Paying taxes is voluntary?

Royce Chigbrow, chairman of the Idaho State Tax Commission, told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee this morning, “Our tax system depends on the voluntary cooperation of our citizens and businesses,” and the Tax Commission has been working to “sustain the voluntary nature of the tax system.” If this is surprising - perhaps you thought it wasn’t “voluntary” as to whether you pay your taxes or not - Chigbrow said, “In the past fiscal year, voluntary payments totaled $3.39 billion, while another $200 million was brought in through audit and collection activities.” He added, “To put it another way, 95 percent of the revenue over the years has been brought in through voluntary” payments.

The key to that, he told lawmakers, is “maintaining an adequate audit presence,” saying, “Consider for a moment what would happen to voluntary collection if no one worried about being audited or no one was concerned about the accuracy of their returns. Obviously,” he said, it is “essential” to keep “honest taxpayers’ trust in the system,” that “Those who don’t pay their taxes or don’t pay their fair share will be identified and pursued.”