Tax evasion: good or evil?

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Tax evasion?

HECK YES! No government should take our money like this!	16%	[ 5 ]
No way, Jose! The government needs our money.	16%	[ 5 ]
Well, it depends on the tax and the government.	34%	[ 11 ]
I don't have a real strong opinion on this.	3%	[ 1 ]
Other.	25%	[ 8 ]
Let me see the results, please.	6%	[ 2 ]

Total votes : 32

ASPER
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20 Jan 2010, 9:29 pm

zer0netgain wrote:

Taxes are a necessary evil. There must be a way to fund NECESSARY government structures.

Tax avoidance is best illustrated by a commuter who needs to drive from work to home every day. His trip requires him to cross a river serviced by two bridges. One bridge is the more direct route but you pay $5 a day to use it. The other bridge is about a mile out of your way, but it's a public project and free. Both are legal ways to cross the river, but one charges you. For the "cost" of a little more travel time, you can save over $1,800 a year by choosing the option that saves you money.

This same example can be applied to any service.
Including security.
I could believe I'll be safer owning guns, having cooperative and gun-able neighbors, contracting a private security firm, than dumping money into a central government for them to spend on a national military that might end up invading other countries to fulfill the agenda of the few who were able to control this government because of its ability to be lobbied for laws(anybody with money can be part of the State).

What is "necessary" and what is not, is a subjective matter.
Some people do not care about subsidizing sports, are they right because they might be the majority?
Who determines what is necessary and what is not? Mob rule? Politicians?

NeantHumain
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20 Jan 2010, 9:56 pm

Awesomelyglorious wrote:

Umm...... honestly, that rant merely confirmed the hypothesis I had been holding. I don't think the problem is the poll. I don't think the problem is that I am trying to deceive or misdirect people either. I think the issue is that you have a very strongly expressed ideology that impacts how you view the world to a high extent. I mean, that kind of rant isn't something you'd give if this was all about a phrasing issue, but rather it is more of an ideological issue. And I am not just deriving this only from this thread, but past threads, you consistently show strong ideological biases. Probably significantly stronger than my own, and I don't mean in direction, but rather in how they affect your perspective.

1. Yes, I am a little pissed off that health-care reform may well fail (the bills before the chambers of Congress were bad enough as they were, in my opinion), and I see the Tea Party and other anti-tax movements as the most vocal opposition to it. The people who evade income tax generally tend to be the people hostile to any conception of social welfare.

2. I work in a fairly conservative environment, so I'm surrounded by people with attitudes that can be a bit distasteful to me, and there's a bit of cognitive dissonance because of that.

pandabear
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20 Jan 2010, 10:06 pm

The government could just borrow money instead of taxing. Boy, are tax forms complicated. So many loopholes intended to provide benefits for so many groups of people. The most pernicious, I think, is the long-term capital gains tax cut that George HW Bush was so fond of. It ends up complicately taxes unmercifully for people who sold a small amount of stocks or mutual funds, but was intended as a major windfall for people who live off of playing the stock market.

Sand
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20 Jan 2010, 10:12 pm

pandabear wrote:

That's a great idea for a government that borrows with the intent of defaulting on the loans.

ruennsheng
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20 Jan 2010, 11:11 pm

Yup, I will cast my vote to such a government stated above, too!

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pandabear
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21 Jan 2010, 10:48 am

Of course the loans will be repaid--but only by those who are left behind after the Rapture.

ruveyn
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21 Jan 2010, 1:07 pm

Sand wrote:

I doubt the government is anxious to totally destroy the economy.

Only an idiot would kill the goose that lays golden eggs.

The idea is for government to bleed us, but not enough to kill us or stop production.

ruveyn

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21 Jan 2010, 5:40 pm

jojobean wrote:

Sand...well spoken. Has anyone ever known anyone, themselves included, that got caught for tax evasion??

Yes.

There are some very public cases, high profile people.

Then there are the little guys we see in CPA practices.

It can be very, very costly to get caught. I honestly say that most idiots who have bragged to me at cocktail parties about the great tax scheme they are using, and who refuse to listen when I tell them I don't think it works, have eventually been caught, and it wasn't my doing. Just some schemes are lovely red flags and the IRS knows all about them.

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DW_a_mom
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21 Jan 2010, 5:44 pm

zer0netgain wrote:

There is no lawful authority for the income tax. There is no law mandating a duty to pay the income tax. As I detailed in another thread, you become obligated to pay the income tax when you sign your tax return...it becomes an admission of your obligation to pay. The IRS has a law mandating that you must file a return. They will go after you if you don't follow their instructions (which are not based on any "law"...only in-house tax policy), and by following their instructions, you are guaranteed to owe taxes.

This has been argued in court and the courts disagree. The tax code is the legal authority and it states the duty quite clearly.

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Taimaat
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21 Jan 2010, 9:39 pm

I was pretty out of it cognitively for a while due to depression and anger issues. I sure could not have paid taxes had I been obligated to. My husband handles all that tax on his income.

I do not think it is fair to people to demand that they fill out paperwork forms.

I feel very passionately that the income tax should be repealed ASAP. We even had a constitutional amendment to allow it, and it should be repealed now.

ruennsheng
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21 Jan 2010, 10:15 pm

Taimaat wrote:

Like prohibition, income taxes was actually against the American ideal of freedom of State rights... I also think that whenever possible, income taxes for the unnecessary support of large armies that promote wars around the world (eg Afghanistan, Iraq) should be repealed.

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Sand
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21 Jan 2010, 10:26 pm

ruennsheng wrote:

Taimaat wrote:

If ability to pay is not the standard for taxation, what is the other choice that will not discriminate against people that need every bit of cash to maintain and survive?

ruennsheng
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22 Jan 2010, 4:16 am

It should be the ability to provide resources for the government, in my own opinion; which is intangible but related to the needs of the individual...

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Sand
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22 Jan 2010, 6:53 am

ruennsheng wrote:

It should be the ability to provide resources for the government, in my own opinion; which is intangible but related to the needs of the individual...

Income seems to fit that pretty well.

ruennsheng
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22 Jan 2010, 7:07 am

Oh it's related to income... I am moronic enough to think that they two are different...

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Sand
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22 Jan 2010, 7:19 am

ruennsheng wrote:

Oh it's related to income... I am moronic enough to think that they two are different...

Instead of exhibiting your humility it might be better to get more detailed.

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