Quote:I think we've got a cultural or language barrier here. In the USA, 'property tax' is used almost exclusively for the taxes paid on real estate, primarily that used for domestic dwellings. Since we do not pay taxes on our other property (bank accounts, jewelry, stocks, Krugerrands, plate and silver, or fine linen), property tax is not an issue. The hiding of income in overseas bank accounts to avoid paying (in some cases duplicated) income tax is.
--Pete
Thanks for elaborating.
Over here we pay taxes over money we have sitting on our bank accounts or money we have invested in companies in the form of shares.
Nobody has his legal income transferred on swiss bank accounts. You put money on a swiss bank account after you have earned it (income) and payed income tax over it (or if it is money that was earned in an illegal way).
You put money in a swiss bank account if you are playing around with having your own business or other peoples businesses (buy out) and are scared they might go bankrupt. If you donät have any money in your country you can't pay, you file for bankruptcy and you start over again.
Normal income would also be taxed when you receive it in Switzerland, but it is logical a state wants you to pay taxes in your own country and not in another. If however you do business in switzerland and work for a swiss company and live there, well of course you will have a swiss bank account.
And as a reply to you grocery example; I think shadow summed it up nicely. Plus of course the fact that the only way a person can make a nice profit in a legal and sustaianble way is in a country that has a good financial and security structure....so taxes are necesarry for that. Kandrathes utopic society in which everybody pays for their own part of the army, firebrigade, schools etc. is far less likely to work than a socialist in which taxes are spend wisely.
Plus of course the fact that capitalism works in a way that needs more and more spending, for this you need more and more people with an income....all those tax inspectors do spend most of their money in their own country (and pay taxes themselves).
But just to make things clear; I agree 100% that in many cases taxes are spend in a stupid way. But my ideas are to change this through politics instead of just quite paying taxes.