Is taxation theft?

This is a really clearly written article looking at the various reasons we might think that taxation is the taking of something that is fundamentally yours.

However, after carefully and clearly setting out and analysing the reasons, it concludes:

It’s hard to shake the feeling that the gross income figure on your payslip represents your money, and that the difference from your take-home pay represents how much the state has taken from you. In fact, there is no coherent way of justifying this conviction. Even if the most radical forms of Right-wing libertarianism are true, it remains the case that you have no special moral claim on your gross income.