We are approaching the end of the financial year again; and once again, the tax office is working in concert with the media to extort wealth from you. The psychological manipulation is 'in play' once again. Governments are increasingly using fear or 'shock and awe' techniques to extort wealth from you. Consider these media headlines:
1. "Eight ways to beat the taxman" in the Sydney Morning Herald, as if you are under some obligation or compulsion to have a relationship with them, or comply with their demands.
2. The pursuit of high profile 'tax evaders' by the tax office to impress upon you the unlimited resources (i.e. your money) that the government can use to pursue you. Refer to my posts on Wesley Snipes and Paul Hogan.
3. Often there are argues of the nature 'The tax office is targeting deductions, or 'fringe benefits', etc. Every year there is a different psychological threat made upon you.
The tax offices pursuits of course rely on your acceptance or ambivalence about whether you actually are obliged to pay tax. This of course relies upon your ability to argue in a court of law that you ought not to, and that you have a right to legal aid. Most of course don't have the skills to argue these points....so they live in fear of the tax office. The reality is that there are ways of protecting yourself from government that few people appreciate.
In conclusion, the tax office likes to smear or discredit people as 'tax evaders', but as far as I'm concerned, these people are righteously acting in their self-interest, and that is an entirely reasonable thing to do given that:
1. The state does not deserve an effectively 'unconditional' or arbitrary sanction to tax
2. The state is not acting as it was intended, i.e. as an agency for the extortion of wealth for the sake of its own self-serving ends. i.e. Acting on the basis of perceptions rather than facts, or demonstrating that it acts without regard for rights, or gives no regard to your interests are all evidence of its failure to comply with its constitutional requirement of 'good governance'. So our government is in breach of the 'spirit of the law'.
3. The ability of the tax office to use its 'unlimited' taxpayer funds to persecute you...keeping you in court for a lifetime under the threat of pernicious 'arbitrary' statutory law.
4. The government is entirely inefficient and unfair in its collection and expenditure of public funds. It is not a moral custodian, and it can be reasonably argued that it is not acting within the spirit of the constitution. Anyone with a solid grasp of the philosophy of law will realise this.
So I say to you....if you pay your fair share of tax; take every measure you can to reduce your burden. I personally would celebrate any effort which repudiate the govts right to impose arbitrary imposts upon you, fair or unfair. There is no question of fairness when it comes to extortion. You are not morally obliged to suffer because others are subject to extortion. You are not a slave to other taxpayers; just as you ought not be a slave to the tax office.
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