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Comment by conanbatt | Hacker News Reader

That is the best reason to use cash. Isn't it scary that debit money guarantees you pay more taxes, and it is also used as evidence against you, and to violate your privacy?

Cash doesn't have any of those issues, its amazing. That's why governments hate it! (literally!)

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Paying your taxes is not an issue. It's called being responsible.

That's what the people collecting the taxes want you to believe.

How are you paying "more taxes"? Those are the types of taxes you're obliged to pay already. Someone needs to pay for schools and roads!

Because it doesn't get reported as income, there's no record of it. Thats why central banks are purposefully hindering it - it takes away their capacity to confiscate and control with it.

The capacity to not pay taxes is a very important tool of civil disobedience, just like protesting in a public street.

You can still not pay your taxes if you want to use tax fraud as a method of civil disobedience. The government doesn't just grab a random bank account and take money from it.

Sure, they'll send collections after you and get the money one way or another, but it's not like a bank account is going to make any difference there. They'll force open your door and sell your stuff if you make it hard enough for them, not sure how that's better.

It makes the whole difference. the harder it is to do, the less they do it. If not, why would they care?

They care when people owe them money, the same way you care when people owe you money. They prefer not to have to bother to send someone to your house because even though you'll be the one paying for the extra costs, it takes time and effort spent better on other things.

I'm sure the "taxation is theft" crazies will have some legal fanfiction about how the government can't just take your money if you only use cash but in practice you're only getting yourself into trouble for no good reason if you try to commit tax fraud.

Are you sure you have always paid all your taxes?

Pretty sure, yeah. My tax forms have always been filled in for me because the government already knows what I earned from what company. It's why doing taxes takes five to ten minutes every year. With income tax held back automatically by the employer and VAT and other tariffs added directly to the store price, I've never had to think about this stuff.

It's possible that I may have dodged a few dollars of taxes when buying crap out of China when they put a fake bill in the outside to dodge import taxes, but I don't believe there's a way for a consumer to manually pay those once the package has crossed the border undetected. These days they've changed the system, though, so I don't think it would happen again.

Sounds great. I have a business proposition for you.

I will pay you 1000 dollars for the right of taking every single asset you have if at any point it is proven you haven't paid all your corresponding taxes.

This is free money for you and your sense of justice. I can send a contract as soon as today.

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