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The tax system treats the majority as the exception
Tax systems do not reflect economic life. They structure it around assumptions about income, time, and visibility. They are built on an implicit model of the taxpayer — stable income, formal employment, individual responsibility, linear time. This model is not descriptive of the economy. It is a design choice. And it is a narrow one. The result is not that some people fall outside the system. The result is that the system defines the majority through categories that do not fu
Nite Tanzarn
May 15 min read
The citizen the tax system imagines
Who is recognised as a taxpayer — and who is treated as an exception? Tax systems are built around an implicit model of the taxpayer. Stable income. Formal employment. Individual responsibility. Linear time. This model is not universal. It maps closely onto a male, formal‑sector economic life. Most people live outside that model. The result is a gap between the taxpayer the system imagines and the economy as it is actually lived. A salaried worker fits the system cleanl
Nite Tanzarn
Apr 294 min read
Tax enforcement: Who gets punished — and who walks away?
The previous article asked who can comply and who struggles. This article asks: when compliance fails – or when the system decides to pursue – who is punished and who walks away? Enforcement is where the state reveals its power. Inspections, audits, penalties, confiscation, harassment, extortion. This is not a failure of the system. It is how the system operates. Some taxpayers negotiate. Others comply immediately. Some are invisible to enforcement. Others are targeted. E
Nite Tanzarn
Apr 263 min read
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