taxes

[Forstater, Mathew]

in capitalist economies that are not on a gold standard, taxes (in concert with
a number of other government powers--the power to declare what settles a tax
obligtion [public receivability], the power to set certain prices, etc.) perform
a function of creating a demand for otherwise useless pieces of paper.
colonialist capitalism used these powers to create wage-laborers out of a
population that still had means of production, and to force same to go into cash
crops, as an alternative to throwing them completely off the land.  this remains
the unwritten 'secret of colonialist capitalist primitive accumulation' (until i
finish writing it).

taxes in modern capitalism also function as a means of cooling aggregate
spending if there is a threat of inflation, and taxes also can function to
affect behavior (taxes on tobacco, for example, could be used to curb
smoking--the purpose would not be to create revenue, the goal would be for
revenue to be as low as possible! ditto dirty technologies).

of course, this is for a national government that issues its own unbacked
currency. local and state governments do have to finance their spending, so
there taxes serve as a funding operation.

the real question is not whether there will be or should be taxes under
postcapitalist society, but whether there will be or must be MONEY in same.
here, the anarchist collectives during the spanish revolution are informative.
if i were fluent in spanish and had to write a dissertation today, this would be
a top possibility.  but see:

Dolgoff, Sam, The anarchist collectives; workers' self-management in the Spanish
Revolution, 1936-1939. Introductory essay by Murray Bookchin. Published New
York] Free Life Editions [1974]