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A shame they don't manage that inflow of money particularly well. Instead of giving tax cuts they should treat it like Norway treats income from oil and make a

A shame they don't manage that inflow of money particularly well. Instead of giving tax cuts they should treat it like Norway treats income from oil and make a sovereign wealth fund – oh well...

dpflan 3y ago
Right, "remove taxes because of domain sales!"...not a good long-term strategy
- p4bl0 3y ago
  Yes, and since it's property taxes it also means that this money is redistributed to people already wealthy enough to own their house or apartment (and most probably those that others rent)…
gwern 3y ago
When you're a small incompetent corrupt country, a sovereign wealth fund is the last thing you want. Like dumping gasoline on a fire. Whereas cutting taxes - well, it may not be optimal, but it's harder to corrupt, is transparent and publicly observable, and easy to implement.
- dpflan 3y ago
  Not following the phrasing: "Whereas cutting taxes - well, it may not be optimal, but it's harder to corrupt, is transparent and publicly observable, and easy to implement." Cutting taxes is harder to corrupt? The removal of taxes is good because the country can't properly collect taxes in the first place?
  - gwern 3y ago
    Indeed. "Please pay us 100 rubles for house tax." "But house tax was abolished last year thanks to the AI revenues!" "Er..." > The removal of taxes is good because the country can't properly collect taxes in the first place? Sure. Look at Russia's infamous 'tax audits'. ("For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.") And then deadweight losses, overhead from dodging it, stuff being driven in to blackmarkets, manipulation of tax regs (the more complicated the better) to subsidize connected oligarchs... The more nominally powerful but incompetent a government is, the worse.
- madsbuch 3y ago
  This is a surprisingly good argument that me as a Danish person in a well functioning society with almost no corruption forgets. However, one could hope for a bit more ambition on these matters :)
onionisafruit 3y ago
Why would people tax themselves when they don’t need to?
- madsbuch 3y ago
  I can recommend you to look into the Norwegian case and study general economics. There is a hole repository of knowledge you'd need in order to understand why taxation is important.

A shame they don't manage that inflow of money particularly well. Instead of giving tax cuts they should treat it like Norway treats income from oil and make a sovereign wealth fund – oh well...

dpflan 3y ago

Right, "remove taxes because of domain sales!"...not a good long-term strategy

p4bl0 3y ago
Yes, and since it's property taxes it also means that this money is redistributed to people already wealthy enough to own their house or apartment (and most probably those that others rent)…

gwern 3y ago

When you're a small incompetent corrupt country, a sovereign wealth fund is the last thing you want. Like dumping gasoline on a fire. Whereas cutting taxes - well, it may not be optimal, but it's harder to corrupt, is transparent and publicly observable, and easy to implement.

dpflan 3y ago
Not following the phrasing: "Whereas cutting taxes - well, it may not be optimal, but it's harder to corrupt, is transparent and publicly observable, and easy to implement." Cutting taxes is harder to corrupt? The removal of taxes is good because the country can't properly collect taxes in the first place?
- gwern 3y ago
  Indeed. "Please pay us 100 rubles for house tax." "But house tax was abolished last year thanks to the AI revenues!" "Er..." > The removal of taxes is good because the country can't properly collect taxes in the first place? Sure. Look at Russia's infamous 'tax audits'. ("For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.") And then deadweight losses, overhead from dodging it, stuff being driven in to blackmarkets, manipulation of tax regs (the more complicated the better) to subsidize connected oligarchs... The more nominally powerful but incompetent a government is, the worse.
madsbuch 3y ago
This is a surprisingly good argument that me as a Danish person in a well functioning society with almost no corruption forgets. However, one could hope for a bit more ambition on these matters :)

onionisafruit 3y ago

Why would people tax themselves when they don’t need to?

madsbuch 3y ago
I can recommend you to look into the Norwegian case and study general economics. There is a hole repository of knowledge you'd need in order to understand why taxation is important.