Monday, April 2, 2007

I´m taxed, therefore I am....PISSED!


I hate taxes.
Its not that I don´t believe in paying my share, its that when it comes to taxes, you have to be a total idiot to believe that you are paying only your share, and not the shares of the rich, the economically protected, and the politically connected.
Jimmy had the best quote of our incredibly drunken Friday get together.
"Bureaucracy is the leading cause of Anarchists".
So right you are Jimmy.
I mean. I barely make above the minimum wage. I work a crap job that sadly is also extremely necessary for the economy of this over-heated little island, but just the municipal income tax is going to screw me right out of 95,000 ISK. The city I work for. The city that barely pays its childcare workers a living wage. The city that somehow finds money to throw a dozen or so artsy little festivals that no-one but bored yuppies from the suburbs attends, complete with "famous" foreign artists performing and oodles of fancy decorations and print advertisements, but can't be assed to pay for maintenance in its parks over the winter, so that when the people barely getting by looking after the children of the city try to take the little tykes to a playground, its covered in graffiti, scorched from arson, full of nail-studded planks ripped from the fences, sprinkled in broken glass and liberally seasoned with used hash-pipes and still-sticky condoms. Not to mention that to save money they tore down the public restrooms and now we have to walk the little darlings across a busy street back to the school so they can pee sans frostbite.
And still I'm paying through the nose for "public services".
Public smublic.
The bus system used to be a public service, before they made a corporation out of it and the prices more than doubled, the bus began to run less often, and the expensive traffic modifications and remodeled buildings they put up as transfer centers all over town just a few years ago stand unused or sold off to developers.
The public parks are ridiculously underused. This is partly due to the fact that the only upkeep they get is in the form of lazy spoiled teenagers put to work cleaning them up over the summer for a fraction of the the minimum wage. Its also underused because, quite frankly, the city's definition of "park" reads as follows :
"A large open grassy space mostly lacking in picnic tables, covered picnic areas, BBQ's, or public restrooms. While a park may contain a few of these things, it should mostly consist of open space and perhaps a dilapidated playground, because of course the point of a park is to be seen, possibly even walked through, but never used."
The public libraries do their damnedest to provide excellent service, but they've still been forced to start charging extra for borrowing DVD's, language CD-ROMs, and Internet access.
Many of the schools are overcrowded, have playgrounds as trashed as the public parks, and are woefully underfunded (not to mention their staffs are woefully underpaid) and many of the new schools (or new additions to the schools) are so expensively designed and utterly nonfunctional as to be outdated and insufficient before the improvements are even finished.
Meanwhile the city goes on paving sidewalks and such with lovely little patterned cobblestones, all bought from the same company of course, and guaranteed to need repair/replacement in about three years, as the frost heave shakes them loose and turns them into ankle-turning little landmines full of slush. Whether one looks at installation or at upkeep, it comes out as costing alot more than just laying some god damned concrete.
And off course the city funds alot of art, to go with its expensive festivals. Statues get moved around, new ones erected, various pretentious art-fags are hired to emboss witticisms into the manhole covers.
Millions are spent to paint over graffiti along major roads. No one much cares if people's houses or schools get tagged.
Then there's the city's little pet projects, like the proposed opera house down at the old harbor. A billion krona edifice to the pretensions and snobbery of the city's elite.
And I pay for it.
In fact, I don't just pay my share. Folks like me, wage-slaves, we pay a greater percentage of our income than the new super-rich. You know, those heroes of the new Iceland busy buying up Danish department stores, British food chains and the occasional football team, basking in the light of Elton John's multi-million dollar glow as the pat each other on the back for being so rich and cool.
Those fuckers make most of their money off of investments. 10% as opposed to 23.7% income tax, that. And cause they're busy building their fourth fucking mansion somewhere up in Akureyri, they get a nice big tax-write off on that.
All this waste and stupidity. All this unnecessary complication (why do some forms of "income" get taxed less than others, and some things that cannot logically be called income, say student loans or disability payments, are taxed the same as wages?). Why do I have to have a little paper card that I take from employer to employer, making it possible for me to pay slightly lower taxes at one job but much higher taxes on the other?
Why the fuck is no one in the government talking about simplifying this thing. I mean, with all the money that goes out from the State being taxed all over again to go back to the State, the State is actually loosing money in processing costs.
Here's the deal. I hate bureaucracy. It made me the Anarchist I am today. But even I can come up with a better tax system than that!
1: Define income. No more calling loans that have to be paid back "income", no more have the State tax itself taking money from people on benefits precisely because they can't make money!
2: The state stops eating itself. Government employees are exempt from income tax (even if their pay is adjusted downward). Get rid of waste and pork-barrel antics. The Parliamentarians will get one, just one god damned retirement fund, not one for each and every fucking time they play Minister musical chairs. Parliament members must join a union (just like everyone else who earns wages in Iceland) and they must negotiate with we-the-mother-fuckin-PEOPLE if they want a raise. Let'em strike. Best way to teach people we don't need them anyway. Stop throwing million krona parties for every half-assed quasi-dignitary that visits this lump of lava. Stop with the waste already. Just fucking stop!
3: Split the bloody difference. All real income whether it be from wages, investment, capital gains, profit, whatever is taxed at 17%. Right in the middle of the current rich-poor dichotomy. Furthermore, simplify the system to the bone. No more special-interest group deductions. No more tax-cards. Pay as your paid. No more of this "X percent for grain farmers, but Y percent for fishermen." Everyone pays their share. Period.
Fucking taxes.
Fucking State.
Fucking time for bed.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

And don't forget; If one of your employers screws up on the "little paper note", you have to pay the difference. In my case 120.000 krona. Neve mind that it wasn't my fault. Never mind that I got the excact same amount of money every month, although they claim I must have gotten something exra since "I didn't pay all my taxes". Never mind the fact that my income at the time came solely from the fucking state in the first place. I still have to call them every single fucking month and politely tell them to go fuck themselves with a pogostick, since asking them to actually fix the problem - thereby admitting that I'm right and they're wrong- is about as effective as trying to jolt the earth out of orbit by poking a sleeping alligator in the eye with a shiv.
But I digress.
Nice rant.

Anonymous said...

It's very interesting hearing some criticism on our system from a foreigner. I applaud, and thank you for that! Although I am a registered member of the Independence party myself I must say that I agree on much of what you are saying. Therefore I will only point out the points I disagree on (4) 1) The investments tax must be lower in order to make it feasible for the companies to expand and make money (10% of witch come back to the state) However I agree that 10% is a bit low and I believe they could manage with about 15% tax. 2) I think it's only fair that fishermen get a reduction, seeing that they don't use any of the "services" much part of the year. 3) Parties for dignitaries are some part a neccesary in order to show that we are a civilized nation, it is feasible to make business with us and to improve international relations. However you are correct that it doesn't need to be over expensive. 4) There is no need to call our beautiful island a lava lump.

Anonymous said...

Why dont you just leave the country if you dont like it here??
we will not miss you

Anonymous said...

I think this is just healthy for Icelandic people to hear, a little critisism in stead of always hearing how beautiful and perfect our island is.

Iceland sure is beautiful but ofcorse the system here can have a lot of flaws.

Stop this wining about the author should leave Iceland and think about what he just wrote here a little bit. Can all this be true?

Snorri

Anonymous said...

Concerning our beautiful Island, do you people actually consider it beautiful?
It's just that when I travel and see the magnificent trees in England or something, I can't help but think how lame Iceland is....
All we have are some lavastones, moss and mountains.

Anyway, I agree with most of what you're saying... But it's obvious that you were really fed up when you wrote that. What happen? :'D

Anonymous said...

I've been wondering why the independence party hasn't done anything do improve those things...those kind of things should be quite obviously improved no matter what party is in charge.

Great article by the way!

Anonymous said...

You people can't be serious! "Leave the country if you don't like it"? What are you, Americans or something? [Grins inanely]

Anonymous said...

WOW 9 COMMENTS XENOPATRIOT!!!!!!!!WAIT NOW ITS 10.HEHE.

Anonymous said...

see all u need to direct traffic to ur blog is some healthy constructive blunt in ur face WHERE-IT-HURTS(mostly "patriotic ppl")-THE-MOST criticism..

p.s- let me make it VERY VERY CLEAR TO ANYONE AND EVERYONE THAT when it comes to dealing with bureaucratic shite no one and i mean NO ONE BEATS INDIA!!!!!!!!this is one area our good-for-nothing-govt employees excel. i cant let ANON take it away from us*drama*
p.p.s-now its 11 WHEEEEEEEEEE.

Anonymous said...

I've heard icelanders complain endlessly about the exactly same tax hummabubbs - so for you who can't stand a foreigner complaining about our (let's just admit to it) sometimes very confusing taxation system - I don't know in which Iceland you live but mine ain't perfect. That does not mean I want to live anywhere else (since LaLa-Land is not accepting refugees these days). Just because a foreigner is not totally ecstatic every time our system decides to screw him over (which it also does us natives regularly) - does not mean Yank should go home.

Y'all play nicely now... ;)