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The classic way of cheating on income tax is to lie about one's affairs. Either one fails to declare income, or declares nonexistent expenses. The governemnt fights this by looking at individual ratios using computer programs. For example, if a person spends too much on cars, they might be examined.
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Types of Taxes
A ''[[poll tax]]'' is a tax paid directly by an indivdual to a government. Poll taxes are infamous for causing hardship for the numerous individuals that handle their affairs poorly. In fact, they were forbidden by the U.S. consitution, as a historic abuse to be prevented. This protection had to be changed in order to enable income taxes. Poll taxes are difficult to cheat.
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A [[carbon tax]] is a tax on the consumption of carbon-based non-renewable fuels, such as petrol, diesel-fuel, jet fuels and natural gas. The object is to reduce the release of carbon into the atmosphere.
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A History of Taxation
Political superiority has been used to raise capital since long before recorded history. In many pre-monetary societies, such as the [[Inca|Incan empire]], taxes were owed in labor. In [[gift economies]], taxes were often exacted through forced reciprocal gift-giving at high interest rates. The ruler would give his followers a gift, and expected to be repaid with a larger gift at a later date. Some of these economies, such as the [[potlatch]] societies, built up very sophisticated tax structures under the guise of gift-giving.
In more sophisticated economies such as the Roman Empire, [[tax farming]] and [[feudalism]] developed, as the central powers could not practically enforce their tax policy across a wide realm. The tax farmers were obligated to raise large sums for the government, but were allowed to keep whatever else they raised.
In monetary economies prior to fiat banking, a critical form of taxation was [[seignorage]], the tax on the creation of money. Seignorage has been replaced by central banking.
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Historical forms of taxation
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