There will always be individuals or companies who attempt to evade taxes, only choice is to reduce this to a reasonable amount. You also need to ask yourself why are these individuals or companies evading taxes in the first place? Simply corrupt individuals? People not happy with government waste? Or small businesses who CAN NOT survive at the current tax rates and would have to close up shop?
It's a double edge sword and a reasonable balance will need to be found. On the flip side its sad to see no talk about job creation and what to do with the 50% unemployed under the age of 30.
Indeed. It should be realized that if the state becomes more effective at fighting tax evasion, that corresponds economically to an increase in the effective fiscal pressure, even though the official rates didn't change.
You can see it like this: if in a toy economy, the official tax rate is 20%, but everybody is cheating by a factor of 2, then the effective fiscal pressure is only 10% (it is what is effectively lost by economic agents for consumption and investment to the state). If the state now does a crack down on all cheaters, and after that, people are not cheating any more, then the fiscal pressure now equals the official fiscal pressure, that is, 20%. The effective fiscal pressure went up a factor of 2, and people really have less to consume and to invest, even though on paper, our country didn't change a iota to its tax rates.
