Indonesia
Mom, What is Tax?
Naura Wu was a smart girl who didn’t say much. She liked to watch things around quietly. When having dinner to celebrate her brother’s birthday at a seafood restaurant, Naura and her cousin Angeline scrambled to see the bill. Angeline just wanted to know how much the delicious batik clamp she ate was. Naura on the other hand took a closer look. She realized there was additional charge from the total for dad to pay. It’s 10 percent.
It occurred to her. When purchasing lunch packages at a fast food court, Mom also paid 10% over the price. The next day when she went to buy a paper clip at a bookstore, Naura had another look on the bill. This third grade student of Homeschooling Kak Seto was curious. Why there’s no additional charge like that in the restaurants? She took it to Mom, hoping some explanation about tax.
Hmm…tax? It’s an important thing for the kids know, Supermom. Tax was a tuition paid by everyone to the treasury of the nation based on the regulation (thereby people are subject to it), with no direct feedback. Now, what is the best way to run the simple explanation about tax for kids to make them easy to understand? There are three main point of explanations to wipe out their puzzling thought around taxing.
The Reason: tell them that some public services were so important and costly, so that everyone must contribute to pay. Take something from around them for example. The building of a hospital and bridges would fit.
The Source; Superkids will be curious as to where the money for tax came from, and just what things can be taxed. Yes, tax came from pretty much every direction. Tell them that the government collected the tax from every where, with any means necessary including when we eat in a restaurant. They put tax on Dad’s monthly salary and the house we live in. The car we used to go around also had tax once every five years. In fact, when we win a lottery, the prize is also cut for tax.
The Benefit: All the fund accumulated from tax will come back to people, including our family. The government will run he fund to help paying for road constructions, city parks, schools and more. Now, kids will understand why public schools cost less than private schools. Or, why we don’t need to pay to play in the city park.
The earlier we teach kids about tax the better. Do not underestimate them saying they are too small to understand, will you Supermom!
PHOTOS: THINKSTOCK
