We are in the midst of turmoil during a period of fiscal exasperation. We know it, and that’s a mild understatement! However, we should express it differently: Everyone’s chatter finds fertile ground, ornithologist movements proliferate among pigeons, chicks, and other species, followed by those who wear hats of different colors like military helmets (Uniforms will always fascinate the new fighters who like to give themselves a distinctive sign), all in the name of the sacrosanct principle that ‘too much tax kills tax’.
We are witnessing the rise of a certain populism, not yet numerically significant, but multiplying in every socio-professional category, calling for verbal radicalism, utopian solutions, the substitution of direct action for electoral and parliamentary action.
Of course, nobody likes taxes. So, to fuel these protests we see an amusing ballet of vague slogans, such as indignation or resistance… We are then obliged to recognize that we are in a society of violence where social reflexes are no longer integrated. We no longer have, or have very few, common goals that mobilize far beyond individual and corporate interests.
The same chant is being hollered (We are against…), several drum beats (making more or less noise…), a strange cacophony! The drift is right before our eyes and without a jolt of civic pride, the risk of decline is indeed present.
The problem is general: The British economist Richard Murphy has been publishing for some years the European research “Tax Research” which reports a fiscal shortfall of 1,000 billion (Between €850 billion of evasion plus €150 of non-declaration).
Another not so distant example: The Italian cousins and neighbors declared €783 billion of income in 2011 but spent €919 billion. Can anyone top that? Poujadism has never paid off in electoral terms and today’s opposition should remember that, especially if they want to be the government of tomorrow once again.
Therefore, an uncompromising analysis is needed; how can one indeed cure a disease if one does not know its causes? The numbers are there and the truth is quite cruel:
- 60 million in RSA fraud°
- 120 million in health insurance fraud by healthcare professionals°
- 260 million in undeclared work°
- 363 million in customs fraud*
- 2,989 billion in tax fraud *
- 150 billion in tax loopholes
More recently, a statistic reports a tax evasion that would include a shortfall of 60 to 80 million in revenue. And we’re not even talking about the big companies, which, through what is euphemistically called “tax optimization”, pay 8 to 10% in tax on profits, while complaining that the nominal rate is too high!
Not to mention the “patriots” (The opposite of Robin Hood…) who have individually and preemptively settled their issue by finding refuge in more welcoming arms… and of course, all legally!
So yes, “too much tax kills tax”, where and who do we start with?
