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This doesn't sound like a fun story at all, actually. I honestly don't see what kind of good could come from disclosing tax returns publicly..
by charlesdm 10y ago
This doesn't sound like a fun story at all, actually. I honestly don't see what kind of good could come from disclosing tax returns publicly..
- Hermel 10y agoSocial control. When everyone is watching, not properly declaring your income is much more risky.
- ersii 10y agoSo, how will they know "if" I'm keeping some of my income undeclared? Remember - this is the DECLARED income that is public.
- kalleboo 10y agoSnitches. "Oh, he bought a new car? But he only makes XXX a year... I'm gonna report him!"
- igk 10y agoYes, how devious. Reporting potential crimes
- charlesdm 10y agoI can't believe this actually works. In Belgium we have a hotline, and the amount of "snitching" that happens increases YoY. I.e. some guy reports that his neighbour bought a new expensive BMW or Porsche. So they look into it.. and in 99.99% of the cases realise nothing is wrong. Envy is a sad beast.. Just because someone lives a normal life doesn't mean he's not wealthy. I could be living in a normal street/house, making a normal wage, and making €100,000 a year from investment gains. So what? Get over it.
- patmcc 10y agoIf you have a porsche but only make $15k a year (or whatever), that's a good indication you're not declaring everything.
- charlesdm 10y agoYou could have inherited $1m five years ago, though.
- Zitrax 10y agoThe data in Norway does not only include your income but also your fortune.
- charlesdm 10y agoEven worse!
- manarth 10y agoHow is that calculated? Cash in an account is fairly easy…but stocks and shares? Property assets? Cars/boats/aircraft? Furniture? Art? Intangible assets such as patents or licences?
- charlesdm 10y agoYou would probably have to self assess. Fortune and wealth taxes tend to cost more to collect than they bring in, because it's extremely hard and labour intensive to verify the submitted data. Aside from being an "equality tax" (which policy makers in a country might think is a good thing), it has very little use.
- charlesdm 10y agoThe only advantage I could see is _PERHAPS_ combating excessive legal tax avoidance. But I doubt the people focusing on significant avoidance care enough to pay more, just to show off some sort of status. I know I wouldn't care enough to pay more.
- zer0gravity 10y agoIf you don't have anything to hide, or you don't want to trick people by paying less then the value they produce, then this kind of system is much better because it promotes honesty and a kind of mutual respect. It may seem strange at first but usually democracy and transparency go hand in hand. Secrets are most of the time the tools of cheaters and liers...
- jomamaxx 10y ago"If you don't have anything to hide, or you don't want to trick people by paying less then the value they produce, then this kind of system is much better because it promotes honesty and a kind of mutual respect. " Why doesn't Sweden force everyone to publish their sexual history? Medical records? Amount of vacation time? It's utterly absurd. Your finances are your private information - unless there is a specific reason - it should be private. This is a serious transgression of human rights.
- lobster_johnson 10y ago> It's utterly absurd. Your argument is literally argumentum ad absurdum. You can't show something to be absurd by pointing out that other, hypothetical non-existent things are absurd.
- bjourne 10y agoBecause by default, all government data is public. How much you pay in taxes is contained in government data. That's great for transparency, researchers and journalists and makes corruption much harder to get away with. Only when there is a compelling reason to keep the data secret which outweighs the public interest (such as the identity of a rape victim) is the data kept secret. People being embarrassed by people finding out how much or little they earn isn't a compelling enough reason.
- charlesdm 10y ago> That's great for transparency, researchers and journalists and makes corruption much harder to get away with. So, I think in this case, "transparency", "researchers" and "journalists" are all highly irrelevant. 1. Journalists shouldn't write articles about how person X makes €Xm a year. The friend of my cousins husband was abducted when he was a kid, because the press kept writing articles about how wealthy his family was. Why? Just because they could sell a few newspapers. Despicable. 2. Researchers: the data could easily be anonymized. 3. Transparency. Why? Just because you say everything else is public isn't a valid reason (to me). It's not like you have a choice. Are you OK with a list of all of your assets being public? Every property you own, globally? The exact amount of money on your bank account? How about your medical history, so insurers can easily determine how healthy / sick you are? Or your sexual preference? 4. Corruption: BS. I would seriously doubt people would be stupid enough to receive “dirty" money and then declare it to the tax authority. And if they were, they'd probably route it through a company as consulting fees or something.. Be realistic, please.
- jellicle 10y agoReduces gender discrimination; reduces race discrimination; reduces income inequality; allows employees to make sure they are being paid fairly for their skills; reduces tax evasion; increases trust in the system. No doubt there are more that don't come to mind immediately.
- dmoy 10y agoI'm not sure it reduces race discrimination in Sweden. It's not as blatantly in your face, but it still affects people greatly.
- jellicle 10y agoReduces, not eliminates. Presumably it is quite easy for employees to establish, for example, that all black employees at a company are poorly-paid compared to similar white employees. This makes redress possible. In the U.S. it is quite difficult to establish that, even if one has a strong suspicion that it is true, and so redress is rare.
- jomamaxx 10y agoI'm not sure any of those things are true - and there are far better options for addressing those things. Why don't you just force everyone to put their bank account statements online? Privacy is a fundamental human right.