Does socialism promote low or high taxes?

Answer 1

In socialism, where the means of production (producing economic value) are publicly-owned, public goods and various social programs would be funded directly without any need for taxation. In contrast to capitalism, where the profits of large industries accrue to private owners or shareholders, the profits in a socialist system would accrue to society at large, potentially negating the role for taxation altogether. In some variations of socialism, the state might actually use this surplus to provide a basic income to all its citizens on top of their wage/salaries earned doing work. This scheme is called a "social dividend" and has been supported by many socialist economists.

In a pure socialist economy where money is no longer utilized as a measure of value, taxation would not exist nor would it be required because large-scale, value-producing industries would be co-operatively or publicly owned and would thus be able to directly fund public goods.

In short, socialism would not require taxation on personal income for the purpose of public finance.

However, a market socialist economic system might utilize taxes and fiscal policy to influence or direct public and co-operative firms the same way capitalist governments use taxes to influence private firms under capitalism.