Jail time for tax evasion?

[Rachmaninoff]

I got to thinking about taxes in general for several reasons. One here in America we are coming up on the time when taxes have to be filed for last year. Two it got me wondering just how taxes work in other countries and finally because of reading about a previous Survivor winner who spent six months in prison for tax evasion on his winnings from the show and his other source of income. Apparently he didn't pay. The article can be found here: [URL=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17645816/][B]Article[/B][/URL]

His lawyer is saying he deserves a new trail because he didn?t get to testify about claims of cheating on the show, though how cheating on the show has anything to do with him being required to pay taxes is beyond me. But what really caught my eye was his claims that he didn?t do anything wrong and that he?s going to publish a book based on what happened.

Personally I?ve never given taxes much thought, they just come out of my paycheck and I file my return every year. I?ve never had an issue with it or thought it was unfair. Though I often question how the money is spent by the government since I dislike how bills are passed with what?s known as porking techniques. Where an important bill will have frivolous things in there that are not related to the actual bill. And many politicians get upset over the idea of allowing line item vetoing so unnecessary parts of a bill can be trimmed out.

Anyway, when someone is practicing tax evasion do you think jail time is too severe? Or depending on the severity of the offense is it acceptable? In the case of the survivor contestant refusing to pay taxes I can?t say that I feel sorry for the guy since it?s well known that paying taxes is required.

[Retribution]

[size=1]Well, I really have no understanding of the mechanics of taxes and such.

But I do think within reason, jail time for tax evasion is warranted. Certainly if you dodge your way out of paying a few thousands dollars here or something, you might not deserve jail (and perhaps just a fine, etc) but anything substantial should definitely get you time. Essentially you are stealing from the state, which is unacceptable.

I don't really understand why someone would evade in the first place if they knew they were getting jail time. It seems like a rather fair system (it is based proportionally to income brackets, right?).[/size]

[Allamorph]

[FONT=Arial]The way taxes are supposed to work in an ideal system are to provide the government with the means to provide for its citizens commodities that they otherwise would find extremely difficult to supply individually. The citizens pay the government, and the government builds and maintains interstate highways, provides a militia, regulates interstate commerce, etc. Unfortunately, if no one wants to pay the government, it can't do anything. If you want a specific example, look at the circumstances of [URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shay%27s_Rebellion][B]Shay's Rebellion[/B][/URL], where the federal government was almost completely unable to resolve the situation mainly due to optional taxes. So then, if the government is to function for its citizenry, it must have a source of revenue (taxes), and must be able to secure such revenue. So yeah; jail time for tax evasion is suitable. You don't want to pay for your government's services, you don't get any.

Note that I said [I]ideal system[/I]. The issues of commodities in the jails and the budget deficit are meritable concerns, but they don't happen in an [I]ideal system[/I]. They happen in life, which is what we work in. (And that's a whole 'nother lecture....)[/FONT]