Quote Originally Posted by Dreadnaught View Post
I'm simply given a discount for cash, any tax-related explanations for that discount is mere innuendo. The discount is higher than the sales tax.

However, one can't help but see how the piling-on of taxation at every corner gives people ample inclination to dodge taxes at every corner. Hence, Greece, Italy and other economic/tax fixtures of southern Europe. It gets insulting when I'm asked to pay sales tax on a 40 year old used car in addition to state registration fees, insurance taxes, garage taxes and gas taxes. The state certainly has a role in registration, insurance, road maintenance. The fact that it also has to tax the purchase of something so old is where people inevitably wish they could find ways to cut corner.
It's not just that, there's also quite a different culture in Southern Europe, more particularist, which gives less of a sense that you should pay the taxes in your particular situation. Combine with a lot of corruption and lack of enforcement, I think that is the biggest problem. I mean, taxes are higher here but there is less tax evasion, because of a relatively simple tax code (for sales tax at least), effective enforcement, and generally a sense that dodging taxes is wrong to begin with. And cash is more attractive if banks are not trusted so well, or have poor services.