338. When civil servants don't understand service or civility

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A conversation has just been related to me between a normal person (the adjective is intentional) and a Spanish policewoman. Let me set the scene. There is significant debate in Spain, relevant in essence to other countries, about the appropriateness of Spanish high earning youtubers decamping to Andorra to avoid (or evade, depending on perspective) taxation. The chat that occupies us was about a specific youtuber, who earnt 4 million euros in 2020 and would have to pay 42% income tax in Spain. The policewoman, a civil servant, was of the opinion that going to Andorra was the right thing to do. She, in his situation, would do the same, as 1.6 million is an excessive amount of tax to pay. There seems to be no connection, in her mind (I am assuming against available evidence that she must have one) between the state’s ability to pay her wages and fund her service and its ability to collect just tax proceeds. What hope do we have when even those paid by taxes encourage tax avoidance?

Length: 996 characters

Location: Hereford, UK

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