Some people believe that they should be able to keep all the money they earn, and should not have to pay tax to the state. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Sample Response
People work hard and earn money that they would ideally likemoney which ideally they would like to retain for themselves. However, a significant portion of their incomeportion of this usually has to be given to the state. In my view, it is right that people pay their fair share of taxes.
Money is essentialeverything in today’s world. This is because money is used to buy basic necessitiesall the necessities such as food, water, and shelter. Money is also used to support their childrenhelp a family’s children in the form of school fees and other activities. In addition to this, people need money not onlydo not only need money to meet their basic needscater for their necessities, but also for future investments. The more that people have to invest, the more they believe they can accumulate in the long term. As a result, many are reluctant to lose some of their income through taxationthrough the deduction of tax.
Nevertheless, citizens should be obliged to pay taxes to the government for a number of reasons. They should accept that the taxes they pay help the government provide public servicesoffer them the public services across the countryall over the country. These public services includeare things such as the construction of roads, bridges, public hospitals, parks and other public services. The same tax money helps stabilize the country’s economyhelps the country’s economy to be stable. Through taxes, the government can also pay off its debts. In short, money received through taxes is a way of ensuring that people have comfortable livelihoods.
In conclusion, even though many people think that they should not pay taxes, that money is useful to the stability of any country. Therefore, people should not avoid paying taxes as it may affect the country’s economy and services that it provides.
Why this response received Band 7.0
The response maintains a clear position and develops it through a balanced explanation of personal financial concerns and the public value of taxation. Its main limitation is that the supporting ideas remain fairly general and occasionally repetitive, especially in the discussion of public services and economic stability. The highest-priority improvement is to deepen the central argument with a specific causal example showing how tax-funded provision benefits citizens.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The essay answers the question directly, sustains a clear disagreement, and supports it with relevant reasons, though some ideas are broadly stated.
Develop one key reason with a specific example that demonstrates the consequences of inadequate tax revenue.
Coherence and Cohesion
Information is logically organised into purposeful paragraphs, and cohesive devices guide the reader clearly despite some repetition of taxes and public services.
Use pronouns, substitution, and more concise topic sentences to reduce lexical repetition while preserving the clear progression.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is sufficiently varied and precise for the topic, with only occasional awkward or repetitive phrasing.
Refine collocations such as tax deductions, economic stability, and public provision to make the argument more natural and exact.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses a good range of complex structures with generally accurate punctuation and control, although a few clauses are awkwardly formed.
Check reference and clause structure in concluding sentences so that pronouns and subjects point unambiguously to the intended ideas.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Some people believe that they should be able to keep all the money they earn, and should not have to pay tax to the state. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.