Progressive income tax and middle income

Democracy 3 General Discussion
1

Been playing the beta all day and loving it so far :slight_smile: Flicking through the forum I’m not sure what the etiquette is on suggestions but there’s a couple of things that bother me and I wonder if they bother anyone else too.

I’ve managed to make a productive society that most people like but I can never seem to please the middle income demographic. It seems all they are concerned about is income tax (and in a big way) but it’s only around 30%. It seems strange that things which help the poor don’t also help the middle income but to a lesser extent.

Also whilst it’s possible to introduce flat tax the standard tax systems already are flat. There’s no way to tax the poor, the middle and the wealthy different amounts. I’d quite like to be able to do that as well as experiment with negative taxation as a replacement to welfare.

Anyway, back to the game :wink:

2

There are many other middle income policies, it just sounds like you haven’t implemented them yet :smiley: CarTax, Graduate Tax, the Flat tax, Inheritance Tax, MortgageTaxRelief, Property tax, Sales tax and Rail Subsidies all affect them, as do welfare fraud and university grants, healthcare vouchers and several others.

3

Cheers for the reply :slight_smile: I have since implemented many of those but the problem is I can never seem to please them :confused: perhaps I am just doing it wrong but I can create a fantastic country, win by landslides every election and have a budget surplus but the middle income will always hate me.

4

I’ve gotten middle income in the green with a very generous mortgage tax relief, a few health tax credits, and maybe even a sympathetic minister. Keeping income tax too high will guarantee less satisfaction and since it impacts them quite a bit it’s best to find what’s optimal in your tax system.

5

I’ve managed to get the middle income into the yellow without loosing too much elsewhere. Still I think it would be cool to have a progressive taxation system rather than a de-facto flat one (especially given that a flat-tax policy is a seperate policy) The sliders could be something like:

10:20:30
10:25:40
10:30:45
10:45:60
10:55:75

Essentially a ratio of poor:middle:rich income tax.