Under this philosophy, most government tax exemptions should be abolished. For example, if a county sales tax is used to fund fire protection for everyone in the county, a government owned athletic club or day care center in that county should also pay sales taxes, since the government facilities benefit from fire protection the same as everybody else. The other philosophy of taxation is that taxes are to redistribute wealth from the unworthy to the worthy. The tax exemption for government entities, by giving government entities more money to spend on salaries, amounts to an indirect transfer of wealth from private to government hands. Until society comes to grips with the core principles, the public policy problem will continue to grow.
Complexities are inevitable when society has the basics wrong.
The simplest cure for the tax-exemption problem would be to make governments subject to ordinary taxes, the same as everyone else. Independence Feature Syndicate articles are published for educational purposes only, and the authors speak for themselves. Nothing written here is to be construed as necessarily representing the views of the Independence Institute or as an attempt to influence any election or legislative action. Op-ed archive . Great Books page .