I read with some horror about the behaviour of Italian footballers who want their clubs (i.e. the fans) to pay the additional super tax levied in response to the country's financial woes. I do have a little sympathy in view of the Berlusconi government's past excesses, but only a little. The horror is, of course, that already outrageously overpaid sportsmen think they are exempt for some reason. Again I have a little sympathy, though not much, with foreign players, but most players in the Italian league are Italian citizens.
The story renewed my interest, already expressed, in the proposals for the tax authorities to publish the amount of direct tax - income, capital gains and inheritance -which all citizens pay. This has a dual purpose.
One is to begin a change to the 'culture' of taxation, viewing it as a contribution to the common wealth, rather than a punishment levied by government. Indeed many of the 'rich' seem to believe they are being punished for being rich. This is not so, of course. They are simply being asked to contribute more because they have more.
The other is to 'flush out' the wealthier citizens who are paying virtually no tax. Imagine the, impact for example, if football fans learned that some of their players were paying less tax than themselves ? or of all of us learning that wealthy entrepreneurs were paying virtually no tax at all ? This would create huge political pressure either to persuade them to pay what they should or to persuade government that new legialtion is needed to collect tax effectively.
I don't believe there is a civil liberties issue here and I would not suggest publishing anyone's declared income. I wish I had the energy to start up a real campaign on this. Hopefully someone will
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It would be a great plan, but although you stated the civil liberties angle, wouldn't people claim a human rights privacy argument? Article 8 concerning 'private life' could be manipulated,,,but, one hand I suppose that as public sector salaries are easily obtained (and hence how much tax that they pay, subject to mild tax avoidence such as professional subscriptions etc), and, additionaly people can use their local authority to find electoral register details (i.e both concern 'private' things), so i suppose that allowing private sector tax information to be publically viewable is justified as not being an invasion of privacy. However, maybe unemployed people would think it an invasion of their privacy, as they may not wish to make their current lack of employment status known (self respect and all that), but their next door neighbours could quickly deduce their private employment buisness by viewing their tax contributions. Maybe anyway.
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