After being re-elected in the UK on my 1st try of the game, I was able to implement a Flat-rate Income tax policy. I thought this would over ride the existing Progressive income tax policy that the country starts with but after moving to the next quarter, both were in place at just over 40%.
Needless to say, I cleared the national debt with in a year by taxing my citizens at over 80%, to which they responded by only going on strike once, in the quarter I went into credit. At this point I scrapped the Progressive Income Tax policy and made everyone happy again by dropping the % of the Flat-rate Income Tax by a few points.
A great way to kick start the economy and clear the national debt, not entirely realistic! lol!
I found the game got significantly easier once I discovered this. Introducing a flat income tax of ~50% at the start of the game is enough to achieve a budget surplus with any country on 200% difficulty. The blacklash for doing this seems to be much smaller than the alternative of cutting programs.
IMO there should be a simulation called Double Income Tax where Flat Income Tax and Income Tax contribute even parts. It should be low enough to only be activated if you have both policies in effect simultaneously, and should reduce productivity and increase unemployment, as it’s not worth it to be working anymore.
Mmmm, I don’t think people would stop working - people still have to feed their families. What you would get is tax evasion on an almighty scale. For anything other than very moderate levels of both, slapping on both income taxes should definitely trigger Tax Evasion and Black Market. I’d need to check the actual weightings.
Thinking outside the box, would it be possible for the game to arbitrarily boost the value of tax evasion if both policies are active, thus making sure it triggers? I seem to recall the game code doesn’t permit if conditionals, unfortunately.
And a HUGE bug, in my opinion! The flat income tax should be introduced ONLY in absence of the Progressive Income Tax (it should be a prerequisite); it would be extremely irrealistic that both the policies are in place at the same time… unlesse a crippling tax evasion, pervasive black market, and strikes on strikes. In the game mechanics these eventes are “lighter” and cannot absolutely, or significantly, reduce the advantages (yes, tax evasion flies… but the income is enough to resane the budget, restart the economy, and manage the debt crisis).
This trick allow every player to “win”, without any difficult, countries like Greece.