Tax Heaven

No. I am not talking about places like the Cayman Islands and Barmuda - those are tax havens, not Tax Heaven.

We all know that we are taxed in one form or another. Everytime I buy a bottle of booze I'm paying tax (SHIT, maybe I need to start to make my own bootleg booze -- oops, it's illegal in this country...), or when I buy reading material, or make money (win money, even!) I am taxed... Even when I die, my children will be taxed on my possessions.... (so far no kids, no possessions, phew. No taxes in that case)

But have you ever wondered where all the tax goes?

Just as UPS offers a parcel tracking service to locate our parcel to the exact geographic location, I want to see where my tax money goes to! I mean, it can't be that hard now, can it? I'm sure the government already has me down as an encrypted number in a centralised, giant server, tracking everything like how much limit I have on my credit card, whether I have had any traffic offenses in the past, whether I am a home owner (need to pay fixed asset taxes, right?), how much I earn, how much I contribute to the pension fund... Hell! If they were smart enough they would probably have implemented electronic voting just to see who I voted for!!! (beware, those who have electronic voting in your country... they know who you are!)

(oh, and I *know* they have all my medical records...)

OK, enough of the paranoia, but my point is that if they can easily track people who *don't* pay taxes, they also know who *does*. Our elected government is obliged to disclose and manage public funds so they can easily say: we spent 3% of the revenue from consumption on overseas development in Angola to remove land mines, or DWR, of the XXX,XXXyen that we taxed on your income this year 2% went to building public housing, 5% to building more highways, while distroying a mountain or two, 40% on building a dam that has an expected lifespan of only 40years, but don't worry, we worked out that we will recoup our capital in 25years (low interest rates) and have an internal rate of return of X%, plus we will make electricity while imposing "minimal impact" on the environment...

If we lived in an "ideal" democracy our country will be run like a coorporation where my vote would be "my share" of the country. And as a shareholder of the country I should be able to say: OK, I payed my taxes, I want to know where it was spent, was it for a good cause? Or did you "invest" my money in some none perfoming bonds or more stocks of another dubious country? just as any shareholder of a company can do.

I want to know where my taxes went to! I want the government to write an Annual Report (and an Environment Report!!) just like any large company would!! If multinational companies can do it using tools like Businness Intelligence Warehouse (BIW), why can't governments track our money! They seem to track *US* nicely, don't they...

Must admit, tho, I was very suprised to see this on the way to my Yoga class this morning:

Caption Reads: The Pedestrian Overpath Construction Works Between Meguro and Senzoku Station has Been Funded by Petrol Tax and Road Tax. Tokyu Railways.

So that's where my brother's tax went to! (I neither drive, nor own a car; and no, it's not because of some DUI offence...). His money went to a private railway company to build a pedestrian overpath. Wow! Perhaps If I started up my own company and went to my local government and said: "I want to blogg and sell advertising space to boost our economy. I have an overdraft, and my bank manager won't lend me anymore", they might give me some of the revenue from all that tax on alcohol!!

But where does my consumption tax, income tax, residency tax, taxes-unknown-to-me-but-are taxed-anyway taxes go to?

Perhaps just as when the lone sock disappears from the laundry machine and goes to sock heaven, my taxes go to Tax Heaven....

My government needs more transparency.

(post script: the Japanese government, in 2003, spent 2 trillion yen (US$17billion) of public funds to bail out Resona Bank because of all the "bad debts" or "non performing loans" that was owed to the bank. During our economy's deflatoion/recession which has now lasted 15 years the deferred tax asset values depreciated drastically reducing the capital ratio of many banks to near bankrupsy!! (irony, and play on words here). Mergers to form "Mega Banks" was the one of options they took to try and stay afloat, but Resona is only the tip of the iceberg... We also have many public funds injected into public works like "onsen lands" (hotspring theme park) build in locations that have less than 300 residents, has poor infrastructure, and are too remote for anyone to gain access... most of these operations have shut down, for the maintenance fees far exceeded the repayments on the loans. Many of the buildings stand today -- empty -- because it costs more to pull it down than to maintain it as a "fixed asset" on your books.... Green-Pia is a classic example. But unfortunately I can only find resources in Japanese... sorry. Otherwise I would have linked. DWR)