[fintstone]

Originally Posted by tadd

It is also theft to not pay your taxes.

But we are not speaking of theft. We are talking, in BOTH cases, about following the rules currently in place for one’s own benefit.

Choosing to minimize work preformed to meet a regulation is a choice. Just as investing assets in a given way to minimize tax outlay.

If someone is willing to live on peanuts to meet sub poverty level welfare requirements, good for them. That juice in my mind is not worth the squeeze. But it’s still legal.

Where you clearly have issue is that it is a moral failure for the individual. That is an opinion. Some might call it clever and smart. The ultimate tax avoidance. Don’t make anything, government can’t take anything.

If the person is not cheating or scamming the system, more power to them. Again, wouldn’t be my lifestyle, but I can appreciate the ability needed to live that way.

Neighbor has 550 acres. He has tied up a lot of that as forestry preservation. His tax bill is ~$500 a year. My small 7 acres is $6800. He uses the system to minimize his tax base legally following the rules. I don’t begrudge him that.

I am not sure how you got to people not paying their taxes from people who are given money by a government that takes it from others. They are not related in any way.

If someone is willing to work for peanuts to get welfare, they are essentially stealing...even if the government/regulation allows it (it is not the intent of the law). I am fine with one avoiding taxes by not working as long as they do not accept social welfare (and they should not be given any). They are cheating/scamming the system.

As far as your neighbor, I suspect his property taxes are largely based on use. Apparently, our local government has created tax breaks to incentivize behavior they find desirable. It seems that you find increased forest preservation of value as well. It is not unreasonable to subsidize behavior that benefits all taxpayers...but they are not taking money from you to give to him without your/community benefit as social welfare does for those that choose not to provide for themselves and be a burden on society. Of course, if your neighbor's taxes are not based on value as yours are, if you do not value the results, you should work to put someone in office that agrees...but there is no parallel here.