Is Tax Avoidance Morally Reprehensible?

Ajidica said:
If you are a citizen of a country and in any way derive an economic benefit from your citizenship, pay the taxes without fudging the numbers. It's your obligation.
Follow the rules. You benefit, you pay taxes. Not so hard to follow. Campaign all you want for taxes to be lowered, but don't try and squeze around the law in the meantime.
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The problem is that the tax code is so complex, contradictory and ambiguous that professionals (CPAs and even IRS agents) will be the first to tell you they don't fully understand it. And make no mistake, this system is broken on purpose. The lawmakers who should be placing the public interest first are instead working for special interests.

I have no doubt that Taniciusfox wants to pay his taxes in good faith. It's a shame that the system is so overly complex that someone who wants to do the morally right thing (pay what is owed, no less and no more) has a hard time determining the proper course of action.
 
You really don't understand how private pensions work then...
 
Life sure aint fair. We were all born into unequal circumstances, completely by chance.
But if you are going to benefit from having been born into one of the wealthiest nations on the planet, then you should be pitching in SOMETHING. Maybe asking for your fair share (same as me) is asking too much. Not sure about that. But can I ask you to pitch in SOMETHING to make our nation better? Give your time, your love, your effort to contribute to your community. Can I ask for that, I wonder? Honor System.
 
Integral said:
I"m trying to work out if there's an essential difference between taking advantage of the mortgage deduction to avoid taxes (a strategy used by many middle-class households to lower their tax bill) and taking advantage of some fancy, esoteric corporate loophole to avoid taxes. Not seeing it, but I could be blind. Both are right there in the tax code...
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The immorality is not in using the existing loopholes, but rather in lobbying for more loopholes to favor you at the expense of others.
 
ParadigmShifter said:
It's as bad as claiming a state handout you aren't entitled to.
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Seconded! While i admire some of Europes welfare model, i dont want a system where people who dont ever plan on working but are able to can leech off society.

Welfare should be for people who cant work, or need help getting back their feet. It shouldnt be for people who can work but just want to be lazy.
 
cav scout said:
The problem is that the tax code is so complex, contradictory and ambiguous that professionals (CPAs and even IRS agents) will be the first to tell you they don't fully understand it. And make no mistake, this system is broken on purpose. The lawmakers who should be placing the public interest first are instead working for special interests.
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I agree. The tax code should be simplified by abolishing all deductions.
 
Tfox, you have not updated us on your stock picking glory yet

QUOTE=Taniciusfox;9743585]

Never mind the annoyance that while it's my cash, I have to be taxed at his rate; it should at least be taxed at mine - 10%.

[/QUOTE]

Whether its intended for you, in your name, or not, I believe that it actually isn't your cash, unless I missed something as I think you've said you can
t work yet.

When you get money from your parents, it is not your money that is given to you. It is theirs. If they have to be legally responisble for it, then its theirs.

There is no debate to be had on the original topic, however. Saving money through legal means is by no means reproachable. It is not to the benefit of the individual to frit money away when they could do the same thing but cheaper.

Lay_Lay said:
The only fair income taxation system is one in which taxes are not deducted from paychecks, and each human being pays the exact same sum at year end.
This is also the system which offers maximum freedom. You keep all of your earnings, do what you want with it, then you pay up at year end.

If that per person sum is $1000, then a single person owes $1000 whether he has a job or not, regardless if he is a billionaire or not. An unwed mother with 5 kids owes $6000 whether she has a job or not.

Failing to pay leads to debtor's prison, where you work for the nation until your debt is paid. The lesson here is, contribute to the betterment of your nation or gtfo. Ask what you can do for your country, instead of dropping out of school and contributing NOTHING. (Worse, dragging us down.)

Flat Rate is not fair because it means we do not each contribute equally towards the nation's betterment. It must be a flat sum.

Figure out how much money is needed, divide that by 300,000,000 citizens - there is your dollar amount owed by each citizen. Fairness.
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Do you realize how many billion people earn less than 1000 a year?

Are you adjusting for cost of living? At all? This is a silly idea.
 
A fair tax system take into account how much benefit the individual is gaining from the protection of the government, especially from having their property protected. As such it is quite fair to base taxation on a flat rate of total wealth (or perhaps only Land in a broad economic sense, the wealth of natural resources monopolized rather then labor stored) rather than income.

It would also take into account the amount of harm the payer is doing to society, such as through pollution. Green Pigouvian taxes are quite fair.
 
Where I live if you work you need to pay taxes at 16.. I had to pay some from my work but it was only like 2.00 a paycheque and Im not very worried about it. At most it would be only a hundred dollars a year or so
 
Illegal attempts to not pay taxes may or may not be deemed morally reprehensible, depending on the nature of the taxes in question (and whether you think colonies should have seceded from their mother countries or not).
 
JerichoHill said:
Whether its intended for you, in your name, or not, I believe that it actually isn't your cash, in that you actually did not work or produce something to get it. It is your father's effort.

When you get money from your parents, it is not your money that is given to you. It is theirs.
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Yes his father originally earned this money and paid income tax on it. He then gifted it to his son who invested it and earned capital gains based on the work of his investment decisions.

Now since Taniciusfox is still a minor and can't own property this gift and any capital gains derived from it are held in trust for his benefit by his parents. So on the surface this would seem to indicate that the capital gains should be taxed at the rate appropriate for the father. But the complicated tax code might actually say otherwise (how do rich child stars have their investment earnings taxed for instance?) ...thus Taniciusfox's dilema. Any CPA's out there?
 
innonimatu said:
A totally legalistic society would be impossible: the la can always be exploited to unfair advantage (against the original purpose of the laws). Hell, the main reason (or at least the main excuse for) we make more laws now is to close some of those exploits!

If exploiting the law to unfair advantage were not morally condemned, society would collapse into widespread corruption and waste.
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And the more laws you make, the more exploits that are possible. A simple tax code allows for loopholes. A complex tax code allows for smoke and mirror (creating tax savings out of creative mixing of several provisins of the tax code in a way not intended or envisioned by the legislature).

Basid tax avoidance is moral. Tax evasion is not.

The more complex a loophole or smoke & mirror and the more such a vehicle twists the tax code to a way that doesn't pass the smell test, the less likely to be moral.
 
It seems like many of you view taxes as if all your income belongs to the government, and you are filing in order to be allowed to have some of it bestowed upon you.

For all of you who think that paying more than you are legally obliged is awesome, what percentage of your income over your taxes to you send to the treasury to back up your soap boxing?
 
aimeeandbeatles said:
Where I live if you work you need to pay taxes at 16.. I had to pay some from my work but it was only like 2.00 a paycheque and Im not very worried about it. At most it would be only a hundred dollars a year or so
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If you make under like $9k/year, you get this all back when you file.

You can also fill out some paperwork to prevent it being deducted in the first place.

Patroklos said:
For all of you who think that paying more than you are legally obliged is awesome, what percentage of your income over your taxes to you send to the treasury to back up your soap boxing?
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I mint my own money, and send it to the feds. It has the dual effect of devaluing everyone else's savings!
 
Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, Patroklos. Taxation is a legal and economic necessity.
 
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