- Question
Is taxation theft?
Taxes have been raised for over 5,000 years. Without tax, so it claims, the state cannot maintain its functions and support its citizens. But some libertarians claim all taxation is immoral: the state stealing the money of the individual. Where does taxation cross the line between legitimate representation and legal plunder?
Yes, taxation is theft
This position holds that taxation is theft. It argues that the government has no legitimate right to take people's money by compulsion, that taxation amounts to 'legal plunder', and that it is an unjust practice which fails to deliver the rewards it promises in return.
No, taxation is not theft.
This position holds that taxation is not theft. It argues that, under the social contract, citizens consent to taxation in exchange for the state's services — that pre-tax income was never wholly the taxpayer's to begin with — and that tax is a legitimate equalising force, not robbery.
Taxation as theft is question-begging
This position holds that calling taxation 'theft' is question-begging. It argues the claim assumes its own conclusion rather than proving it, and that taxes actually help determine people's incomes in the first place rather than seizing a pre-existing portion of them.
Yes, taxation is theft, but theft can be justified
In capitalist societies, the state imposes an excessively expansive notion of property rights, such that theft may on occasions be ethical. If the state prohibits anyone from acting on the perception that theft is justified, it must be willing do so itself.