Tax Season and The Art of Taxing

It’s tax season.  Woohoo!

Okay, let’s get real.  We hate paying taxes.  Yet, taxes are a necessary…, no, not evil, a necessary good.  It’s the way a healthy society thrives.

We need good government with good and just laws.  We need a good justice system, military system, educational system; we need good public roads, land, water and air care, and yes, even a good healthcare system.  Government is necessary.  It’s for our good.  And to have this, we need to pay taxes—everyone.

As we all know, there are two sides to government money, the spending side and the taxing side.  They should balance.  It seems they seldom do.   When it comes to government, there always seems to be a shortage of money and overtaxing.

Here’s the problem short and simple: representatives are not elected to deal with the big picture, to do what’s best for the nation as a whole.  They’re elected to take care of their own—local and special interest groups—those who give to their election and re-election campaigns.

Secondly, we ourselves, the average voter on the street, are also not interest in what is best for the nation as a whole.  For example, it may be a wise and good thing for the nation as a whole for the government to cancel certain contracts that feed directly into what Eisenhower called the nation’s military industrial complex; but those who would lose their jobs if this were done, will have none of that and will immediately vote out any representative who would dare think of it.  In short, our real voting attitude goes something like this; “To hell with what’s good for the nation, I want what’s good for me and mine.”

Another problem is the egregiously complicated tax code.  The more complicated a tax system is, the more potential there is for its abuse and misuse.  Not to mention the potential for just plain ole unintended mistakes.

Perhaps our representatives, when adding, changing, or renewing our tax laws, should ask the following questions:

• Does this tax law keep things simple and uncomplicated?  That is, can anyone with a simple High School education understand its requirements so as to easily comply with its expectations?

• Is it inclusive enough; that is, does it spread the tax burden in such a way that the majority of taxpayers are paying it, so as to not unfairly favor special interest groups?

• Then there is the question of social and economic justice.  With respect to the second question above, there is the delicate issue of differences in ability and opportunity.  Those who have more, may indeed have to pay more, while those who have little or nothing may require a helping hand.  Thus a core question is this: is this tax law a fundamentally just one, fair and balanced?

A strong democratic government must have a healthy tax code.  That is, it needs to be short and simple, and should spread the tax burden as fairly as possible—not favoring the rich and powerful—while also being considerate of those who have little or nothing.

It really shouldn’t be that difficult to come up with a fair and just tax code.  But then again, as Pontius Pilate said to Jesus, “What is Truth,” implying that Truth is next to impossible to define let alone know; we might also ask, “What is Economic Justice?” which seems just as impossible for us to define and know—though Jesus reply to Pilate suggests that it is our own willful and stubborn hearts that keep us from knowing the Truth (and, I might add, keeps us from realizing true economic justice).