Bill: Rejected Removing Personal Balance Tax Evasion Act

[McBrittle419]

A
Bill
To

Amend the Commercial Standards Act​

The people of the Commonwealth of Redmont, through their elected Representatives in the Congress and the force of law ordained to that Congress by the people through the constitution, do hereby enact the following provisions into law:

1 - Short Title and Enactment
(1) This Act may be cited as the 'Removing Personal Balance Tax Evasion Act'.
(2) This Act shall be enacted immediately upon its signage.
(3) This Act has been authored by Representative .McBrittle419.
(4) This Act has been co-sponsored by AsexualDinosaur.

2 - Reasons
(1) As it is currently, enforcing personal balance tax fraud is nearly impossible as the law is too vague.
(2) Most players keep their money in banks. If this money was taxed at the expense of the player, it would de-incentivize the usage of banks.

3 - Amendment
(1) The Commercial Standards Act shall be amended as follows:

9 - Tax Fraud
(1) The fraudulent non-payment or underpayment of actual tax liabilities due. There are several types of tax evasion:

Personal Tax Evasion
The act of intentionally or maliciously transferring, funds to one or more personal balances or company bank accounts with no legitimate purpose, with the result that less tax is paid.
Individual Fine: Up to $10,000 + Damages + up to 10 mins Jail

Property Tax Evasion
The act of intentionally or maliciously transferring property to one or more persons over which they have no legal ownership without a legitimate purpose, with the result that less tax is paid.” To combat, said behaviour, a merged plot needs to be owned by the same person even after it has been merged.
Individual Fine: Up to $10,000 + Damages + up to 10 mins Jail

 

[lcn]

Since the Senate has tied, I will cast the tie-breaking vote.

I fear the consequences of this bill, as it would make creating 'tax haven' business balances 100% legal. Players would be able to, without repercussion, avoid all balance tax, corporate and personal.

I do acknowledge that this law is one that is difficult to enforce, however, it can still be enforced, and has been, (see FCR 111).

Overall, I believe this is not an issue with the law, but an issue of enforcement. Unless admitted to or made obvious with business names like 'taxheaven2', this can be a very difficult law to investigate. However, that does not mean the law should be repealed.

Moreover, I do not understand the reasoning behind this bill. Difficult to enforce, yes, vague? The law is very clear. No person shall abuse the company balance system in a way that would cause them to pay less tax. That is not an issue here. As for the second reason, I am not sure what it is trying to say. No taxes would be paid because all the taxes would be avoided through the abuse of our company balance system. It would certainly disincentivize the usage of banks, though instead we could just remove the balance tax. I don't understand why we would want to disincentivize the usage of banks however, that part is not explained.

For those reasons, I will be voting NAY.