Re: Don't Pay any Tax from Now
American and western taxpayers cannot subsidize Pakistan's affluent forever. Neither can the loans and grants from Paris conferences, IMF, World Bank, USAID continue to bail out the country. Every year Pakistan is already incurring budget deficits in billions. Obviously not all of the money is going to government corruption-- there is corruption but that is at every level, including by those who do not pay taxes when they are able to. The state needs to generate more revenue. Not least to provide even the most rudimentary services-- especially education and health care but also, however imperfect, policing and defense-- that millions of Pakistanis depend upon the state to do so.
The state could simply collapse if the international donors and lenders retreat and the indifferent attitude amongst the selfish tax-phobic Pakistani rich persists. Most of those who SHOULD pay their taxes in the country don't do so anyways so this thread is not really relevant, but the picture that is being painted here is eerily similar to what we witness in the poorest of African counties, and even among those I can't think of many barring Somalia. No functional government, no real police, complete anarchy everywhere, the remaining rich desperately trying to live in their bubble and shield themselves from kidnappers and thugs while the overwhelming majority lives in abject privation…
Tax evasion is not really helpful because a Somalia like dystopia, I am sure, is something even the Pakistani rich would not want to live in.
