Originally Posted by
Baa_Baa
The trap you've fallen into imo is by introducing the word 'socialism' into an otherwise valid and reasonable question "Tax - What is it for", and then comparing it to a religion? Confused conflations, not helping considered conversation.
It is immaterial to your question whether the government of the time is socialist, liberalist, conservative, communist or whatever, let alone religion, is 'what is tax for'?. But you skewed the question in a certain direction and muddied it as well.
I'm a taxpayer who pays imo a large amount of money per annum as a percentage of my earnings, in the 1% as some measure it, to the government. Certainly my taxes are a lot more money than I can save for myself and my family after other expenses. They get a lot of my earnings in tax. And that's not including anything additional like the consumption taxes, GST, sewerage, rubbish, transport, liquor, water etc etc.
It is more than enough to cover the costs of multiple beneficiaries, dependents, infrastructure considerations and others relying on taxpayer funding. I would hope that my contribution is a societal responsibility that is reasonable, but more importantly reasonably spent.
My opinion is that every individual should pay a tax to contribute to society (although many don't pay anything), but the amount of the tax they pay should not be proportional to the amount that they earn. That is a ridiculous proposition, that depending on what one earns, determines what they should contribute to the taxable income of the country. It invites avoidance (legal) and evasion (illegal).
My concern is that I am disproportionally taxed based on how much I earn, and, that it is not reasonably spent by the government.