I do not pay a cent in taxes to my country. This is because I moved out of my home country, and currently live as an expatriate in the Philippines.
I moved for several reasons, but a dispute with the tax authority was the final straw that made me abandon my country, which I am generally quite proud and fond of.
And in principle, I am not opposed to paying taxes. My father was in the foreign service, so you could say that taxes paid for my upbringing, schooling, and so on. Even though taxes are wasted on useless projects, I still believe in paying taxes.
But the way in which taxes are collected is anachronistic to the point of being idiotic, and, from what I read in the media and on the net, this seems to be the case not just in my country, but most other countries, especially the US. It's probably true of most developed nations that taxation is administered in a manner more in keeping with the Middle Ages than the 21st century.
Here's my story.
In my early twenties, I never had to bother with taxes. Income taxes were deducted efficiently by the accounting departments of the various companies I worked for, without me ever lifting a calculator. But at the age of 26, I set up my first business. It didn't click, so I set up another. This one made money, and lots of it. By the time I was 27, I was pulling in $100,000 a year, most of it profit, which I invested back into the business.
I had no employees and was working 16 hour days, 7 days a week. I was making good money, but I was pretty stressed, and had no time for a social life, family, or just about anything other than work.
I most certainly didn't have time to read up on byzantine tax regulations.
However, I did want to pay my taxes. I believe, or rather believed, in voting, in marching off to boot camp if I get drafted, and in paying taxes.
This was incredibly stupid. I should have stayed off their radar, and things would have been fine.
Anyway, I voluntarily went to the tax authority clutching a stack of receipts, filled out a form, and asked them how much I owed. The answer was, roughly, $11,000. It was less than I expected, so I was happy. I paid the amount in cash, and went home. One more thing off my to-do list, yay!
A few months later, I received a letter from the tax authorities. I opened it with disinterest. Was it a thank you note for paying my taxes on time? Was it a form for evaluating the politeness of the service staff? Or perhaps it was a free booklet with tips on how to save next time round?
It turned out to be an invoice, for an amount equivalent to $11,000. I floored it all the way to the tax authority offices, and explained that I had already paid my taxes, waving about a receipt as proof.
The person manning the desk was a petty bureaucrat, unfriendly, incompetent, and petty, as petty bureaucrats the world over tend to be. He sneered and told me that the amount I paid was a separately owed amount and due to regulation number such-and-such, an additional equivalent amount is due after X number of weeks (or something along those lines). Didn't I know even that?
I most certainly didn't. I had, and still have, precious little bandwidth for anything other than developing a good product and keeping my customers happy.
When I complained that I hadn't been told about this when I first came to pay my taxes X weeks ago, the guy just shrugged.
I shrugged too and went home. I had just ordered a mucho expensivo server and $11,000 is a lot of moolah. I did NOT pay them the second bill.
Now, normally, when you have a dispute with an entity - a business or a person - whom you purportedly owe money, and you refuse to pay, that entity takes you to court, and you sort it out in front of a judge.
But the tax authority is different. They can just reach into your bank accounts, and seize your money, just like that. No due process, whatsoever. (If you have no idea what it feels to suddenly have the government reach into your bank account and grab your cash, watch the movie "In Pursuit of Happyness" starring Will Smith.)
After losing $3,000 from one account overnight, I countered by switching bank accounts around, and shuffling funds from one account to another.
It turns out, the tax authority is pretty lousy at communicating amounts owed to taxpayers, but it is VERY good at hunting down accounts and seizing their contents.
To this day and age, I have no idea how they managed to get into a postal savings account set up with an alias, but they did, and drained it.
If the tax authority would spend 1/10 of the energy and brains they spend on tracking down and emptying accounts on communicating with taxpayers, there wouldn't have been an issue in the first place.
It is puzzling why in this day and age, tax authorities act like tax collectors acting on the behalf of monarchs who behead their wives. Why can't taxation be privatized, so that those tax collection authorities that do a lousy job of handling their customers - and I say "customers," not "taxpayers" - earn less?
Failing that, why can't local tax authorities at least be divided into teams, say, Team Blue and Team Yellow, who compete with each other? Those that handle customers better get more returning customers the next year, and receive better salaries, perks, and parking spaces.
Apparently, in the US things are even worse, as the customers are made to calculate by themselves how much they owe Uncle Sam.
Imagine walking into a restaurant, and when it's time to pay the bill, the cashier tells you, "The prices are on the menu, figure it out yourself! And you better do it right, or we'll audit you!"
Or, as per my experience, charges you $25 but then sends you a bill later for $25 - and castigates you for not reading the fine print if you complain.
It is mind-boggling why people tolerate the way taxation authorities behave. Is it because of tradition, i.e. it has been the norm for millenia for tax authorities to be run by arrogant jerks? Does it have something to do with maintaining an aura of the invincibility of the state, like the security apparatus? Or is it because no one has considered an alternative to an outdated, monopolistic system?
A lot of folks talk about a flat tax, a VAT, or other alternative schemes, but in my opinion upgrading the taxation model to a customer-friendly system alone would do a lot to cut down on tax evasion.
In my case, my country lost a dynamic young entrepreneur - if I do say so myself - who potentially could have made a decent contribution to the economy and society. Shifting to a taxation system that is more service-oriented would do wonders for the internal revenue of any country.
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Contributor's Note
Neener neener neener! Come make me pay my taxes now!
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appreciated
