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EDITORIAL: Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar

No one likes the taxman. From biblical chief tax collector Zacchaeus to Sam Shivute of the Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA), these men are disliked for simply doing what the law has mandated them to do. It’s so bad – throughout history – that the Pharisees regarded tax collectors as sinners.

The primary goal of taxes is to generate funds so that governments can provide necessary public services. Many of the essential components of successful societies worldwide, including social services, healthcare and education, are funded by taxes.

Taxes, therefore, are an essential part of our existence as a people. Perhaps in Namibia, the resistance to pay taxes is influenced by factors such as high corruption within public offices, where our taxes are plundered.

Sluggish service delivery in the country, despite these heavy deductions, also discourages taxpayers from obliging with this inalienable national duty.

If the primary goal of taxes is to generate funds so that governments can provide necessary public services, there has to be abundant evidence that such funds are indeed used for that purpose – and not only to fill the pockets of those controlling the purse.

Therefore, the increasing instances of NamRA pursuing individuals, including freezing the bank accounts of those owing the agency, are only the beginning of a warpath we are on.

Taxes are a robbery if the state does not use them for society’s full benefit. But they are also a benefit when they painfully leave our pockets and return in the form of new schools, clinics and adequate medical stocks in public hospitals. Taxes are what we make them.

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Namibian Sun 2024-11-21

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