Sep. 26th, 2011

marsden_online: (write)
I've recently paid a significant amount of money on a home renovation. My mental model for where that money goes is pretty simple - I pay someone, they pay income tax.

It's missing several steps from the reality.

[edit] Virtual chocolate fish to [livejournal.com profile] exiledinpn for immediately pointing out the glaring flaw in my new mental model. Feel free to ignore everything except the end of the post.[/edit]
Expandno longer particularly germane )
~~~
This post has been germinating for a little while, since a brief furor last month about not paying cash prices to tradesmen. I/S said then
That money you save by aiding and abetting a tradeperson's tax fraud? That's money that would normally go to schools, hospitals, and public services. You might as well be going down there and smashing some windows yourself.

Cynically I say that's money which is just as likely to be going into some govt slush fund, in the same way as you can't say "we're/they're borrowing to fund x y or z". But my real gripe is about transparency.

- If the government wants/needs me to pay for schools, hospitals, public services
- and and the prevailing model is to tax income (which conceptually it is in NZ at present)
- then they should tax me directly with an appropriate rate not by stealth through the people with whom I do business.

That way we the public get to feel honestly how much we are paying for, and perhaps take a keener interest in just what these people we elected are actually doing with our money.

Expand Cut Tags

Expand All Cut TagsCollapse All Cut Tags

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Powered by Dreamwidth Studios