Semestrálna práca: Optimal taxation system

Recently, there have been much debate on the issue of financial crises and subsequently the governments as they exert their influence through the power of taxation and spending. Right thanks to their power, the governments play the key role in regulating the state economic activities and this is how they might affect current financial crises indeed. Annually, the governments worldwide approve their budgets which consist of the outlays and revenues. While the outlays consist mainly of the transfer payments, the taxes are the major source of government revenues and are paid by individuals as same as corporations. Therefore all the governments should be exceptionally cautious while they compose or modify their tax system. Jean Baptiste Colbert, French economist and Minister of finance under King Louis XIV, had his own theory about the taxation, “The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing” (ThinkExist, n. d.. para. 1). It is obviously hard to say whether this “art” was applied in a practice and how much successful it was, but on the other hand it may remind the sharp practices of some politicians who came to the power and try to gain from their inhabitants and entrepreneurs as much taxes and contributions as possible.