Morality

Under some political views, activities funded by taxes can be beneficial to society and progressive taxation can be used in modern countries to provide an overall benefit to the majority of the population and social justice. Because payment of tax is compulsory and enforced by the police and justice system through what some libertarians view as institutionalized violence, libertarians consider taxation to be equivalent to theft, accusing the government of levying taxes via coercive means. Libertarians, individual anarchists, and anarcho-capitalists, see taxation as government aggression (see Zero Aggression Principle). The libertarian writer Jason C. Reeher echoed the sentiments of Murray Rothbard on these grounds; in criticizing his local school district's relatively small property tax increase, Reeher said that "(t)he thief who steals the least is still a thief." Some libertarians recommend a minimal level of taxation in order to maximize the protection of liberty, while others prefer market alternatives such as private defense agencies and arbitration agencies or voluntary contributions.
One counter-argument is that because the government is the party performing the act of imposing taxes, and assuming the existence of a democracy, society as a whole decides how the tax system should be organised. The American Revolution's "No taxation without representation" slogan implied this view. The same argument could be made in a monarchy: "since the King embodies the nation, the nation as a whole decides how the tax system should be organised." Substituting the terms "Politburo," "Führer," or "Leader," etc., for the word "King," one can describe the politics of most of the 20th century. Under this view, taxes are paid individually and therefore, to be considered voluntary, in any meaningful way, should be levied only with the consent of the individual.