The moral side of paying / not paying taxes by a freelancer?

Question

Freelance

I want to ask habralyudey what they think about the moral side of paying or not paying taxes to the state on income received by a freelancer. For example, a freelancer earned money from a client from the USA, received money on a US bank card (eg Payoneer) and decided to spend it here. Electricity-Internet paid. In fact, the state did not take anything.
Wikipedia says: “Tax is a mandatory, individually gratuitous payment,” but as I understand it, taxes are some kind of payment for what the state does for you in general, something that cannot be described in monthly payments for a communal apartment (army, infrastructure ). It turns out that if you want to live better, pay taxes. And the state will give you what it cannot give in case of non-payment of taxes. But in our case (Ukraine), I see absolutely no advantages for those people who pay taxes over those who do not. On the contrary, the army is equally incompetent for everyone, and the infrastructure is not really developing, because all the money is stolen. If you start paying taxes, then they begin to find fault with you, demand some kind of bribes and incentives, some pieces of paper and other headaches.

I understand that the topic looks like a pre-holivar, but I'm sure that someone will have interesting thoughts on this.

Answer 1

Personally, my opinion is that if it is possible not to pay taxes with a small (!) Profit, it is not worth paying them in Ukraine.
I need to understand what this money is spent on. Recently, a person wrote about life in Denmark, where, yes, it’s clear and clear what money is spent on, but here I just don’t see and don’t understand.
1. Medicine, to put it mildly, is bad. It is not free at all, “donations” are pulled from you everywhere, and they are not recorded anywhere, i.e. where they go is the big question. A native person underwent surgery, brought an infection. It's been years since they've been diagnosed. A person's appendicitis burst, he is brought by an ambulance, and in the hospital they ask, "Will we do the operation"? What does “will” mean, but do you have money? For the holidays, a man was hospitalized, for 4 days (!) A doctor did not even come to him, they just put droppers, which were prescribed on the day the ambulance brought him. The attitude towards people is negligent, yes, the salaries there are meager, but this does not give any right to treat people this way.
2. Transport.
Public transport was occupied by pensioners. In my opinion, we are the only country in Europe where pensioners do not pay tolls. The position of the state seems strange to me. The state allocates money for travel to pensioners. And here are a few remarks.
- Grandmothers go to the state. transport up to 20 times (!) per day.
- On a route that is 8 km long and ~20 stops, according to the conductors, sometimes it is possible to sell only 2-3-5 (!) Tickets, even though the trolleybuses are packed to capacity.
- My grandmother, who lives in the village, does not receive a penny from the fact that the state pays for the travel of pensioners.
- Why do schoolchildren, even at least elementary grades, have to pay for travel, even though they do not receive any income, and pensioners who have a pension do not.
Hence the question: why not give each pensioner, say, 20-30-50 UAH. and not make the fare for everyone? State transport will significantly unload, the term of operation will increase accordingly, and, perhaps, there will be funds to purchase at least used transport from Europe to replace Soviet trolleybuses, which are already over 20 years old and which threaten to fall apart at any moment.
Private traders, after winning a tender for a route, also often score on people. And in general, they carry 2.50 (such a fare in UAH in our city in minibuses), and not people. Graphics, especially in the evening, do not exist for them.
3. Utilities and services.
The water is bad. Sometimes it's just rusty. When you look at the filter, you understand what the human body has to process. Sometimes it just doesn't exist. Workers arrived, dug up a hole (what does this have to do with fresh asphalt) and left. Or they sit spitting seeds, what is it for them, the working day is coming.
The elevator didn't work at my entrance for 7 years. It was not very fun to lift something heavy to the 7th floor (for example, a bag of sugar or potatoes for the winter). Now (thu-thu-thu) works. It happened that there was no light for up to 4 days. It happened that a pipe broke through on the roof and in winter everything from 9 to 1 floor turned into an ice palace. And in all these situations there is something in common: no one wanted to answer for this, they didn’t call anyone - this is not in their competence.
And it’s also hard for me to go into the entrance or go out without smoky. I can’t clearly explain to people that I don’t want to breathe this shit, and even more so I don’t want my children to breathe this, but the state does not protect me from this in any way.
This is only part of the outrage. And finally, the point may not even be that these taxes are not enough or something else, the point is that the state itself is choosing the wrong vector of development. Recall the same “language law”, for the implementation of which more money was allocated than for education and medicine combined.
Yes, there are, perhaps, positive aspects, but I, however, do not fully understand where the money goes and do not consider it my moral duty to pay some other tax with a small income.

Answer 2

I don’t know about you, but here, especially after Vovan “chosen” himself for the third time, it somehow became boring to pay taxes. By the way, there are quite well-known psychological experiments - if a person sees that others do not comply with the law, he also becomes less law-abiding. The effect of a dirty toilet, you know - if the toilet is already dirty, even a clean person will not take special care of himself. And the “moral” in this case is like, instead of tidying up, hang a call to “be careful” there. (By the way, this is how we usually fight with dirt.)
Hence the moral (pun intended) - it makes no sense to pay taxes in a dirty toilet. Man himself will find a much better use for them.

Answer 3

IMHO, the question lies not in the field of morality, but in the field of competition. States must compete for a citizen, but at the moment most of them have a monopoly (with declared freedom).
Applicable to the situation: you do not want to pay an inefficient state and with pleasure (presumably from the very meaning of this question) would pay a more efficient one. Thus, it is worth thinking about changing citizenship (if it is impossible to improve the current one), and spend part of the money received on the implementation of this task.
If you want to improve the conditions of existence (not at someone else's expense), you do not bear any moral responsibility.
Moral responsibility begins with VOLUNTARY commitment, not birth. Legislative - alas, from birth, which does not correlate well with such living conditions as, for example, in S. Korea, where simply for having a “sworn enemy” credit card, you would be “left” to labor camps, and you can get caught trying to change your place of residence a bullet, as a traitor to the motherland.
I summarize: I think the question “to pay or not to pay” is not worth it, the question is “to whom and for what”.

Answer 4

I myself am registered as an entrepreneur in Ukraine, I pay 5% of the turnover.
But every time I come across reports in the tax and PF, I regret that I registered.
For the fact that I pay these taxes, more than one inspector does not want to help me, suggest what to do in this or that case and fulfill his direct duty. Therefore, if it is possible to work without registering an FLP or TOV, then you need to work without.

Answer 5

Everyone has their own morality. If taxes are not paid, the state will be destroyed. If you don't want to do something, then don't expect it from others. Paying taxes is not very pleasant, but it is part of the contribution of each person to the society in which he lives. Just like health insurance premiums: the healthy work for the sick. By the way, what do you think, from what money do state employees and pensioners receive salaries?

Answer 6

It is impossible not to pay taxes!
You go to the store, they charge 20% VAT.
Refuel the car, there the road tax is included in the price.
Even on the phone, when you call, they take in PF and other taxes

Answer 7

You have a direct road to Libertarians .

Answer 8

I’m also interested in a different point of view about freelancing and remote work in general. In fact, such people are freelancers, perhaps for some predetermined period, under a contract. Who has to pay tax? The company, as well as for all other employees in the office, or a remote worker / freelancer for himself?

Answer 9

In general, I am an adherent of the fact that you need to pay taxes. And I carefully cry them myself.
But if we consider the described situation from a moral point of view, then I see nothing prejudicial in the fact that he will not pay taxes.
This person has already positively influenced the economy of his country by ensuring the flow of foreign currency to the domestic market (while not exporting non-renewable natural resources).
So if the problem is only with conscience, I advise you not to bathe and reasonably consider yourself a good guy.
PS I recalled the reasoning of D.B. DiGris on how useful bank robbery is for the economy of the country and the population as a whole :)

Answer 10

inlanger, In my opinion, it's all about the price of the issue and the frequency. If the business is not put on stream and profit does not regularly flow into your pocket that can compensate for the costs of “clarification”, then sharing something is not so much not worth it, but rather stupid. On the other hand, if this is your main source of income, then it’s easier to go “clarify” than suffer from insomnia.

Answer 11

Taxes - where do they go? Medicine, social benefits for the low-income, public sector, etc. - it's all clear. And you can pay for it and it will be quite moral. But look at those who "share" taxpayers' money and the schemes by which they "share". Why can they buy winter tires for the Cabinet of Ministers for more than 20k hryvnias per piece (more than 2.5k dollars), why they buy raspberries for 600 UAH/kg ($75/kg), why the tender for a remote sensing image of the territory of Ukraine was won by a company that was registered in Cyprus, and its website was created after the announcement of the tender and has only one client - from Ukraine (UAH 26 million > $ 3 million), the police buy cars with 12 speakers - probably not so that the detainees do not get bored ... etc. .d.
Here are a few of the first ones that came across...
http://ru.tsn.ua/groshi/za-dengi-ukraincev-miliciya-nakupila-krutyh-dzhipov-s-podogrevom-yagodic.html http://ru.tsn.ua/groshi/milicii-kieva-kupili-takie-mashiny-o-kotoryh-prostye-ukraincy-mogut-tolko-mechtat.html http://ru.tsn.ua/groshi/naftogaz-za-god-spustil-na-taksi-51-million-grn.html http://ru.tsn.ua/ukrayina/voennye-vygonyayut-na-ulicu-poltysyachi-shkolnikov-iz-za-strannogo-tendera.html http://ru.tsn.ua/groshi/ukraincy-zaplatyat-26-millionov-griven-za-kosmicheskie-foto-dlya-minprirody.html http://ru.tsn.ua/groshi/nesmotrya-na-zapret-azarova-gossluzhaschie-snova-kupili-doroguschiy-dzhip.html http://ru.tsn.ua/groshi/skandal-s-gazovym-terminalom-zamnut-za-dengi-prostyh-ukraincev.html
Enter in the search - "tender" - there are many of them, but this is partly (yes, I agree that not all), but for tax money - both from individuals and from enterprises. That even excises and VAT (VAT Rus.) - WE pay it with you - after all, we buy goods - gasoline, cars, alcohol is the same even.
an example of nagolov from an ordinary worker (office clerk, for example) (correct if I'm wrong):
- accruals to the fund s / n - about 35%
- deductions from s / n - about 18%
- VAT - 20%
- excise tax - let's say we don't we don’t smoke, we don’t drink, we don’t drive cars - although the goods that we buy in the supermarket were brought in a car that was filled with gasoline and its cost (along with excise tax) was included in the price of the goods - it turns out we also pay it.
In total, we already have 73% without excise. Not funny anymore :(.
If we got exactly what we paid for - we would like to pay - after all, we would know that it would go to a just cause, that somewhere they would make a road, somewhere I would repair a school, a kindergarten, etc.

Answer 12

We have already left for you!
Unfortunately, according to my personal observations, in Europe it is much more noticeable that tax money really goes to infrastructure. It somehow “wants” to pay there, does not cause such a misunderstanding, “why”. In the CIS, when paying taxes, every time you imagine how the next minister completes the construction of a dacha in the Caribbean ... But I would still pay if I was doing freelance work - it’s still calmer, remembering that they can plant here with or without reason.