Tax Evasion and Morale

from Stardock Forums
If I have enough morale mods (picks, social improvements etc) to have, say, a 70% tax rate and still have a planets morale at 100, are there any negative effects on that planet?

Do the tax evaders kick in only at the low morale threshold ('round 40 something) or is it a separate issue?

I've been playing such that I try to reach 'equivalent morale populations' by keeping higher pq planets at 100 morale (via tax slider) while lower pq planets drop morale (therefore growth rate) until I reach a point where moving the tax slider up from the point where all planets are at 100 morale leads to ALL planets dropping to less than 100 (more or less).

Then I can add morale improvements across the board once my tax rate for 100 morale reachs pathetic levels, and avoid tough micro-ing decisions.

So, basically, I just want to know whether my management strategy is based on good theory or not.
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
I think tax evaders kick in in response to morale. It sure seems that way.

The only thing to be aware of is that as tax rate exceeds 35%, your 'efficiency' reduces - if you watch the "total active spending", you will see it go down as the tax rate goes up. This is a very minor effect, though, and IMHO you would be quite justified in ignoring it.

And I manage about the same way, BTW.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
That would explain why I once saw a build queue item take longer with a higher tax level.

So you're saying with a higher than 35% tax your 'dollar' becomes devalued (for internal spending)?

Does this effect all the spending zones equally(Social/Mil/Research)?

Is it exactly 35% or thereabouts?

And I would assume it would be diminishing returns on spending (if you kept the budget balanced, a 50% tax income would have to still give more production than a 20%, wouldn't it?) :notsure:
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
So you're saying with a higher than 35% tax your 'dollar' becomes devalued (for internal spending)?
End of quote


Not exactly. There's two notable effects here.

Raising your tax rate reduces morale, which in turn reduces tax income, population, research, and production. This is the usual cause for those losses.

The other kicks in when you have a high treasury or a high income. This is what the Crime ability is supposed to affect, according to the Economy undocs (as of 1.03). The fact that Crime doesn't actually do anything right now suggests that this effect may not actually be implimented yet either.

~SDC~
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
@ Arturus: so you're saying that the loss of efficiency that Ralegh mentioned kicks in in response to large overall income, not specifically tax rate, as a part of the (possibly not yet implemented) 'graft' effect?

As to your first comment, I should have re-stated in the second post "assuming a morale of 100"; I'm trying to determine if there is any detriment to running very high tax rates when thru-the-roof morale bonuses allow morale 100 pops at (say) 70% tax.
[Message Edited]
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Tacit, I'm interested--and mystified--by the management strategy you were detailing at the top. What kind of tax rate makes it such that ALL your planets would (simultaneously, more or less?) dip below 100 with an extra nudge on the slider?
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
What Arcturus is talking about is exactly true, but is a different thing to the effect I was explaining.

The effect is easily observable on the Domestic Policy Screen, since tax rate doesn't affect "Actual Expenditure" (the figure to the right of the Spend Rate slider) in any other way. Start your slider at a low % of tax, and move it forward, watching for the Total Active Spending to decline... (May seem to kick in at 37 or 40% if your economy is small, but that is just rounding.)

Again, it is a TINY effect, and not really worth worrying about - I just included it for completeness.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
@ Tristan; an extremely variable one!

Basically, I adjust my tax slider each turn such that at least one planet has 100 morale, so that it can play 'catch up' with the extra pop growth bonus to the other planets at less than 100 morale.

By adjusting the tax slider down every turn or so (to keep that planet and any cohorts at 100 morale) you get a levelling effect. This is helped greatly by carefully calculating your initial colony loads to match pq of planets, and at times the whole system falls apart when morale improvements are built, but it seems to be a nice general guide to setting my tax levels.
If you reach that magic equilibrium, you should be able to get phenomenal pop growth on all planets simultaneously.
Shitloads of micro-ing but; I've only played tiny so far, I'd quite possibly abandon it on larger maps (or at least not be quite so anal about it). :)
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Tacit,

To answer your initial question, there are no deleterious effects to running any tax level at 100% morale (aside from the minor inefficiency loss noted by Ralegh). The ability to raise/maintain planets at 100% morale while reaping tax rates of 50%+ is the exact reason to build the bonus morale improvements in the first place.

This is especially true under 1.05, where the calculations are modified to:
a) permit greater populations before overcrowding effects are imposed;
b) raise the value of bonus morale TG's; and
c) limit military conquest by encouraging greater planetary populations ("a" above), raising the cost of Combat TR's and rewarding overall total population in VP calculations and MV submissions.

"Tax evasion" (i.e., population loss - "shrinkage") occurs only when morale is 50 or less.

I commonly run tax rates of 54-58% throughout my game once sufficient morale improvements are built.

~SDC~
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
As to your first comment, I should have re-stated in the second post "assuming a morale of 100"; I'm trying to determine if there is any detriment to running very high tax rates when thru-the-roof morale bonuses allow morale 100 pops at (say) 70% tax.
End of quote


If you can keep your morale at it's current level while increasing your tax rate, there are no deleterious effects of the tax rate increase itself.

The only sources (known to me) of income loss as tax rate increases are the following effects:
1) Graft caused by high income or a large treasury surplus.
2) Morale loss.
3) Tax evasion (which is linked to 2, above, but operates over and above that effect).
4) Inefficency caused by unbalanced spending increasing faster than your income (very unusual, but vaguly possible).

I have run 100% tax rate with 100% morale/approval rating in the past, although not in any game on 1.03 or later versions as of yet. I generally end up around 96% approval at 75% tax rate by late game if I stay away from class 14- planets pre-terraforming.

~SDC~