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Comment by potatolicious | Hacker News Reader

I'm not Argentinian, but based on the article it seems like there is plenty of regulation as it is.

The problem is that these regulations change like the direction of the wind, and are unevenly enforced, and easily dodged via bribery.

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Bribery is also something of a safety valve. When the state stands in the way of (otherwise peaceful and voluntary) exchange, paying a bribe may be a better outcome than not having these productive activities happen (indirectly as well, the state may benefit from increased tax revenues later on). Of course, some bribery can be evil, but the problem is not corruption itself, rather the power that fosters it is.

At least part of the issue, from what I can tell from the article, is that the majority of the people cheat on their taxes, so the Argentine government has to raise taxes in order to get enough revenue to pay operating expenses, which leads people to cheat on their taxes more, which...

yes, you couldn't be more right with this.

I am from Argentina and I found this disturbing: "taxes on commercial profits in Argentina add up to an effective maximum rate of 108 percent"

But also very true.

I wonder what would happen if the Argentina government reduced the taxes (because for the past 10 years I feel they've only gone up)

Would that encourage businesses to pay taxes instead of doing everything 'en negro'? It would encourage me.

As an entrepreneur I want to pay taxes but they are extremely high, punishing me for the corruption that surrounds me

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