Higher taxes are NOT the solution

[Abiky]

Many governments increase taxes with the hopes of correcting their mistakes. By "mistakes", I mean reckless spending, printing money excessively, etc. In some countries, taxes are high, while wages are utterly low. The end result? People get poorer, while the government continues to grow its coffers unfairly.

Instead of taking the "high tax" approach, why can't just governments control their spending? Like in the US, avoiding adding more burden to the national debt instead of increasing taxes or adding unnecessary tariffs. Or they can just tax the rich, while giving a "free pass" to the poor (or even reduce the taxes). Although, this is very unlike to happen.

What do you think? Your input will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Charles-Tim]

Countries borrowing money has both advantages and disadvantages. It is just like someone that want to start a new business to borrow money for it because he does not have enough money that can cover the business startup.

But borro money should not be too excessive because of its disadvantages.

Some countries continue not develope just because of the money the country borrowed, but it should not get to the point of borrowing money in a way you will begin to tax your citizens excessively.

[Finebone]

What do you think? Your input will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

If a government is only thinking of how to tax his citizens when they are in dip shit or when they need serious money to finance a project, it shows that they are utterly clueless and they shouldn't have been leading the state, since those in power are incompetent.
As a nation, you can't be only dependent on tax to finance the nation because it is unsustainable, so they need to be productive in one way or the other, by producing things they export, by bringing money into the nation, because too much taxation will only increase the rate of poverty and enrich those in government.

Cutting out unnecessary expenses will help, but it's not the main answer to finance creation. They need to be productive and also be exporting their goods and services, because that's the only way their will be income and availability of finance to run a government.

[ruykeri]

A large part of the government's income comes from taxes. When the government's expenditure increases, they print money or increase taxes. The government should increase taxes on luxurious items instead of increasing taxes on essential goods. This will automatically impose taxes on the rich, but it will not have much impact on the common people . Along with this, the government should also control unnecessary expenses. If the government cannot reduce expenses and keeps increasing taxes from the people to make up for the deficit, then the problem will not be solved. As a result, the prices of goods will increase and the government will lose trust in the people.

[Shadiq]

What do you think? Your input will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Tax collection is not bad, but what benefits you get after paying taxes is the main issue. If we talk about state debt, then the biggest question arises here is why the government is taking loans? Of course, for some investment-related reason or for structural improvement of the country. If the country develops, the economy of the country will also develop and there will be a source of debt repayment. So why is the amount of debt increasing day by day instead of being repaid? Why is the amount of debt not decreasing even after increasing taxes?

We are in a situation where we do not get adequate facilities and benefits even after paying taxes. We have to bear the burden of the debt that we did not do or cannot enjoy its benefits. If the purpose of taking loans is development, then the burden of that debt should definitely not fall on the people of the country. There are still many countries in the world where the tax rate is very low, yet they are developed. Again, there are also countries where the tax rate is very high, but the people do not get any significant benefits and they are still in the list of underdeveloped countries. If the government has the will to develop the country, there is no need for high taxes.

[Ishicryptic]

I think that a big question to answer is why should a government increase tax? If what the increased tax is used for is to the benefits of the ordinary citizens even if they complain they will atleast see what their taxes are being used for, although it is not good to overtax the citizens because of development. Where we should complain is where a government is overtaxing it's citizens and companies yet they don't see the benefits of the high taxes, where you're heavily taxed and you cannot fully enjoy public amenities. The fear for most of us is not even about paying our taxes but we don't trust the politicians that are in control of the taxes, most of them are very corrupt, they will embezzle public funds to enrich themselves while the struggling masses are contributing more for them to steal through taxations.

[sunsilk]

Many governments increase taxes with the hopes of correcting their mistakes. By "mistakes", I mean reckless spending, printing money excessively, etc. In some countries, taxes are high, while wages are utterly low. The end result? People get poorer, while the government continues to grow its coffers unfairly.

Instead of taking the "high tax" approach, why can't just governments control their spending? Like in the US, avoiding adding more burden to the national debt instead of increasing taxes or adding unnecessary tariffs. Or they can just tax the rich, while giving a "free pass" to the poor (or even reduce the taxes). Although, this is very unlike to happen.

What do you think? Your input will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Not only to control their spending but also not to add more debt. Because if the government revenue isn't enough to pay their debt + interest, it makes no sense to add another debt to it.

So, if they can minimize the spending and avoid additional loans I think that they'll need to focus in clearing the debt first.

But these officials will reason out on how they're going to pay debt and interest if they won't tax the people with higher rate.

It's a loophole of the system that always punishes the middle class and the poor.

[Comeacross]

Higher tax is not the way out, they also know but it's the easiest way to get away with their plan. Let me bring my country into this discussion. Government already made mistakes that correcting them feel expensive to them so they thought increasing taxes is the way out. In the last two years, VAT has been increased from 5% to 7.5% and now there's rumor of increasing to 10% and 15% according to their plan. Of course there is element of truth in every rumour. Transport fare is now triple since the subsidy removal. Electricity tariff is not left out too but guess what, they are finding it difficult to increase the minimum wage but increasing taxes take no much time.

Of course, they can not cut spending because that is their sources of political patronage. We have countless ministries with similar tasks but they can not be merged either because that's whey they loot money without questioning. Stopping all these is what cutting expense means and they can't afford it but increasing tax just take few minutes to put it on paper and signed.

[New Judgement]

Unfortunately not all the governments around the world have the interest of their citizens at heart. The government we have here will rather increase the taxes, borrow more money to fund their lifestyle rather than cut their excessive spending to save money to develop the country. When you are use to certain lifestyles, it becomes difficult to live below that standard. So they rather increase the taxes, because they know the people will end up paying the taxes or they come for them and accuse them of tax evasion.

Taxing only the rich is not possible, because both the rich, middle class and the poor people are using the infrastructures that are put in place by the government. It’s crazy when you think about these things. The best solution is to have people oriented government in power.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

Many governments increase taxes with the hopes of correcting their mistakes. By "mistakes", I mean reckless spending, printing money excessively, etc.

But in their own terms, they wouldn't want to admit that they are doing that, yesterday mentality and impression they give to everyone is that they are collecting incentives from individuals in order to help build the community as the entire tax being refunded back into the community development service, but we all know that literally, all these are not the way they have presented them to us.

[Davidloki]

Tax increment is primarily to generate more revenue, but how the government chooses to spend it determines how the economy of the country would turn out. For a country that is fxed on borrowing money from other countries without an accountable result of what its spent on, is only digging their grave to a dead economy. The government in some underdeveloped countries are guilty of this practice, and the consequences are seen in the country's performance.

Many of these government are fixed on filling their stomach without any consideration for the people, even after tax increment that would only make the lives of the citizens harder than it was. Tax is important when used properly, not when misused for personal benefits or profits.

[noorman0]

That is a conditional solution; if leaders truly uphold their constitutional mandate, the budget can be effectively trimmed without compromising planning. The problem arises when a corrupt state unable to generate sufficient revenue from managing national resources, is left with no other option but to squeeze the people through taxation.

[Fortify]

Many governments increase taxes with the hopes of correcting their mistakes. By "mistakes", I mean reckless spending, printing money excessively, etc. In some countries, taxes are high, while wages are utterly low. The end result? People get poorer, while the government continues to grow its coffers unfairly.

Instead of taking the "high tax" approach, why can't just governments control their spending? Like in the US, avoiding adding more burden to the national debt instead of increasing taxes or adding unnecessary tariffs. Or they can just tax the rich, while giving a "free pass" to the poor (or even reduce the taxes). Although, this is very unlike to happen.

What do you think? Your input will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Most countries have realized that high taxes are not the solution and actually compete on the lower end, with corporation tax of 20% being quite common. The real problem is the super rich and their corporations who manipulate every avenue possible to minimize their taxes. There are so many legal scams their running, like renting their brand off a company in an offshore island which magically eats up all the profits that they've made. Even worse there are lots of loop holes that put them into negative tax, like write offs or incentives to setup in a particular region because of the jobs they claim to create. Warren Buffett, one of the fairly reasonable billionaires, actually said the laws are so messed up that he ends up paying less tax than his secretary. It seems like politicians play all these games and probably get paid not to fix all of these obvious loopholes in the laws that are abused constantly.

[red4slash]

Instead of taking the "high tax" approach, why can't just governments control their spending? Like in the US, avoiding adding more burden to the national debt instead of increasing taxes or adding unnecessary tariffs. Or they can just tax the rich, while giving a "free pass" to the poor (or even reduce the taxes). Although, this is very unlike to happen.

What do you think? Your input will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

For a big country with human resources conditions that are more understanding and laws that still stand upright then this can still be done but when talking about third countries that become the differentiator it will be very difficult.

government in poor or even developing countries wont really care about society before they get personal benefits then they will try anything including making ridiculous regulations and tax increases just so they can Corruption.
In countries that are indeed underdeveloped sometimes power is always a scary situation for the community and when we try to escape then we will be considered as dissidents because they do not want to follow the existing regulations so that in this case even though we want the best, especially for tax and regulatory affairs but in the end the government will always make this a wet field for them to enrich themselves.

[aioc]

Instead of taking the "high tax" approach, why can't just governments control their spending?

What do you think? Your input will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I agree with controlling spending, but here in my country, it's about minimizing or stopping corruption. In the current scandal that rocks our country, politicians and government workers pocketed almost 10 billion pesos. If there is no corruption, there will be more infrastructure, and there is no need for higher taxes.

Another one is good tax collection; there were so many uncollected taxes due to rampant bribery. Only corrupt officials are making a lot of money from taxes, and companies are paying less in taxes because they manipulate their tax receipts and instead pay corrupt tax collectors.

[EL MOHA]

I agree with controlling spending, but here in my country, it's about minimizing or stopping corruption. In the current scandal that rocks our country, politicians and government workers pocketed almost 10 billion pesos. If there is no corruption, there will be more infrastructure, and there is no need for higher taxes.

Another one is good tax collection; there were so many uncollected taxes due to rampant bribery. Only corrupt officials are making a lot of money from taxes, and companies are paying less in taxes because they manipulate their tax receipts and instead pay corrupt tax collectors.

I think most underdeveloped countries are all suffering from the same problem which is leadership problem. If most of the corrupt leaders actually been penalized and funds recovered there will be definitely more infrastructure because it’s usually money meant for this things that they do steal. If you read about alleged amount some corrupt politicians are accused of, one of them can even fund a country’s quarterly budget.

Whenever I see government increasing tax I usually just say this people are intentionally not ready to address the real problem which is trying to solve the leaking tax problems. We all can agree that taxes are paid but the major problem is accountability. Most of the tax collectors and government officials pocketed this money and simply blames it on lack of tax revenue

[Y3shot]

If a country is in debt taxing the citizens is not a good way of paying the debt, policies like this might likely make people to become poor more. When a country is considering to tax to pay debt it, the tax is usually higher that people wont be able to afford to pay, and the government would make it high for them to meet up and for the policy to yield success from their own side. If government must task citizens then the wages must be high for average citizens to be able to afford it.

[Fiatless]

What do you think? Your input will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

The government might not be able to reduce spending on critical infrastructure because it is necessary for the functioning of every country. The budget for essential services like health, defense, and others would keep rising. So the government would have to seek funds by any means necessary to cover these expenses.

Taxes are not just a major source of income but a means to control the economy. High taxes are used to reduce citizens' disposable income, which would reduce demand, thereby curbing inflation.

Nevertheless, taxing citizens to raise funds that would be misused is wrong. High taxes used to finance external wars increase the earnings of top government officials or are siphoned off by those in power, would be counterproductive.

[logfiles]

The reason most countries around the world keep hiking the taxes and looking for something new to tax is because of their high borrowing rates. The basically subject their citizens to become slaves of the lender wherein each year, the keep borrowing to fund lavish lifestyles of a few politicians while the citizens take the burden to repay the loans. It's a viscous cycle that can mostly be stopped by avoid loans.

Instead of taking the "high tax" approach, why can't just governments control their spending? Like in the US, avoiding adding more burden to the national debt instead of increasing taxes or adding unnecessary tariffs.

Funny enough, the US citizens also keep complaining about the unnecessary spending of their taxes by the US government such as finding the useless wars. To me, I think the politicians are the biggest problem. They are the ones who approve the budgets, the borrowing and the laws surrounding taxation while they want to maintain their lavish lifestyles.

Until I see a country were a leader lives a simple life just like the common people he is leading, I will keep saying politicians are scammers.

[Promocodeudo]

The government might not be able to reduce spending on critical infrastructure because it is necessary for the functioning of every country. The budget for essential services like health, defense, and others would keep rising. So the government would have to seek funds by any means necessary to cover these expenses.

I think the excessive spending the op was talking about is not on infrastructure, like in most African countries money is been spent on unnecessary things, making the political appointees, senators and every other persons that are part the government rich, which is why the government in those countries come up with the idea of increasing taxes to cover up their shits, which Nigerians are going to be facing very soon, if our government priorities are in these areas you mentioned, people may not have any problems in paying their taxes, but after heavy taxes in different countries, people still go to private hospitals for medicals, for me, I think taxes should should not be a burden on anyone, I don't see any reason why most underdeveloped countries tax unemployed person, may be this is point is off topic in this thread but how about that.