All tax returns should be public. This would vastly reduce cheating on taxes.
Our society has run into a fundamental problem – there are always a certain number of people who will cheat on their taxes. According to research, these people are disproportionately the ultrawealthy. The real problem comes up when the government does not do proper audits and doesn’t enforce penalties because then good and honest people see the cheaters get away with it. This leads to a quick erosion of morals and integrity in the whole system.
Making all tax returns public makes it very easy for anyone to spot the cheaters. Even pathological liars and cheaters will have a strong disincentive against cheating and will be quickly punished if they do.
Think of this- if you do a project at work with several colleagues, you would want to clearly see that each contributed their fair share right? The same principle should apply to larger society.