[Editorial] Citizens’ tax revolution

Posted on : 2011-07-18 11:48 KST Modified on : 2011-07-18 11:48 KST

The Tax Revolution Party (TRP), a citizen taxpayer organization, officially launched on Friday. They stated, “Tax justice is being severely compromised because of a tax system that one-sidedly favors conglomerates and the real estate tycoons, and the expedients they use.” TRP also announced the goals of “realizing participatory democracy and rectifying tax justice by placing direct political pressure on the government and politicians.”
The TRP has said that rather than being a political party, it would operate as a permanent organization like the U.S. organization MoveOn working to uphold citizen rights and set an agenda. The participants are passionate in their desire to effect financial reforms and realize tax justice. We look forward to seeing TRP set deep roots and serving as a catalyst for change in the framework of national finances.
Taxes are the fundamental reason that the Lee Myung-bak administration’s “Fair Society” campaign pledge rings hollow. The tax burden on high-income earners has dropped sharply due to tax cuts for the wealthy, and passing down property without taxes has persisted as people have evaded lax law enforcement. Low-income earners in need of assistance are driven into critical circumstances as budget monies become poured into construction projects and development, and even fiscal soundness is deteriorating.
The reason so many people are demanding the rollback of tax cuts for the wealthy and the use of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project budget for free school lunches and a 50 percent reduction on tuition rates is because the Lee administration set the wrong course with its policy.
The tax issue remains a sensitive issue, and is likely to become a key issue in next year’s general and presidential elections. Yet, there is a limit to what politicians can do, given that they are an interested party to financial expenditures and cannot help shying away from tax resistance activities. Budget wasting is all too common, whether in the National Assembly or the central government, public enterprises, and local governments. Because finances have yet to break out of a construction and development paradigm, development pledges and policies are stressed even when the result we see is phantom airports and empty highways. There must be taxpayer monitoring of both the administration and politicians as well.
KS Economic Research Institute Vice Director Sun Dae-in, who is spearheading the association, has said that it will serve as a channel for communicating citizen views on the national finances to the political world. This means that the government needs to realize tax justice through stepping up property taxation and preventing tax evasion, and to eliminate the waste of tax money and expand welfare services. These are tasks that cannot be put off if we are to prepare for an aging society with a low birth rate and avoid placing the burden on future generations.
TRP has announced plans to launch a smartphone application that will allow people to see who has left large tax bills unpaid and to monitor and submit comments about budget wasting. Thanks to social networking services, the membership is said to have already passed seven thousand. It is our hope that citizens will invest active interest and participation in this organization so that it becomes a driving force for change.
  
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