Are We Better Off With No Taxes?
- posted by KLR
I can't think of anyone who is thrilled about the idea of paying taxes. Even the strongest advocate of social justice doesn't seem to get overly excited about making a payment. So, if no one likes paying taxes there must be much great joy in 2010 - because as it appears, most folks are paying less than ever. However, everything comes with a price and outside of the tax credits and rebates, the price of it is: businesses, individuals, and governments have less income.
Before we get too excited about the notion of paying less tax, we need to stop and think about what this really means. On a good note, the economic turmoil has caused households, business, and the government to take a hard look and get smarter about what and where they spend their money. On a bad note, the results are a lower standard of living for us.
So, what happens if we pay no taxes at all? For sure, we would have none of the government services we currently have. No worries, we can hire companies to provide those services and pay as we go. For instance, there would be no more trash pick up - but we could pay someone to take the trash away or we could bring it to the dump ourselves and pay a dumping fee. There would be no more police department, but we could pay a fee every time we call the police replacement. What about the street patrols and traffic control, who would pay for that? We could hire a private traffic company and split the cost amongst all the residents? (but that sounds like a tax). What do we do with the local schools? Should we charge tuition to each family with children? What if they can't afford it? Do their children go uneducated? What about the military? Do we hire a defense company? Where do we get the money to pay them? What about the money system itself - who would be in charge of printing new money?
As you can see, there are many, many questions that arise if we paid no taxes, and some of these are difficult to answer. There's no question that our taxes do go to things we need and want, as well as, things we may not like or even be aware of. The deep recession has made us assess everything, and the non-essential things have been identified and often eliminated. Since less revenue triggers more scrutiny of how it's being spent, maybe the best answer is instead of not having any taxes, maybe we should have just barely enough.
By. Norman LeBlanc, CPA
Tax Services Group
Before we get too excited about the notion of paying less tax, we need to stop and think about what this really means. On a good note, the economic turmoil has caused households, business, and the government to take a hard look and get smarter about what and where they spend their money. On a bad note, the results are a lower standard of living for us.
So, what happens if we pay no taxes at all? For sure, we would have none of the government services we currently have. No worries, we can hire companies to provide those services and pay as we go. For instance, there would be no more trash pick up - but we could pay someone to take the trash away or we could bring it to the dump ourselves and pay a dumping fee. There would be no more police department, but we could pay a fee every time we call the police replacement. What about the street patrols and traffic control, who would pay for that? We could hire a private traffic company and split the cost amongst all the residents? (but that sounds like a tax). What do we do with the local schools? Should we charge tuition to each family with children? What if they can't afford it? Do their children go uneducated? What about the military? Do we hire a defense company? Where do we get the money to pay them? What about the money system itself - who would be in charge of printing new money?
As you can see, there are many, many questions that arise if we paid no taxes, and some of these are difficult to answer. There's no question that our taxes do go to things we need and want, as well as, things we may not like or even be aware of. The deep recession has made us assess everything, and the non-essential things have been identified and often eliminated. Since less revenue triggers more scrutiny of how it's being spent, maybe the best answer is instead of not having any taxes, maybe we should have just barely enough.
By. Norman LeBlanc, CPA
Tax Services Group
Labels: Accounting, Dumping Fee, KLR, LeBlanc, Less Revenue, Police, Street Patrol, Tax, Traffic Control, Trash
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KLR is one of New England's premier accounting and business consulting firms. With 160 team members and offices in Providence, Boston, Waltham and Newport, KLR provides a wide range of services to both individuals and businesses.
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