Re:The Slow Criminalization of Peer-To-Peer Transfers
by AnthonyMouse on Friday June 02, 2017 @08:23PM
(#14474193)
> is a society in which taxes could be evaded so freely on such a large scale really desirable?
Tax evasion has been and always will be an issue of popular morals. All you need for evasion is a medium of exchange (or barter) and for both sides not to report the transaction.
Collecting taxes is trivial when either (or both) of the parties to a transaction report it and impossible if they don't. So the only way taxes can work is for most people to be convinced that the taxes are reasonable and what they pay for is justified. If most people are not convinced then they'll lie for each other and the government is screwed; see Italy. Central banks can't save you from that, only your own citizens can.
And the laws against money laundering have nothing to do with tax evasion by the common man and everything to do with the war on drugs. Putting a stop to that train wreck would only help everybody.
Tax evasion has been and always will be an issue of popular morals. All you need for evasion is a medium of exchange (or barter) and for both sides not to report the transaction.
Collecting taxes is trivial when either (or both) of the parties to a transaction report it and impossible if they don't. So the only way taxes can work is for most people to be convinced that the taxes are reasonable and what they pay for is justified. If most people are not convinced then they'll lie for each other and the government is screwed; see Italy. Central banks can't save you from that, only your own citizens can.
And the laws against money laundering have nothing to do with tax evasion by the common man and everything to do with the war on drugs. Putting a stop to that train wreck would only help everybody.