Expanded Tax System

Feature Suggestion — Expanded Tax System

I think the Budget system could be expanded by adding more forms of taxation instead of relying entirely on income tax. At the moment, income tax is divided between the Low, Medium, High and Elite income bands, but I think adding other tax bases would make budget management much more interesting and give countries more ways to build their revenue system.

My suggestion would be to have four main tax types: Income Tax, Consumption Tax, Payroll Tax and Corporate Tax.

Income Tax would remain the current system, with separate rates for each income band.

Consumption Tax would apply to domestic consumption. Since the game does not currently simulate individual purchases, taxable consumption could be estimated from each income band's disposable income after income tax, using an internal consumption rate. This would allow the game to calculate an estimated monthly revenue without needing a complete goods market.

Payroll Tax would be applied to the total wages paid to employed electors. This would be separate from Income Tax and would give governments another way to tax labour without simply changing the personal income tax rates.

Corporate Tax would apply to estimated taxable corporate income generated by the country's industries. Since the game already models 12 different industries, each industry's output could contribute to a taxable corporate-income pool. This could also create an interesting connection between taxation and a country's economic structure.

I also think these taxes should interact with the Laws system rather than existing only as budget sliders. Each tax could have its own law, such as "Consumption Tax Law", "Payroll Tax Law" and "Corporate Tax Law". The law would determine whether the tax is prohibited and, if allowed, the maximum legal rate. The Budget would then determine the actual rate within that legal limit.

For example:

Consumption Tax Law:

• No consumption tax

• Limited consumption tax — maximum 10%

• Standard consumption tax — maximum 20%

• High consumption tax — maximum 30%

Payroll Tax Law:

• No payroll tax

• Limited payroll tax — maximum 5%

• Standard payroll tax — maximum 10%

• High payroll tax — maximum 20%

Corporate Tax Law:

• No corporate tax

• Limited corporate tax — maximum 10%

• Standard corporate tax — maximum 20%

• High corporate tax — maximum 35%

This would create a clear separation between legislation and budgets: laws determine the legal framework for taxation, while budgets determine the actual rates and expected revenue.

In the Budget page, the Revenue section could look something like:

Income Tax

• Low

• Medium

• High

• Elite

Consumption Tax

• Rate

• Estimated monthly revenue

Payroll Tax

• Rate

• Estimated monthly revenue

Corporate Tax

• Rate

• Estimated monthly revenue

Total Tax Revenue

The additional revenue would then be included in the normal budget calculation, surplus/deficit, Treasury and Sankey chart.

I think this would add considerably more depth to the economic side of Lawmaker while still fitting the systems that already exist. It would also give parties more meaningful economic policy choices: they could debate not only how much the government taxes people, but also what the government actually chooses to tax.