The principle is that citizens pay taxes to enable public investment and expenditure. Although governments across the world have come under scrutiny for misuse of taxpayer’s money, tax avoidance can lead to democratic backsliding. This article published in Economy and Trade is by Devin Sean Martin:

Tax evasion is a fiendishly tricky crime to prove as it lacks the two most valuable players in any crime: a clear victim and a clear offender. It leaves no dead body lying beside a bloody knife, no stolen car with fingerprints on the handle, and no broken windows at a jewellery store. It merely leaves endlessly confusing and blurry audit trails saturated with grey areas between legality and ethics that most people don’t understand, and therefore don’t care about.

But they should care. Because tax avoidance poses a larger threat to the integrity and functionality of a nation’s democracy than anyone stolen car or robbed purse ever could. Taxes fund roads, streetlights, buildings, schools, social welfare, fire departments, the military, and virtually every other integral element of modern society. Societies flourish with effective taxation and implode without it. If left unchecked, tax avoidance and tax fraud can lead to widescale corruption and severely weakened democracy.

Read the full article here.