It can be said, that just about nobody desires to pay their taxes, especially when the perception is that the tax edifice is unfair, uneven, and clearly favorably applied to those that are the most powerful well-placed individuals as well as also the same consideration being in place for well-heeled corporations. The very first thing to say about taxation is that if any government truly desires to collect the taxes that it so needs to function properly on behalf of the people, then that government needs to make it their point to tax those entities that have the ready capacity to not only pay those taxes, but also that government needs to make sure that the tax code does not permit then those that are the richest and most powerful to somehow escape their fair tax liabilities.
For instance, we read at propublica.org that “The 25 richest Americans paid an effective federal income tax rate of 3.4% between 2014 and 2018.” Further to the point, think about all of the multinational corporations that have profits in the billions upon billions of dollars, but seldom come even close to paying the relatively modest corporate tax rate, let along paying any semblance of what they really should be paying; despite the fact that corporations, are artificial constructions of the state, so meant to have been given legitimate permission to incorporate for not just the purpose to make profit, but also ultimately to provide tangible benefits to that society, which permitted their perpetual existence, in the first place.
The proximate reason why superrich individuals and corporate entities of all types do not pay their fair share of the tax freight, really comes down to the fact that these people and organizations have an undue influence upon those that are not only the policy makers but also the policy enforcers of those tax policies. In other words, those that are very powerful are going to have a very strong tendency to do what needs to be done, in order for them to thus pay far less to the government in taxes than what they really should, so that they can thereby keep far more of the profits that they have so made. The problem though with this sort of mindset and thus undesirable societal outcome is that those entities that can most readily afford to pay their fair share in taxes, have deliberately and with foreknowledge placed the tax burden instead upon those that represent the core of Americans, along with also burdening those of future generations with unpaid governmental deficits that one day, will have to be paid.
There are very few people in politics and in governmental positions that have the strength of character to stand up against those that are the richest and most powerful institutions in America; of which, when these representatives will not make such a stand, than the people, in whole, are damaged and hurt by such. The rich don’t pay their fair share in taxes, primarily because they have co-opted our governance, or even worse, are themselves, in effect, the shadow government, that runs the show for principally their exclusive benefit.