Taxes for residents over 20%

[fbvarona]

It seems that the tax rate over which city groups start complaining is about 12%. Over 11-12% tax rate for residents, happiness starts being penalized with -1, -2, etc.

My question is who cares if they complain? Because of the tile upkeep and, specially, because of wages for service buildings, I have problems to keep my budget in the positive. But I increased the tax rate for residents up to 22% to have a stable positive income. The happiness penalty on account of taxes was -7. Nevertheless, leisure and education coverage bonuses compensated taxes and global happiness dropped a level.

I mean, the city works and the simulation kind of reflects a capitalist system after all: I can keep on increasing residents' taxes in order to compensate for services and attractive tax rates for offices, industries and commercial services.

[🐺Blue Wolf]

Tax special industry (farms, coal/stone/oil, wood) 30% instead.

Taxing residential too high you'll eventually run into issues with people leaving and not being able to bring in new residents, as well as not being able to afford anything so you'll have a city of poor people.

Ideally keep residential taxes at 10% or lower.

[fbvarona]

Edit to my first post: happiness impacts
- High taxes -14
- Reliable mail +7
- Abundance of entertainment +5
- Walking distance to elementary school +4

Originally posted by 🐻 Veles:

Tax special industry (farms, coal/stone/oil, wood) 30% instead.

Taxing residential too high you'll eventually run into issues with people leaving and not being able to bring in new residents, as well as not being able to afford anything so you'll have a city of poor people.

Ideally keep residential taxes at 10% or lower.

I'll check for a few months what happens

[Blue Mushroom]

I raised rates to 15% and even though population was still growing, after a few months my tax revenue was significantly lower. I lowered them back to 12% and after awhile my tax revenue was back up. In my city I can't get revenue for any reasonable amount of time by raising taxes. I have to keep them low and essentially cut all my services to bare minimum just to break even.

[buda atum]

Originally posted by Blue Mushroom:

I raised rates to 15% and even though population was still growing, after a few months my tax revenue was significantly lower. I lowered them back to 12% and after awhile my tax revenue was back up. In my city I can't get revenue for any reasonable amount of time by raising taxes. I have to keep them low and essentially cut all my services to bare minimum just to break even.

Happens in real cities. High tax reduces investment (in hiring people, building factories and increasing inventory), as companies have less left over after tax. And it eventually results in lower tax income as company profit reduces. That's why governments try to stimulate economies by reducing corporation tax so companies can invest and grow.

Some countries have even suggested "helicopter money", but that's for after zero tax and zero interest rates fail.