Tax evasion: good or evil?

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Ok, what are your opinions on tax evasion? Are they positive, negative, contextual, neutral, etc? Would society be better off if more people evaded taxes? Less people? Thoughts?

Now that I understand at least a little about my having entered into some kind of contract with the state when I got an SS number the state needed me to have in order for it to be able to add my earning potential as collateral for whatever debt it owes against being bailed out of bankruptcy so many years ago, I have no complaint about the size of whatever allowance it lets me to have so it can use the rest as required ... or something like that.

Taxes are a necessary evil, and each person who illegally evades their fair share costs everyone else more. If you don't like the way the system works, you advocate to correct it politically. Are there winners and losers that don't always seem fair? Yes. That needs to be fixed, and in the rare case things truly are unfair professionals may advocate for stretching the envelope to breaking, in hopes of getting a court opinion or political momentum on your side; laws can and have been changed this way. Are there ways to legally reduce taxes? Yes, to some degree, and there is nothing wrong with playing the game to do so when you can, because everyone else is going to as well.

Well, taxes seem to often go to paying for plane flights and private lunches for politicians. I personally don't care about people who evade taxes, good for them as long as they're not caught.

I hate taxes. I do not wish to pay them. I expect nothing in return.

It's illegal, so if you are prepared to take the consequences, fine. I don't think God sends people to hell for evading taxes but the legal system tends to compensate for that.

Sand...well spoken. Has anyone ever known anyone, themselves included, that got caught for tax evasion??

Depends on the situation- Thoreau refused to pay taxes based on moral objections to the Mexican-American War. In such a situation, refusing to pay taxes can be an act of civil disobedience. However, "tax evasion" usually refers to cheating on your taxes and trying to hide it. This isn't civil disobedience but just greed and fraud. That is never good.

I don't really draw a distinction here. After all, "tax evasion is the general term for efforts to not pay taxes by illegal means"-wiki. So, really, if you are not paying your taxes and doing so illegally, you can call it civil disobedience or you can call it greed, it is still the same thing: evading taxes. In any case, if you believed in something like black markets as a way to reject the government, then you would be evading taxes(as your transactions would all occur off the books). After all, how did they get Al Capone? Belief in black markets actually is a moral position that one can take though.

Well, obviously the poll options are slanted, and I definitely don't want tax revenues spent wastefully, but taxes serve an important purpose (e.g., roads, schools, social assistance, the national defense). A person should contribute their fair share, and if they think the tax code is unjust, they should use their right to free speech to build a consensus for change.

Is a statement about the government needing our money slanted??

Sorry, I am just concerned as I did not intend any slant, and the position that you are giving is that "the government needs our money". I mean, I suppose it could be interpreted from a right-wing position of "the government" being this straw-mannish money devouring entity, but I don't think that my phrasing is going to push people that direction.

I mean, I suppose one could also argue that the social contract entails that the government has a moral right to extract taxes, which is an option that I really wasn't including, but really I think more people are swayed by the idea that the government needs money to operate and provide important public services, and so evading taxes hurts their ability to do this. The latter reasoning being that "the government needs money".

Is all this protest over taxes based on the rather insane idea that the government can operate without money and is therefor a back door to the idea that all government should be eliminated?

If everyone stopped paying taxes, the government would just PRINT out all the money and tax us through inflation.

I doubt the government is anxious to totally destroy the economy.

Taxes should facilitate the provision of services to the general population on a needs basis, if this principle is adhered to then tax evasion is a crime against the community. However, this is generally not the case, taxes are used to line the pockets of big business and the financial elite, and also to wage imperialistic wars.

So how do I feel about tax evasion under the current system, well I for one take 'cash' jobs, as well as donating to charity and receiving a tax deduction for it.