Do we pay the taxes we owe?

Political scientistChapter ofThe Simpsons "Much apu about nothingThe arrival of a brown bone in Springfield, despite his docile nature, sparks a demonstration at City Hall, led by Homer Simpson, who urges the mayor to do something. Enraged, Homer tells his daughter Lisa, "Let the bones pay the bone tax; I'll pay the Homer tax!" And Lisa responds, "This is the property tax, Father."

Fiction aside, the sketch illustrates the traditional debate (and controversy) over what taxes should be paid and what one receives in return. 54% of Catalans stated that the public services they received were inferior to the taxes they paid. The young people were the most reluctant to pay taxes in Catalonia and that a large portion of citizens considered current taxes to be unfair. Political scientist Charlotte Cavaillé recently showed that taxes are perceived as fair (or unfair) when they have an impact on individual circumstances and based on social norms regarding social solidarity and redistribution.

However, there is an important preliminary step, which is evident from Homer Simpson's reaction: before considering whether taxes are fair or unfair, it is assumed that citizens have accurate information about what they actually pay. What tax burden do people believe falls on others? And on low-income people? And on high-income people? What is the optimal tax percentage that is considered appropriate? According to data from a recent survey by the project Attclimate, the Catalan population has a slightly distorted view of society's tax burden. Thus, on average, people believe that those who earn less pay more taxes than they actually do. Conversely, when annual salaries rise to amounts above €50,000 (a bracket in which relatively few Catalans fall), citizens believe they pay less tax than they actually do.

If we focus on the taxes payable, a transversal preference for fewer taxes is observed. In other words, Catalans want a lower tax burden for everyone, both for those with the lowest incomes and for those with the most. For example, a person who currently earns €300,000 annually (soon and very wealthy) has an average tax rate of 46%. On average, citizens would prefer this rate to be 38%.

Those with low incomes and low educational levels are also in favor of reducing taxes.

One of the relevant findings of this survey is that the preference for lower taxes than actually paid is transversal, with some important nuances. Thus, people with low educational levels would maintain current taxes, except for those earning more than €60,000 per year, for whom the tax bracket would be lowered. When viewed by income, the consensus is even more evident: both low- and high-earners want to reduce the percentage of income tax they collect. It is important to emphasize that tax reduction is also the preferred option for those earning the least, a group that benefits much more from public policies than the rest (and which taxes allow). At the ideological level, we observe that all groups want lower taxes than actually paid. The biggest difference is found in taxes on the richest: while people on the far right and center-right would reduce the tax rate by about 10 percentage points, people on the center and left would keep it as it is.

However, in life, few things are certain, except death and taxes. Indeed, both in the time of Benjamin Franklin, to whom this phrase is attributed, and today, there are few issues with greater ideological or even ethical weight than the taxes that should be paid. Now, perhaps before debating what is fair or unfair, perhaps we should take a first step and understand what people actually pay in taxes.

Political Representatives and the Rural World

As the protests of a few months ago made clear, the rural community has expressed significant grievances and has often stated that it feels underrepresented in the political world. In addition to the policies that parliaments can develop to address the problems of the rural community, an important question is whether representatives from the rural community are represented in our neighboring parliaments. For the first time, a research team from the UAB has provided figures: in Spain, only 15% of MPs were born in a rural area. The urban community is overrepresented in European parliaments. The majority of politicians are from cities. However, in some cases, such as Ireland, Lithuania, and Cyprus, the gap is smaller, or they have more MPs from the rural community than their population should represent.