What is "Taxation"?

Several years ago something extremely shocking happened to me.  I discovered that I was an Anarchist.

This came as something of a surprise to me, as prior to that point the closest I had come to any kind of "rebellion" was when I dressed as a Punk Rocker for a school Halloween costume competition. For goodness sake, I am English, we just don't do this sort of thing!

For years I had considered myself something of a middle of the road liberal. I am very strait-laced, polite and never even got into any fights at school. Not exactly Anarchist material you would think, but you would be wrong.

My first step to becoming an Anarchist was a video I watched online, I was quite long but the point can be summarized into a single sentence;

Taxation is Legally Protected Theft

This Blew my Mind!

It flew in the face of everything I had ever been told, everything I had ever heard anyone talk about yet I knew it was true, the logic was undeniable.

"Theft" is act of taking an individuals property, either by fraud or the threat of force.

"Taxation" is the act of taking a portion of an individuals wealth or income for use by the government.

The individual does not have a choice in the matter. If they refuse they will be imprisoned. If they try to defend there property or resist imprisonment they will be beaten, maced, tazered or shot.

The only possible logical conclusion is that Taxation is exactly the same as Theft. It doesn't matter in the slightest WHY you are stealing or what you do with the money after you have stolen it, Stealing is always and forever wrong. It violates the non-aggression principle, which is the basis of all morality; I do not initiate violence against others, and expect them to likewise.

COMMON OBJECTIONS

"Well, taxation is payment for public services" 

To which I would say:

"For taxation to be a payment you must have agreed to some form of contract in order to establish which services you have chosen to receive and the amount that you have agreed to pay for them. No such contact exists; at no point did you have any choice, not even the choice to opt out. "Paying" taxes to your local government was an obligation you were just born into. Obviously that is unjust."


"I'm happy to pay my taxes, no one FORCES me to pay anything!"

To which I would say:

"If you truly believe that taxation is voluntary then testing that fact will be very easy.

Simply don't pay your taxes this year.

If you really have a choice you should have nothing to worry about."