Who like paying taxes?

Nobody likes paying taxes. Even those who know that taxation is necessary and just are reluctant to pay taxes. It is not pleasant to see part of your monthly income taken away from you in income tax. Ignorant people think this is an injustice and make a grievance of it; so it is just as well that we should know why we are taxed, so that we can see the fairness of the system.

Every country must have a government of some sot. or life would be impossible. The primary duties of a government are to ‘protect the life an property of the citizens, to maintain law and order and settle dispute between citizens in a just and orderly way through the law-courts, to defend the country from foreign foes, and to maintain the roads and highways. Besides, may governments maintain and direct public duties need money: an army and navy have to. be kept up, the police force and the judges have to be paid, schools have to be provided and teachers supported, expert health-officers and sanitary engineers have to be employed. Now where is all the money needed for the public service to come from? The question in answered by another. For whose benefit are all these service maintained? The answer is, for the benefits of the public. It is the people as a whole, rich and poor, that benefit by security of live and property, by the sound administration of justice, by the maintenance of roads, by the public hospital, public schools, and good sanitation. Therefore it is only right that the public, the individual citizens of the country should contribute the money needed; for the money the give comes back to them in the shape of these public benefits which all enjoy.

So long, therefore, as we have a good and efficient government, so long as our money, is being used in the right way, and so long as the burden of taxation is distributed fairly, as different classes can bear it, we have no right to grumble at having to pay our share of the taxes. ?

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