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Allow me to draw an image for you.These dudes share an apartment. They pay rent and utility together every month.What happens when they don’t pay?They get no water, electricity, phone or internet and they get kicked out.What happens when only some pay and others don’t?The ones who pay get poorer and they all start fighting. Or utility is not paid and you get power on and off.Would you call that happy living? No.What happen when the whole building is also partially paying or not paying at all? The building maintenance fall and no salary for security guard and boom thieves will be all over the building.Eventually the building collapses on all of them.Pay your taxes.

The key issue is that we rely more on indirect taxes than direct taxes.There are two ways the government can tax you:Tax on your income [direct tax]Tax on your purchase [indirect tax]In developed economies, majority of the tax revenues will be direct. Most pay income taxes with very less exceptions.In India, majority of the tax revenues is indirect although it is getting better over time. Farmers and most others don’t pay income taxes in India. Less than 3% pay income tax.That leaves the government to make most of their revenue from taxing your purchases that is a little harder to cheat on. Since the government has to pay for a huge number of employees, give subsidy and freebies to everyone and do a little bit of infrastructure and other things, indirect taxes are very high in India compared to most countries. This has always been so.So much so for the fact that even with a high GST rate, the price of most things are coming down - because the past tax rates for about 26 different taxes were that high.There is also the question of social justice. Most of us want to tax the rich and not the poor. In developed countries, the governments have higher income tax rates for the rich and not for the poor. Since most pay income taxes, this fairness is achieved just with income taxes. You don’t need to mess with your GST.In India, the income taxes and other direct taxes are not as big. That means the fairness/equity cannot be achieved just with direct taxes. We need to provide little discounts for the poor [many items are taxed at 0% or 5% or 12%] and then compensate this by taxing the rich [at 28% on luxury and sin items].However, this need not be for too long. The tax collections have been picking up - especially after the demonetization.In 2 years the direct taxes might be much more than the indirect taxes [there is a 20 year trend]. That is when the GST can be reduced and be made more simple without too many slabs.

It's worse.Sweden is more capitalist than the U.S., so beware. Sweden has no minimum wage, no property taxes, no inheritance or gift taxes, lower corporate and capital gains taxes, less progressive income taxes (only a two tier flat tax), more corporations per capita and no government bailout of failing steel companies or auto industries (R.I.P. Saab, it was fun while it lasted. You'll just have to continue with fighter jets instead).As a result, the economy is booming and we can afford universal health care, subsidized child care, 480 days of paid parental leave, free college and free private schools and one of the highest standards of living on the planet. It's hell.https://fee.org/articles/the-myth-of-scandinavian-socialism/Saab, GM, Chrysler and Why Sweden is More Capitalist than the US