INCREASED TAXATION DOESN’T GROW THE ECONOMY – IT JUST STRANGLES IT

THE article “Taxing the Rich More Won’t Help” (June 13) refers.

Judge Dennis Davis and his tax committee have now finally discovered that greedy governments can only tax the productive sector up to a certain level, and any attempt to increase taxation beyond that results in lower revenues. So now the committee is looking into more creative measures to soak the overburdened taxpayer.

He mentions tax morality and that those who evade tax should be forced to “pay their fair share”. Who decides what the “fair share” is? It is the tax department with their punitive sliding tax scale that penalises those who contribute most to the welfare of society. In a market economy there is only one way to become (legally) wealthy, and that is to satisfy the wants of more people. If the tax burden on those is increased they will either work less or, yes, find somewhere that treats them better.

Judge Davis states that it is a myth that low taxes promote economic growth. Well I am surprised at this statement coming from him, as this is precisely what does happen. It is an irrefutable economic fact that taxes inhibit the amount of capital that individuals and small businesses are able to accumulate, which severely limits their scope for expansion. The net result is a reduction in economic growth.

Those who have worked hard for their income and try to protect it from the grasp of the taxman are labelled as criminal tax evaders. But which party is the real criminal here? It is the one who has used initiatory force to seize what others have produced, and has passed laws to justify the actions of its agents.

The committee would do everyone a service if they focused their attentions on the loss of revenue that is taking place through government largess, waste, graft and just plain theft. If that was snuffed there’d be enough revenue to go around. Maybe our taxes would even be reduced.

SG Nothard