"If you want to have an effective and fair tax law, then less is more. That's why I'm going to scale it back considerably. I will reduce bureaucracy. I will cut at least a quarter of all jobs at the tax courts and will also reduce jobs at other authorities. I will significantly reduce administrative costs. Anyone who resigns from their civil servant position of their own accord will receive a severance payment of three months' salary as an exception. I prefer that only those who really want to do it stay. Certainly, a lean tax law creates an unequal burden here and there, but is there anyone who would prefer no relief if the relief for them does not reach the same level as for someone else? If there is, then I have no sympathy for such an envious person."

"It sounds like you want to take a lot out of tax law."

"Yes, a lot will be removed, including many things that you might consider essential. The abolition of tickets, travel cards, government fees and useless taxes also has the partial goal of reducing bureaucracy, but there will be more. For example, anyone who does their tax return even though they only receive a salary will no longer need to do so, because not only will the deductions for pets be abolished, but from next year onwards all deductions for income tax will be abolished."

"A-All?" The man's eyes widened. "You're going to remove everything?"

"Yes."

"That means anyone who commutes to work will no longer be able to deduct the costs?"

"That will no longer be possible, but public transport will be free."

"That's not a valid option for everyone."

"It's just not an option that everyone wants to use, but I don't really care what everyone wants."

"That's terrible."

"No, that's reality. If your work causes you extra costs, then demand a higher wage or quit. If your work requires you to commute, which you can't afford from your salary, then you have to move to your workplace or look for a different job. There's also too much mischief going on. There are people who enter components from their sailing boat because they supposedly use it to go to business meetings. Are you kidding me? How are we supposed to control that? So we have to invent exceptions again so that not everyone does it soon. But we won't do that any more. You now have a tax burden, it's paid and that's that. Study, renovations, insurance, pay for your own stuff. You no longer need to file a tax return. The tax office doesn't want that any more. We only take money."

Stunned, the man stared at Marah with his mouth open. Marah herself took the opportunity to take a sip. Reyji grinned to herself.

"I'm a little speechless. If these are your plans, I'm sure many readers will be disappointed." The man leaned closer to Marah. "Are we really supposed to print this?"

"You can do it. The disappointment will be limited. In return, the tax-free threshold for income tax will be increased to 14,400 S-Mark and the scale will be pushed up by the same amount. This is an automatic advantage for two thirds of all employees, because these two thirds do not file a tax return at all because it is too complicated or too costly for them. Most people who file a tax return are precisely the people who don't need the money, but who still cheat with the deductions. You might make the argument that it's unfair that everyone gets this increased tax-free amount, but I could just as easily say that it's unfair that someone who moves to their job has to pay the cost of the commute of someone who chooses not to. If you're already a bit mentally calcified, you might also accuse me of using a watering can approach here. I recommend that these people should sit down and calculate how much we refund each year, then add the working hours of the civil servants on all these tax returns multiplied by their hourly salary and then you know what costs you are causing directly to the state with all this nonsense. Directly, since that's not even all. Every second that anyone spends on a tax return or trying to understand how to fill it in is wasted working time. It does nothing for the country. We will soon reach full employment. If we want to continue to increase our wealth quickly, we have to minimize unproductive work and increase productive work. If fewer citizens are stuck in jobs that are useless for society and instead participate in the production of goods, then these goods become more accessible to everyone. I don't need tax consultants. I'd rather have craftsmen. Even if the house doesn't belong to the state later on, it is still in this country and therefore benefits everyone who lives in this country. So if you're a tax consultant, I'm sorry, but you're not doing much for society."

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

"That changed things, of course. I wish you had said that from the start. Um... Will donations no longer be deductible?"

"Nothing will be deductible for income tax purposes. This also applies to donations. How you use your income will rarely affect your job in this case. You can tell by the fact that if you don't donate anything, the amount of your income won't change. As mentioned, only a third of people file an income tax return at all. Of this third, only a quarter of citizens deduct expenses as donations and it feels like half of them only do this for the purpose of tax evasion. I will no longer accept this, which is why this option will be abolished. In most countries, donations are only deductible from income so that you donate more to charitable organizations, because the work that these charitable organizations do is often work that the state should actually be doing itself. If you cook dinner for a homeless person, the state is happy to pay for the drink, because otherwise it would have to pay for it all."

"For many charitable organizations, this will mean that they will definitely receive less income from donations."

"We also have important charitable organizations that do work that the state could do but won't. I don't want to deny that. In future, every citizen will be able to register as a supporter of any number of organizations at the citizens' office. There will then be a basic amount per citizen, which will be divided among those organizations."

"The amount will be high enough to compensate for the loss?"

"No, not for all of them, but certainly for the relevant organizations. I can already announce that many non-profit organizations will lose their recognition as such in the course of this change. As a rule of thumb, if they are active abroad, then they are probably not acting in a charitable capacity, or at least not in this community. With the withdrawal of charitable status, the permission to collect donations in public places will also cease. If they continue to do this, it is begging and will be punished accordingly. I am thinking in particular of Doctors Without Borders and other such associations. It is not the job of citizens of Baele to make sure that citizens of other countries can afford a doctor's visit, education or food. That is the job of the governments of those countries. If you build a school in a third world country, you are doing the work for the government of that country. If the construction of this school was financed with donations from Baele, which are then partly tax-deductible as donations in Baele, then Baele has in the end partly paid for this school. The expenses incurred in the country for the construction of the school may then remain in the country for some time. So the government of that country got a school and money because they didn't see the need to build a school themselves. These little band-aids ease the pain of the citizens and make life under oppression more bearable. Stop donating. The money is useless. Justice is paid with blood."

Under certain circumstances, Marah's last statement or parts of it might have been viewed critically, but the man seemed impressed at best, otherwise he seemed not to care.

.../ End Part