No Taxes or No SS - Which Would You Choose?
A couple of these points/issues have been touched upon other posts/threads, but I thought them worthy of their own thread to receive the combined and focussed wisdom of the Board.
A common theme amongst most here is the continuous tax consideration of earnings, income and investments - i.e. the balancing of pre-tax and post tax savings amongst different accounts, the tax free limits on certain savings/investment vehicles, juggling portfolios to maximise tax losses towards the end of the tax year etc. etc. along with the regular income taxes payable on salaries etc. Nothing wrong at all with minimising ones tax liability, but with the best will in the world, income taxes, capital gains taxes, taxes on pre-tax investment withdrawals etc. etc. have to be paid sooner or later.
As a ''reward'' for taxes paid to ones government, citizens generally receive in return a Social Security system, pension benefits, some greater or lesser provision of health care and so on.
So here is the hypothetical question:
Let's assume that the individuals contribution attributable to the above mentioned ''personal'' services (SS, health etc) could be stripped out of the various taxes one pays; given the choice, would you elect not to pay those taxes and forfeit the right to receive the future government benefits, choosing instead to take the tax money surplus and provide entirely for your own future?
For those already drawing upon and/or dependent upon those services, the answer is obvious, but if you could go back in time, what would you do?
One for the investment gurus, macro-economists and social engineers to get their teeth into.
Interested in your views as some of you may have noticed form previous posts that this is particularly relevant to my own situation (through circumstance rather than an overtly positive choice).
Simon888
A couple of these points/issues have been touched upon other posts/threads, but I thought them worthy of their own thread to receive the combined and focussed wisdom of the Board.
A common theme amongst most here is the continuous tax consideration of earnings, income and investments - i.e. the balancing of pre-tax and post tax savings amongst different accounts, the tax free limits on certain savings/investment vehicles, juggling portfolios to maximise tax losses towards the end of the tax year etc. etc. along with the regular income taxes payable on salaries etc. Nothing wrong at all with minimising ones tax liability, but with the best will in the world, income taxes, capital gains taxes, taxes on pre-tax investment withdrawals etc. etc. have to be paid sooner or later.
As a ''reward'' for taxes paid to ones government, citizens generally receive in return a Social Security system, pension benefits, some greater or lesser provision of health care and so on.
So here is the hypothetical question:
Let's assume that the individuals contribution attributable to the above mentioned ''personal'' services (SS, health etc) could be stripped out of the various taxes one pays; given the choice, would you elect not to pay those taxes and forfeit the right to receive the future government benefits, choosing instead to take the tax money surplus and provide entirely for your own future?
For those already drawing upon and/or dependent upon those services, the answer is obvious, but if you could go back in time, what would you do?
One for the investment gurus, macro-economists and social engineers to get their teeth into.
Interested in your views as some of you may have noticed form previous posts that this is particularly relevant to my own situation (through circumstance rather than an overtly positive choice).
Simon888