Now known: Paying taxes is a sign of delusion.
Would you routinely loan money to a failure, or a theif?
If you loaned 25-40% of your earnings to somebody in debt, 3 years in a row, and they managed to only bury themselves in more debt; would you give them that money again on the 4th year?
What if you were paying that same rate, but for services instead. After 3 years of complaining about the service you have recieved, if any at all, would you continue to pay for those said "services"? I
If you had a choice to switch to a competitor's service, would you be inclined?
Does this dynamic sound familiar at all? Pssst... See: statism, state monopolies; or taxes.
Can a service really be considered a service if it is compulsory to pay for it and or to receive it?
Delusion: a belief that is held with strong conviction despite superior evidence to the contrary.
Why give money to somebody who has never substantiated their claim that you are obligated to do anything for them, nevermind pay them tribute for their compulsory and or monopolized services. The burden of proof is on the entity making any positive claims; not negative claims. They say you have an obligation to pay them money; burden of proof is on them. Where's the evidence? Argumentum ad bacculum? A threat of violence is not evidence; "because I said so", is not evidence; an appeal to tradition, is not evidence; there is no evidence.
Why give money to somebody when they have never proven you to be obligated, and when they have routinely demonstrated themselves only capable of accumulating debt, and having disdain to objective morality.
The real reason that people pay taxes is out of either fear, or delusion.
You said it yourself; the real reason people pay taxes is fear. If you don't pay your taxes, you're going to jail and you're going to owe the government even more for not paying. If paying taxes was optional, I doubt anyone would pay them.
If taxes were optional, and there was a free market with non monopolized services by the state, some people I'm sure would pay them voluntarily, until the delusion of statism is dissolved; but the other people who didn't would probably find better services than the state provides, and from competitors, for cheaper.