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>Is that because you believe you pay too much tax? If I pay more than I'm required to by law then I pay too much by definition. >Wouldn't it be better if the

>Is that because you believe you pay too much tax? If I pay more than I'm required to by law then I pay too much by definition. >Wouldn't it be better if the loopholes were fixed but there was a reduction in tax charged too? Of course this would be better and ideal. But it's a curious things with politicians. New taxes come easily. But they seldom leave voluntarily. We're still having an extra tax on sparkling wine here in Germany. It was introduced in 1901 to finance the German Imperial Navy to rival the British Empire [1] ... >Tax evasion ends up pushing up taxes for everyone else, it's not your government that you're short changing Yes, but I'm not talking about evasion. Evasion would be illegally saying "I earned nothing" and hiding the money. Tax optimizaton by out-smarting the system is legal though. [1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schaumweinsteuer https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schaumweinsteuer (German)

ZenoArrow 11y ago
> "Yes, but I'm not talking about evasion. Evasion would be illegally saying "I earned nothing" and hiding the money. Tax optimizaton by out-smarting the system is legal though." There's a difference between the spirit of the law and the implementation of the law. If tax laws were perfectly implemented then the loopholes would not exist, but that doesn't necessarily make the intention behind the laws unclear. You've decided to follow the legal options available to you rather than honouring the intended use of the laws. You can call it 'tax optimisation' if you want, but it's just tax evasion under a different name. I can understand why it's tempting, I've probably done similar acts before on a smaller scale (things like avoiding customs duty on some posted items), not something I'm proud of. > "We're still having an extra tax on sparkling wine here in Germany. It was introduced in 1901 to finance the German Imperial Navy to rival the British Empire [1] ..." If you have such laws, then efforts should be made to remove them. Is it harder to remove them than using tax loopholes? Yes, but it's still the right thing to do. Don't German citizens have the right to start a citizens initiative?

ZenoArrow 11y ago

> "Yes, but I'm not talking about evasion. Evasion would be illegally saying "I earned nothing" and hiding the money. Tax optimizaton by out-smarting the system is legal though." There's a difference between the spirit of the law and the implementation of the law. If tax laws were perfectly implemented then the loopholes would not exist, but that doesn't necessarily make the intention behind the laws unclear. You've decided to follow the legal options available to you rather than honouring the intended use of the laws. You can call it 'tax optimisation' if you want, but it's just tax evasion under a different name. I can understand why it's tempting, I've probably done similar acts before on a smaller scale (things like avoiding customs duty on some posted items), not something I'm proud of. > "We're still having an extra tax on sparkling wine here in Germany. It was introduced in 1901 to finance the German Imperial Navy to rival the British Empire [1] ..." If you have such laws, then efforts should be made to remove them. Is it harder to remove them than using tax loopholes? Yes, but it's still the right thing to do. Don't German citizens have the right to start a citizens initiative?