMF and the World Bank. Government use these taxes into their own popularity or these taxes circulate in few elit class. They used this money to upgrade their own status and spend low for public interest.
To repay these loans government impose taxes from all basic to luxury items. Which create or widen and gaP between the poor or rich. I think the government should define balance system .So here i agree with you، government. The one who have higher income should pay more taxes and those with lower income should pay low taxes. This balance lead the economy towards prosperity but might be its difficult to imagine in reality .

✂️✂️✂️✂️

If a government wants to grow its economy and then thinks that of all the means available, they can only choose to charge higher tax on their citizens, it shows that they are not serious about improving the country's economy. Taxes whether on the rich or the poor can demotivate people from being productive, that is when they know that working extra hard would mean giving a higher amount of money to the government. It becomes even a worse case scenario if the government is corrupt and cannot give full account of what they do with tax payer's money.

The economy will prosper when the citizens are productive. The government should give them tax incentives to encourage and motivate them, not to charge higher tax as their income increase.

That’s correct…
Any country that’s only depending on raising taxes in order to grow the economy is actually missing the bigger picture. No one would feel motivated to work when they feel like more effort would only mean more money taken away from them by the government, some might even view it as extortion, particularly in a society that’s so corrupt that there’s not even the slightest evidence of how the taxes are spent or used. When citizens have little to no trust and confidence in the government, then taxation becomes or feels more like punishment than contribution.

[JiiBs]

Well, some socialist politicians do understand this, but what they want is absolute power through control of the population and impoverishing everybody, so they will not allow an economy in which people get rich through incentives and hard work because then those people will stop voting for them.

That is what you find to be very common in societies where some steep and unfair taxation method is used. Other than working a way towards generating revenue from productivity and incentives on services rendered, a lazy government would always sort out for an easy way out which involves taxing citizens through its agencies to ensure the government purse remains filled at almost zero cost. This has a negative effect on the citizens that continues to wallow in poverty.

[Free Market Capitalist]

Any country that’s only depending on raising taxes in order to grow the economy is actually missing the bigger picture. .

In any case, some politicians may say that they are going to promote economic growth to justify taxes, but it is obvious that taxes are collected for many things other than that. As for the rest of what you say, I agree.

Other than working a way towards generating revenue from productivity and incentives on services rendered, a lazy government would always sort out for an easy way out which involves taxing citizens through its agencies to ensure the government purse remains filled at almost zero cost. This has a negative effect on the citizens that continues to wallow in poverty.

More specifically, what happens is that taxes are a redistribution of money from people who generate it to others who do not generate it, or who do not generate as much wealth. And as I have said throughout this thread, to a certain extent that can be OK. But when taxes are very high, people either leave the country, evade more, or stop producing as much. This last point is not often discussed, but it happens or happened in societies where it is very difficult to escape, such as the former USSR or North Korea. If I am a productive person and you take almost everything from me to give it to those who produce little or nothing, in the end I get tired, I stop producing, and I hope that I will also get a share of what others produce. As a result, productivity generally declines, there is less and less to distribute, and everyone becomes poorer.

[Tungbulu]

Any country that’s only depending on raising taxes in order to grow the economy is actually missing the bigger picture. .

In any case, some politicians may say that they are going to promote economic growth to justify taxes, but it is obvious that taxes are collected for many things other than that. As for the rest of what you say, I agree.

And as far as I know that’s complete bullcrap.
If there’s one thing I know about politicians, there’s always more to whatever they say. Just recently, a new tax law has been introduced to the system (in my country), which is to take effect from 1st of January, and according to this new tax bill, every citizen of my country earns around 800,000 NGN, (which is around $560) annually, would have to pay taxes, Not like I’m against paying taxes, but the issue there is that, there has been no single evidence from the side of the government to validate the idea that citizens should be taxed. Infrastructures are nothing to write home about, healthcare facilities? Zero, security? 0.0000, because people lose their lives and properties are destroyed in the country due to insecurity and all they care about is taxing the poor people that are struggling to survive.