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5000 Years of Paying Taxes

Mathew was a tax collector Ben Franklin wrote "in the world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes." in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy (13 November 1789).

Matthew was a tax collector.

Paying tax is something we all do, every day, every year. It's sad, but here in Canada, and most other places, the poorest people pay the most personal taxes, relatively speaking. Some folks believe that we have more services for poor people, and they should pay the most tax because they use these services the most.  I say bunkum!

I believe it is our failing as a society that we must impose any tax on the people. In the future, new technology will revolutionize society to the extent that people will not have to work, but rather focus on improving themselves – there will be a mass movement to help the poorest classes because the wealth and complacency of the rich and middle classes will leave them with nothing else to do – it will be a great challenge to rehabilitate the poor into wealth.

In a perfect utopian society only big business would pay tax, or there could be a tax on buying land or some small contribution just to maintain the barest of government. We won’t need police, or jailors or courts or magistrates – just doctors, because most of the population will be over 100 years old.

Taxes and Tax Collectors Are Truly Timeless

Tax laws, Egypt scribes count cooking oil In Egypt, the tax collectors were called scribes.  During one period the scribes imposed a tax on cooking oil and laws were enacted to insure that citizens were not avoiding the cooking oil tax - scribes could visit your house and inspect your kitchen to check if appropriate amounts of cooking oil were being consumed. They did not want citizens to cook using leavings generated by other means as a substitute for the taxed oil.

In ancient Rome, the earliest taxes in were customs duties on imports and exports called portoria. Many centuries later, as the empire grew in wealth and splendor, Caesar Augustus was consider by many to be the most brilliant tax strategist.  During his reign as "First Citizen" the publicani were virtually eliminated as tax collectors for the central government.  During this period cities were given the responsibility for collecting taxes.

Zacchaeus was a Roman tax collector

Zaccheaus was a Roman Tax Collector hated by the people of JerichoOne suspects that Zacchaeus deserved to be hated by everybody because, as a tax collector, he was profiting from Rome's occupation of the Jewish lands at the expense of his own people and garnering his own pay from what money he collected beyond what Rome demanded of him. In short, Zacchaeus was treading the downtrodden down.  Leon Morris’s 1988 paper, Luke: An Introduction and Commentary, page 297 cited Wm. B. Eerdmans research and concluded that Jericho was not such a backwater town as many have believed, but rather because of the lucrative trade in balsam, Zacchaeus would have been quite wealthy and a man of some importance.

The Blunt Bean Counter

Mark Goodfield, The Blunt Bean Counter, Tax Expert at Toronto AccountantsI recently profiled Mark Goodfield, The Blunt Bean Counter on Canada Blog Friends and I asked him if he could envision a future where humans didn’t pay taxes, and he said no.  Mark is an important tax expert and author among Toronto accountants and has written a lot of material about how to pay less tax to the Canadian Revenue Agency on his tax blog like for example Why You Should Fill Out Your Child’s Tax Return, and the Consequences of Telling White Lies About Your Investments.  And more fascinating stuff, like how to avoid Probate Fees and Estate Taxes and how to… it’s a thrilling fact finding exercise in what most people would consider a rather dry topic.

Canada's Tax Future Will Be Brighter

In Canada the British North America Act in 1867 gave the provinces and territories of the Dominion of Canada an almost unlimited tax opportunity because they had to raise money by direct taxation to pay for railroads and bridges. For the early part of Canadian history most federal government revenue came from tariffs on trade with excise taxes making up the rest of the government's funding. The first corporate taxes were introduced at the end of the nineteenth century.

In the future, Canadians will pay almost no tax – the money needed to maintain the government will be almost negligible and come from all manner of donations. Starships will cost money, but private corporations will fund everything as they strive to build better vessels. Travel on earth will be almost free – MagLevs will move goods effortlessly along thousands of miles of track at breakneck speeds. It’s just more infrastructure – all of the bridges and roads and health care and education that one civilization can build after five thousand years of paying taxes, will reward humanity and let all citizens of planet Earth live their lives in ease and comfort, tax free.
 

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