A contribution to the topic of taxes
I got the idea to write this post through @BASS-T get.
The history and the waste of German tax money should be the topic today.
Taxes already came into being 5,000 years ago. These were enacted so that kings could afford new luxuries. Since most chiefs did not care about social justice, especially poor peasants had to pay the taxes. However, since no uniform monetary system had been established in ancient times, taxes had to be paid in the form of physical labor, called indentured servitude. A famous example is the construction of the pyramids in Egypt.
The Roman Empire, on the other hand, had something ahead of the Egyptians in terms of taxes. Here, the focus was not on goods or services, but on coins. The foundation for the Roman tax system was laid by a census ordered by the Roman government at Christmas. The purpose of the census was to determine how many citizens were liable to pay taxes. #zensus
The first tax that Rome imposed was the land tax. Land tenants and landowners were taxed according to what they earned on their land.
But some curious taxes were also enacted:
- Urine tax
- To be paid at every visit to the toilet
- The virgin tax
- Unmarried women had to pay this. Purpose: to stimulate offspring
- Beard tax (Russia)
- In Russia in 1690 you had to pay taxes if you wore a beard. Reason: The tsar did not like beards
Tax waste in DE
In 2020, the German state will have collected tax revenues of 740 billion euros. Of course, taxes are needed to finance projects that serve the general public. Honestly, I am glad that we have a good infrastructure in DE (water, electricity, (internet... well half)). Nevertheless, billions of euros in taxes are thrown out for projects that turn out to be poorly planned or poorly calculated.
Here are a few wastes:
- 3.4 billion euros for federal IT
- To make government processes more digital, the authorities are to receive better training and equipment. The project was supposed to be completed in 2025. As things stand, it won't be ready until 2028 at the earliest.
- Personally, I haven't found any of my dealings with government agencies particularly pleasant. Most of the time, the cooperation is completely inflexible and corresponds to the classic cliché. I also question the usefulness of some documents.
- I remember only too well when I wanted to pick up my driver's license, and I didn't get it because my certificate of residence was on a separate sheet instead of on the space provided for it on the application. So I had to go to the office again and point out their mistake.... Despite their mistake I had to pay again 5€ processing fee :))))
- 485 million euros for a second chancellor's office
- Since our government is getting bigger and bigger due to overhang mandates etc., it was decided to put half a billion € into the expansion of the Chancellor's Office.
- Instead of solving the problem of the ever larger government, it is simply built larger. So that even more politicians can argue about important measures in times of crisis....
- 6.2 billion euros for Corona contracts
- The 2020 government had bought far too expensive equipment in the pandemic at that time.
- That some politicians have enriched themselves at it one sees at the #spahn affair.
- The problem: Not a single contract was submitted to the price monitoring body for review and this led to far too high expenditures.
As already written, I am willing to pay taxes, but I am not willing to allow the government to impose higher and higher taxes just to cover the expenses. Personally, I am also bothered by the system of allocating tax money within the government: agencies that have been frugal and have money left over risk having their budgets cut because the agency is seen as inefficient. Authorities that spend and partially overspend your money are seen as efficient. I don't understand that for the life of me.
MMn must slowly but surely reforms her. The pension must be urgently reformed, etc. .
A step in the right direction is the proposal that vegetables should only be taxed at the reduced VAT rate. So you can make fresh vegetables more attractive for many people.
Since I still have to write a seminar paper, I say in this sense Tschau Kakau. But write me gladly still your opinion.