NationStates

TITLE:
Government Revenue Takes Many Forms

VALIDITY:
Significant wealth inequality, Some welfare spending

DESCRIPTION:
It's recently been revealed that a high percentage of people in poverty aren't seeking welfare funding because they can't afford the admin charges associated with the application paperwork.

OPTION 1
"It doesn't make sense for the state to charge individuals admin costs -- paperwork should be free at the point of delivery!" declares bureaucrat Penn Poosher, striking the pose of a heroic socialist worker, pointing to a future that is apparently somewhere in the clouds. "Oh, and while you're at it, why not raise the wages of frontline civil service workers? We're the foundation of the nation! Hey, that rhymes! I'm a poet and I was unaware of it! Neat!"

OUTCOME:
gold wristwatches given to civil service retirees go well with the rest of their bling

OPTION 2
"WHAAAAAA-?" splutters your Treasury Minister, who had taken a sip of coffee for the express purpose of spraying it everywhere in a calculated expression of surprise. "These fees are essential revenue for the Treasury, paying for essential public services! Think of them as opt-in taxes that people can choose to pay by choosing to use forms... what could be fairer than that? In fact, here's a little secret for you, boss: if you double the fee on these forms while keeping government spending the same, you could drop income tax a little. Free popularity! Everyone wins!"

OUTCOME:
modified "Robin Hood" tax policy means taking from the poor to give to the poor

OPTION 3
"There's a fairer way to spare the poor while still keeping up government revenues," suggests paper mill director Chopin Moore-Treese, presenting a fully-detailed proposition with a ream of printed plans. "Means-tested fees! Let the poorest complete paperwork for free, with progressive income-and-savings-based tiers of fees that place the burden of administration cost on those who are best able to afford it, with exceptions and allowances for future projected earnings, expected incapacity, number of dependents, and so on, and so forth. It's all written down here, just sign off on it, and leave the rest to your civil service to sort out."

OUTCOME:
for the lowest eighteen income centiles the cost of hiring an accountant to calculate their pre-tax return administrative fee self-exemption pre-return evidence is obviously deductible from their returned reimbursement pre-exemption calculations on the first twenty percent of income on their pre-return exemption self-assessment returns but naturally and self-evidently not from their exemption-deducted post tax return or on the second thirty centiles of their pre-administrative returns