Fragile Tax Haven
•
by piggy sev
Started the article with the intention of not writing about taxes, but ended up there 🙂
The creation of a Tax Haven in Canada has some very logical arguments indeed, but it also has flaws. A country with many bonuses yet a small population trying to attract big business and big tanks. Yet this very concept has a basic flaw.
After reading all of the Forums, found a basic flaw, it focuses on unstable foreigners who are not bound nor loyal to Canada. Indeed, initially it may have had produced some results, yet this segment of Canadian population is very fragile, including me lol. Evaluating the idea itself. Refocusing the whole economy just to fit the needs of foreign business magnates and increase the population with their numbers is dangerous. Many of them probably still fight for their native countries, and if needed be, they would even fight against Canada. Depending on the demographic increase that is based on foreigners is dangerous at least to say. Over the past week, I have been actively monitoring who is online, and was disappointed to see, that so many of those online were foreigners.
The only demographic solution to this problem is retaining the new real Canadians players.
Another argument was made that removing the Tax Haven will drive away many people. Given that foreigners as a whole aren't the most stable and trustworthy contingent, the Tax Haven will not drive away any new citizens. They have no clue whether a tax of 1% or a tax of 25% is a normal thing. They will keep playing, as long as someone reaches out to them and we build the needed infrastructure to retain and integrate these people. Following the argument, was another one, stating that it would be "milking our newborns." Yet the erep babies barely produce anything, hence will barely contribute anything. Most of the income will come from old players who generate huge revenues. Although I'm on the opposite side of the leftist ideas, I will agree here, that in this case, it would be extremely beneficial to the country that the older players chip in a little bit more to raise a new generation and build strong 1 and 2 divisions. Also, the I don't think that anybody will feel the big difference between 2% tax and a 3% tax, yet it could multiply our treasure income by 1.5.
The question of taxes is a debatable one, but one that requires a careful study and perhaps reassessment. Indeed raising taxes is useless if we do not have a clear plan of how exactly we are going to spend that money and if we do not have the framework to retain new citizens. Simply giving them money will not solve the problem either.
Facebook
Twitter
Discord
Comments
the wife and i think it is a great idea, but put the taxes up to 7 to 9%
use the money for defense, and assisting new borns reach military readiness - great for eCanada as a whole.
The best attractions to citizens these days are bonuses and low work tax. A tax haven is a good way to grow the population.
But that's the problem. A country cannot rely on immigrnts increasing the population.
Low taxes are better, by far.
We already have lots of surplus that we are dumping into the CCD, raising taxes would give us more money to do what? Sign more MPPs? Put even -more- into the CCD? I am not opposed to raising taxes, but I think it should be done with a clear plan in mind and not just to raise more surplus to put in a treasury and sit around.
I seem to be the only one advocating a return to the old MU funding methods, where every MU would receive money based on their active fighters and then CC could be put directly into the hands of eCanadian fighters. I do not think Combat Orders are worth anything, especially not to the people who need it most. Sadly, few, if any seem to share my opinion.
I just had avery long discussion with our president about it 🙂 I support it too. 🙂
Combat Orders > MU Funding
Damage is king, MU funding delivers damage but not at the time that you need it and not necessarily in the battle that you want it.
People focus on the demographoc aspect. Do you think that increasing our population with immigrants is sustainable?
It's not a matter of attracting immigrants with low taxes, its a matter of RETAINING citizens by keeping taxes low. 10% work tax and people will move somewhere else.
But that's the thing. New citizens don't know if it's high or low. For example giving them money for training centers though from the tax income would be much more beneficial.
If they don't know, then why bother setting a rate that you think will be relevant to them? They have no sense of what is relevant or not, they are new. That leaves the people that do know, and if you set it too high, they know that they should leave for a country with low taxes AND HIGH BONUSES. Low taxes, by itself, isn't enough to keep me in eCanada. The fact that I am Canadian in RL keeps me in eCanada. Disregarding RL, I'd be in the lowest tax, highest bonus, english speaking country.
Canada have barely any bonuses but low tax keep some people you complain about having foreigners in your country but if they leave you have even less people here and you will not attract any new people to come
It breathes! 😮
I think the most important paragraph of this article is the last one where you point out how useless raising taxes would be if there's no plan to spend the money raised. There is none at this point. As Auk Rest pointed out, there's not much support for raising taxes only to give it back to MUs and while there appeared to be support to use any taxes raised on COs (mostly to be spent on lower division players) that proposal was abandoned.
That out of the way, I disagree with your central premise. The main reason we have lower taxes is for the enjoyment of existing and new eCanadians. That low taxes might also attract foreigners to move here is a (possible) convenient secondary benefit but the main reasoning for lowering them for only a small few.
"Foreigners", as you like to malign other eCanadian citizens, actually make up a small part of our overall society. The stats for the last Congress show that only 33 citizenship requests were approved, which is comparable to the amount of new players who join every week. Obviously the latter is where our population growth is going to come from - we're not relying on immigration.
As for the impact of taxes on the young versus the old, yes a larger percentage of tax revenues come from the rich. But a larger proportion of what new players make is taxed. That's just the way taxes in this game have been set up, though "tax evasion" doesn't help.
Old players tend to be more self-sufficient and so use less of their profits (more often made from RM companies which only pay a very small work tax) to buy a small amount of supplementary food and weapons, on which they pay VAT, and have historically been in low paying slavepit jobs that shrink the amount of income tax paid. New players, on the other hand, rely on their wages, on which they pay the full income tax, to pay for the food and weapons that they need, paying that dreaded VAT.
Higher taxes also make it harder for food and weapons companies to make money.
You have to take into account that the majority of those who register, are not retained, hence out of that 30 per week, maybe 4-5 actually stay. Also, people who receive citizenships are usually old players who do stay for a longer time, yet are not as sustainable as real Canadians.
The reason I disagree with you is that, I think actually reaching out to new Canadians and offering them help, partially from the taxes that they pay, is much more psychologically effective and binding....
You said that the basic flaw with our tax policy is that it's geared to attracting foreigners and now you're saying that the citizens immigrating to Canada aren't actually foreigners. So is our tax policy really affecting immigration and if it is is there really anything to be worried about?
To your second point, I don't think anyone's against helping newcomers. Obviously that's our best hope that they're not going to quit (which obviously the vast majority will). Our point of disagreement here is that you want this to be done through the government while, I, previous Congresses and nearly everyone else in eCanada who has expressed an opinion, think that our parties and MUs are the best able to take on this role.
Shortly: you have 2 options:
- Option 1 - Raise the taxes: The few "foreigners" that live in eCanada purely for the "abundant" resources leave eCanada for ... lets say eChile and what's the result - our "large" country income (about 4000-6000 CAD per day) is halved or even worse? And what can you do next? Rely on the national income generated by the handful of old (no offence guys) eCanadians with lots of companies and eCanadian babies. How much income will that generate - 1000 CAD?
And another one: "the Tax Haven will not drive away any new citizens. They have no clue whether a tax of 1% or a tax of 25% is a normal thing" - seriously??? lets imagine the babies won't work in the free companies. They work for a salary lets say 30 CAD - and they won't notice if they receive 29.7CAD or 22.5 ??? 7.5 CAD is about 200 Energy which I think matters for a new player. Don't you?
- Option 2: That's simple - keep the taxes low. Keep the income from the "unstable" foreign businessmen. If possible attract more of them. If they are here for the "abundant" resources you don't need their loyalty for fighting allied or Canadian battles. You need their taxes. And when the time is right and eCanada actually fights a battle they will surely spare a tank or 2 or 100 to win a TP medal or 2 for Canada. What's done with the income from the "dangerous" foreign businessmen - I guess the congress will decide that. My wild guess - you'd offer a large share of it to go to the youngsters' academy you created.
That's entirely my opinion. I'm a foreigner here myself. So I do not think it is appropriate for me to interfere in the country affairs of eCanada. There are a lot of smart and experienced, actual Canadian politicians here who can make good decisions about the taxes, babybooms, etc.
Goog luck to all of you
PS: " I have been actively monitoring who is online, and was disappointed to see, that so many of those online were foreigners." - get life dude. Seriously
Whatever happened to the separation of the classes 😃