November 1, 2021
The Elusive Fairness of Taxes
By Jon N. Hall“One more thing, none of them want to pay taxes again… ever.” That’s Bruce Willis negotiating his terms to save the planet from an asteroid in Armageddon, a movie that made a ton of money, all of which was taxable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRTxx_LWUWs&t=76s&ab_channel=CptesquireAlthough the main reason to enact a tax is to raise revenue for operating the government, not all taxes are levied for that purpose. For instance, sin taxes are levied to change bad behavior and poll taxes were levied to disenfranchise black folks. One progressive purpose of taxation is “wealth redistribution,” (progressives seem to think wealth was unfairly divvied up long ago, rather than being created and added to with each new day.)
If not flat-out unfair, almost all our taxes contain at least an element of unfairness. But is there any underlying principle of fairness involved in the taxes levied strictly to raise revenue? In other words, why do we tax what we tax?
To answer that, we must first be clear about what we tax. The two main categories of what we tax are assets, i.e. wealth, and what let’s call “transfers,” (not to be confused with the “transfer tax,” which is essentially a processing fee).
Asset taxes include property and real estate taxes, and they pose a problem for fairness. Consider two houses setting side by side. The owners of these two houses both use the same roads, sewers, police and other public amenities and services. But one of the houses is taxed considerably more than the other. Why? It’s because the government assessed it as being worth more. But so what if it is worth more, both houses may cost the government the same. Indeed, the less-valued house may cost the government more.
more
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/11/the_elusive_fairness_of_taxes.html
