THE TAXING TRUTH

When it comes to taxes, I have little or nothing to say except for the learnt knowledge I acquired some years back. According to what I can remember, I know tax is a revenue that is paid directly or indirectly to the government by the citizens, which is used by the government to make different developments in a country and also for their own benefit (this is a personal definition). Looking at the surface, it seems like my country doesn’t have a strong tax law but then, that is only because the people that these laws affect more are those working for the government. These people are the ones that pay their taxes directly to the government, so it is quite clear that they will have more to say about tax laws.

For this week’s last edition of the hivelearners contest, we are asked to talk about taxing in our country and like I said before, I have very limited knowledge when it comes to this but I will give that little knowledge anyways. So let’s dive into it.

How bad are the tax laws in your country?

The tax laws in my county like I mentioned, on the surface it looks friendly but looking closely, it is not friendly at all. Apart from those government workers that pay their taxes directly to the government, somehow the government or some other citizens have found a way to extort money from people all in the name of paying taxes. Here in my country, people pay their taxes in multiple ways but sadly, I doubt if these taxes ever get into the right hands. People are forced to pay taxes they know nothing about because the government has not put a standard law in place as to how every citizen should pay their taxes or maybe I’m the one not in the know and this has made way for people to extort money from their fellow citizens.

How much do you have to pay every month to the government?

Like I mentioned, knowing the exact amount paid to the government as tax is almost impossible for those who don’t work for the government. Even for those who work for the government, it is also hard to be completely sure of how much their taxes are but at least, they can make close estimations. But I know that in a month or annually, we pay just enough for some good development taking place every single year.

How much of that do you see in the infrastructure and running of the nation?

Sadly, I don’t know exactly how much I’m paying as tax, it’s hard to know whether or not I’m seeing that much in infrastructural development. It is either I’m not paying enough tax, which I very much doubt or the government is not just interested in making such developments with the revenues generated from tax payments.

In what ways can the government be made to put the taxes they take to good use?

I’m not sure how many ways there are for the government to put the revenues they make from taxes into good use but, I know that as long as there is a problem, there is likely a solution. First way I think this can be helped, is by making a way by which every citizen of the country can know the exact money they pay as taxes. The idea of not knowing how much we pay as taxes has made it very hard to even contend with the government when some certain changes promised have not been made. If every citizen can know what they pay, it will be a lot easier to know just how much we should expect from the government.

Also, the idea of paying taxes to someone on the street is something that does not sit right with me. There is every possibility that that money won’t get to the government. So to solve that problem, I’m suggesting that for every locality or community, there should be a particular bank account created for the tax revenues in that community to be paid to. It shouldn’t be received directly by any individual so it can be easy to track down how many people in a locality or community have paid their taxes and this will only make more sense when every citizen knows how much they are expected to pay as taxes has.

This is my little take on this. Thanks for reading through. ❤️

_{Images used are mine}