[MiniTrade Proposal] Inactivity Tax

[Andreas the Wise]

Gralus has just about agreed to a post payout and inactivity tax. Ignore the post payout bit (Shireroth has never had a history of paying for posts and it doesn't fit the culture in the same way it does for Gralus) - is the inactivity tax bit worthwhile for Shireroth? Essentially, it's a more automated and less intrusive way to deal with inactive accounts.

If a bank account is inactive for more than 6 months, the program taxes it 33% of its funds. If it remains inactive, it gets taxed a further 33% every further 3 months. Inactivity is defined as no financial transactions involving that account save those necessary to administer this tax within a given time period. This applies to all non-government accounts registered in Shireroth.

This seems to me a sensible tax and one that would be useful and fair to apply across the SCUE.

[Daniel Farewell]

Boo!

[Kaiser Fish XII]

I'm not very keen on that. I might as well just get out of the economy now rather than keep a bunch of money just in case.

This is my personal opinion, however. This matter is for the landsraad, as per IO-005

[Ari Rahikkala]

Yeah, I don't really see this as acceptable...

... unless paired with the "but just posting on the forum means you're considered economically active" bit. Though, I wouldn't want to be the one doing all the paperwork connecting people's bank accounts with their forum accounts...

[Jacobus Loki]

Strangely, I could see it if-

The tax was smaller (say, 5-10%)-

Announced LOAs were excluded-

A provision was made to return all/some on a prodigals return.

One could easily give an erb to a friend (or to the Jacobus Fund ) to keep an account active.

[Erik Mortis]

This reminds me of a feature I keep meaning to add...

[Andreas the Wise]

Strangely, I could see it if-

The tax was smaller (say, 5-10%)-

Announced LOAs were excluded-

A provision was made to return all/some on a prodigals return.

One could easily give an erb to a friend (or to the Jacobus Fund ) to keep an account active.

Exactly. The provisions for activity are hardly strenuous. Doing something - ANYTHING with your account in six months counts you as active. That includes receiving stuff. So if we pay bounties and you do anything worthwhile, you're fine.

[Erik Mortis]

So the last transaction involving them in any way.

[Andreas the Wise]

Yes, any transaction involving them except the one for this tax (because obviously if the program looks for six months of inactivity and then taxes them at three month intervals thereafter, it must exclude this tax when counting activity).

If it would help people, I can get the program to do a mockup of who it would tax under this.

[Erik Mortis]

How would we get it to not count itself?

[Andreas the Wise]

I search for all transactions that fit a certain set of criteria AND don't have the specific "inactivity tax" reason (which includes the user's username and so is personalised and unlikely to be put in by a user themself. And if they do, it's their own fault).

[Jonas]

I don't really understand the problems that many have with this. So, someone who's inactive (at the bank) for 6 months will have to pay 33%? That seems fair, no?
Come on, we're talking about 6 months. That's a long, very long period in micronations! If you haven't used your account for so long, you can't really have a problem that the government will tax it and redistribute it. It's not like it can't be used: we have bounties to pay.

I find 33% better then 5 or 10%. And it's not like you lose everything when it happens, you still have 67%.

[Erik Mortis]

I think for many it's a knee jerk reaction to the idea of losing something. If Harvey was to weigh in it would be "yet another disincentive to participate in the economy." And likely promptly disavow any money he might have and some other statements of righteous indignation. (Sorry, Harvey, you've done it a few times, so I pick on ya. ).

I personally don't find it unreasonable. It doesn't take much for it not to happen. Almost to the point of uselessness, but hey. A friend can simply send you money. You could buy a lottery ticket now and again. (I do that), or just get bounties. So, it's not like it's hard to avoid the loss.

[Harvey Steffke]

To be fair, that's pretty much exactly what I would say if I were to say something. Though Andreas and I have a somewhat informal agreement where I don't knock the economy and he doesn't try to force me to be a part of it, so I don't really say things like that anymore.

Preeeetty sure I've successfully disavowed all my money at this point too. Maybe. Darn stuff crops up every now and then.

[Andreas the Wise]

I can take you out of post stuff from Gralus, but I thought you might like to be able to donate it like Jacobus. And I still wish you'd sent all your money to NDoG when you'd decided to disavow it

[Harvey Steffke]

Nah, don't worry about the Gralus IC-ish economy. That's a different beast alltogether.

[Erik Mortis]

Which is causing me technical issues with the bank. I'm still trying to sort out how it's bypassing the security I put in.... btw: Andreas, it no longer sets the info at login, it gets it each time it logs. Not sure really why it can't find any info. Maybe I need to add more things to check. Works on everyone else, but your CRON job. I don't even get Local info...

[Andreas the Wise]

You're welcome to look through the code in Daily.php (the bit that relates to post payout is the bit at the end) if you want.

[Erik Mortis]

Maybe I will. but it's proly cause it's being run from the local host that's my problem. I need to check how to check that.