The Taxman Cometh

What can I say?  Like father, like daughter....  As I was flipping through my news alerts this week, this one from The Citizen caught my eye and caused me a chuckle.

The title reads "Call for Tax Education to Be Incorporated in Education Curricula," and suggests that one reason people might not like paying their taxes is because they don't know what taxpayer dollars (or shillings, in this case) are spent on.

This, then, means that if they knew their hard-earned pennies (again, shillings) would go to roads, schools, and other infrastructure in their communities, they would be all the more willing to pay.

Which would mean tax education could actually lead Tanzania back to its socialist roots.  Crazy stuff, kids.

 

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Some residents in the Kilwa district of Lindi region want the government to incorporate tax education in school curricula.

The move, according to them, will enable students to become good citizens who know the obligation of paying taxes.

The students were speaking during a seminar on capacity-building for leaders of civil societies and representatives of Teachers Trade Unions (TTU).

The training, which purposely aims at protecting the rights of the girl child, is run by Tanzania Education Network (TENMET) in cooperation with Action Aid and Kilwa Non-Governmental Organization Network (KINGONET).

Speaking at the training, residents Pili Kuliwa and Tumaini Said were of the opinion that tax education should be mainstreamed into school curricula to make students become good taxpayers in future.

Kuliwa explained that lack of education makes society view tax-paying as punishment, suggesting that there was a need for the issue of education to be continuously provided to residents so as to get rid of the misconception and instead create a new culture that would enable the society to pay tax voluntarily.

Due to the challenges, she said it was proper for the government to organize short- and long-term programs including setting up a curriculum about tax issues in primary and secondary schools with the aim of grooming students to become good taxpayers in future.