Please, no more taxes!!

According to an Article by Iris C Gonzales of ABS-CBN news, "the government is losing P65 billion a year due to the non-issuance of OR".  While "taxes uncollected from self-employed professionals and individuals, meanwhile, amount to about P25.5 billion a year."  What it doesn't specify is whether this or how much of it is a result of poor tax collections procedures and enforcement, corruption and government inefficiency. 

Value Added Tax is an unusual thing because it "penalises" a person for purchasing a product or a service, an activity which is the most basic element of consumption and a driver of the economy.  It's a pass-on tax.  Manufacturers and service providers basically do not pay VAT because any products or services they sell would already have been priced with respect whatever costs, inclusive of VAT, they incurred in their entire operations.  Even the cost of the water their employees drink would have been taken into consideration.  VAT is only paid by consumers, by people who have most likely already also paid income taxes.

It's pretty obvious why people evade taxes by not issuing Official Receipts.  They want to purchase certain products, they need certain services but they are forced to pay more to get it.  A good example are doctor's consultations.  It's a basic medical service which everyone needs, but not everybody can afford.  If you go to get yourself checked, you'll probably get some sort of prescription for medicine.  So, imagine the doctor tells you that you're dying and he hands you a bill for P500 and you only have P550.  You ask for the receipt and he tells you he has to charge additional P50 due to tax and you know that the medicine that will save your life is that exact same amount.  What in heaven's name would you do?  You'd probably not pay the tax.

Where does the government get the gall to expect people to issue everyone receipts when they themselves CANNOT issue appropriate receipt, or even pay on time for services rendered to them.  The government is known, nay, infamous for being a late payer.  My car was once towed in Makati.  When I came to get it, I was issued a photocopy of what was supposed to be a receipt for P1000.  I say, F them.

Income Taxes I have no issue with, because it's sort of a social duty.  It's a way of giving back to society by supporting the government that runs the state.  Income is something tangible that you actually derive from society, thereby tax becomes repayment to society for allowing you to benefit from it.  That is the same reason I support tiering because if you benefit more from the society you live in, you should pay more.  It's sort of like rent, or societal rent, if you occupy more space, then you have to pay more rent.

Department of Finance Margarito Teves aptly said that “we have to continue improving our tax collection" in order to obtain the improvements we wish to see in infrastructure, social services, etc.  Even President GMA was warned NOT to increase taxes just to meet her goals, but to improve collections.  There is no question that improving collections is the key, there's also no question that the economy already has the throughput necessary to generate the necessary taxes to bring this country to and beyond a First World state of development.

The Philippine government is like an internal combustion engine, firstly because it runs the country, but also because it is inefficient.  A regular car engine is just about 25% efficient, releasing the most of rest of the energy in the form of heat and vibrations.  The engine just is not able to completely transfer all of the energy into turning the wheels.  There's just too many mechanical joints, screws, bolts, etc and the energy just goes off in all sorts of directions. 

Our government is just full of it.  I mean inefficiency.  Together with lots of corrupt money-grabbing politicians and other so-called public servants, lack of transparency, nepotism, inappropriate spending, etc, etc, etc - I'd say 25% efficient sounds about just right.  That means, for every P100 you pay in taxes, only P25 will actually be used on society.  I say, F them again.

People have every Goddamn reason not to pay taxes.  We're paying taxes for things that should not be taxed, and even for things that should be taxed, we don't know where it's going.  In fact, just adding taxes will just mean more people will evade.  The worst thing is, the people who actually pay the most taxes, the middle class, will be hit the most.  They're the ones who actually consume those products that have VAT, they're the ones whose incomes get taxed and they're the ones actually running this country. 

I'm really sensitive to taxes because I happen to pay a lot of it, only to be duped and disappointed by the government here and there.  I'm not saying there aren't good people in the government, willing to pull their own weight because even with all its inefficiencies and misdeeds, it's still running - like the inefficient internal combustion engine that it is.  It's just that there aren't enough good people, and there's so much room for improvement.