All individuals are instructed to follow God’s word and respect the rules that have been set in
place. These rules include obeying individuals of authority and paying all taxes that are owed.
Even though many individuals feel that they should not be forced to pay taxes, the Bible
instructs all to comply with His word.
The article, “Happy Taxation: Increasing tax compliance through positive rewards”
talks about a study conducted to see how individuals react when paying taxes. One of the
biggest reasons that most individuals pay taxes is because they are forced to do so. When
faced with the choice to pay or not to pay, most individuals would choose not to pay the
taxes that are owed. “Even in fairly well-administered and integrated societies, tax evasion is
common” (Brockmann et al., 2016). This proves that most individuals try to get away with
not paying the taxes that are owed. For these reasons, different countries are trying to give
incentives to those individuals who do not try to avoid taxes. The government periodically
completes random audits on individuals tax records and could fine the individual if there are
any discrepancies.
The article, “The Impact of Tax Breaks & Incentives for Corporations on Local
Economies” talks about the benefits of tax breaks given to large corporations. Often times
state or local governments offer tax breaks to large corporations to entice the company to
move locations. While many government officials see this as a benefit for the area due to the
company bringing in new job opportunities for the local community, unfortunately, there are
also negatives. Rather than starting from scratch with all new employees, many companies
decide to relocate the employees that are already employed with the company. This results in
an increase in the population but does not add to the job market. In 2017, when Amazon
announced that they would be adding an additional headquarter in another state, many state
and local governments reached out offering large incentives if they chose to move to their
state. This led to many offers but in the end, Amazon chose to open a headquarter in New
York and Virginia.
References
Brockmann, H., Genschel, P., & Seelkopf, L. (2016). Happy taxation: Increasing tax
compliance through positive rewards? Journal of Public Policy, 36(3), 381-
406. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0143814X15000331
Supranowicz, Chad, "The Impact of Tax Breaks & Incentives for Corporations on Local
Economies" (2020). Honors Theses and Capstones. 540.
https://scholars.unh.edu/honors/540
The Holy Bible. King James Version. Bible Gateway. Web. 7 May 2021.
http://www.biblegateway.com
