To start with, taxes are meant to be paid by every citizen in the society, no matter how much they earn.In a private establishment where I worked a few years ago, taxes were being deducted automatically from our salaries each month and at a fixed percentage. This made it very difficult for staff to withhold paying their taxes.
As much as many people agitated over this automatic deduction of taxes from their salaries, there was nothing they could do to stop the management decisions regarding that. However, business owners and other self-employed people are meant to run the taxes themselves, as it's a law by the government to abide by.
The idea of paying tax by the citizens is to help in building a great society. Revenues generated from taxes are meant to be used in improving public services, building infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, markets, roads, and many more for the good of the citizens. In a country where taxes collected are being utilized positively, the citizens of that country enjoy the impact and will be encouraged to keep paying their taxes without being forced. Things flow better in a society where their citizens are actively involved in assisting to the development of such society.
Tax has been in existence for years, and whether we like it or not, everyone basically pays tax either directly or indirectly as we continue to do our daily transactions in different sectors. Now, the question is this: is it fair for the rich men of the world to be taxed more than every other person? Like having different percentages of tax to be paid?
Let's look at having every citizen pay 10% of their salaries each month. The ones earning two million naira monthly will end up paying two hundred thousand naira as his tax, while the person earning one hundred thousand naira monthly will be paying ten thousand as his tax. This is still the same percentage but a different amount of money generated from these two individuals from their taxes. I have looked into this closely and see that even with the same percentage, the wealthy ones still pay higher. I have been working hard, working my ass out with sleepless nights most days to become wealthy someday. I think it will be unfair to tax the rich higher.
Personally, if I become wealthy tomorrow and I am being taxed higher, I will feel cheated because I got to the level I am at through my hard work, and I should be encouraged for working hard and not to be taxed higher. Even the rich have their lives to live other than pushing their resources to task, especially in a country like mine where the government doesn't even use the income generated from tax to improve the quality of life of their citizens.
To be fair, having a fixed percentage of tax for both the rich men of the world and every other person looks better since literally the rich still pay higher than the poor with the same percentage of taxes. We all have the same opportunity to attain our full potential; however, some of the rich might be privileged to get there while others worked so hard for their money, so it will be unfair to tax the rich higher. Equal percentage looks fair in my opinion.
This is my response to the #hivelearners community contest on the topic titled, The Rich Also Pay
All images were taken from canva