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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? Leng...

Donald Trump, the incumbent US President and self-proclaimed billionaire, has paid negligible federal taxes for a number of years, as revealed by a New York Times exposé this week. Many of his supporters have come out in his defence, stating it is smart to use the tools available in the fiscal system to avoid tax, so long as it is done within current legality. Trump himself has often stated this self-serving view. The problem is that having a president who shirks tax obligations is a paradox. Tax is a manifestation of civic spirit, it is one of the tools we use to build a society. The president is a civic figure, the most important one, and the chief executive of the apparatus tasked with building society. What the NY Times revelation tell us, if we did not know already, is that the person charged by Americans with building their society is antisocial, the head of their civic society has no civic spirit. His individual behaviour is incompatible with the role the collective has given hi...