The Hidden Power Podcast S2 Ep 22: Check 21 - Governments - Tax

Too much is never enough

Everyone pays their taxes.

The deceptive simplicity of this principle belies the fact that, obviously enough, not everyone pays their taxes – quite the contrary, and the leaders of the G7 group of the world’s richest nations are attempting to address this by imposing a global corporation tax of 15%. Whether this is enforceable remains to be seen. As things stand the global monetary system is set up in such a way that, on the one hand, nations are in a race to the bottom on tax costs to make their countries attractive to multi-nationals, under the delusion that such winning such a competition will benefit them and not harm them; and on the other, their funds are secreted through tax havens to evade contributing to the various infrastructures they benefit from. So instead – these costs fall to us, the citizens.

But if we step back from the whole issue of Making The Big Guys Pay – do we need to pay taxes at all? What does this practice really mean to us, as citizens? How might it become more meaningful?

In this episode we place these questions in three key contexts – the citizen, the national economy, and our bio-physical world – the biosphere.

Talking points:

Why do we pay taxes?
“Rent”, surplus and the common good
The tax planning industry: not bad people, but in a bad system
It’s about fairness – why are we paying tax and not vast corporations?
Nailing down the wealth extractors, rampant individualism, and the fault-lines
Global taxation vs global tax competition: The G7
National taxation vs local taxation: efficiency
Centralisation, opacity and local power
Transparency and accountability – Sweden’s public tax returns
The UK’s hand-maiden economy
Deadweight taxes – thinking back to Adam Smith
A society of rent-seekers vs a society of wealth-creators
Efficiencies in tax expenditures: hypothecated taxes, mutual insurances
Compassionate communities and cost savings
Carbon taxation is a muddle
End-to-end producer responsibility vs the planet as an economic “externality”