Fire the Taxman, Hire a Bank: How Citizens Can Fund the Future

A national-bank swap that could replace income tax with community investment.

By Kanishka S. for Atlas October

Same payroll deduction, instead of disappearing into a maze of government ledgers as tax, that money heads into your personal National Savings Account—a publicly owned bank that treats every citizen as a shareholder.

Imagine Your Paycheque…

Picture next Friday’s pay-deposit hitting your account. Today, as always, a chunk labelled “income tax” vanishes before you even see it. Now re-run that moment in slow-motion and flip one line on the slip:

> Tax ➜ National Savings Deposit

Same dollar amount, but instead of disappearing into a maze of government ledgers, the money lands in a personal National Savings Account—a publicly owned bank that treats every citizen as a shareholder. Deposit simply means money you park in a bank; here, it’s parked for the express purpose of building hospitals, transit lines, and local clean-energy systems that you’ll use tomorrow.

You still feel the lighter shoulders of tax already “paid,” yet the cash is working under your name, earning returns the way a regular savings account does—only the interest flows back as smoother roads, shorter clinic queues, and real-time reporting that proves exactly where your dollars are laying fresh concrete.

And all you did was get paid.

Proof It Isn’t Sci-Fi

Before you dismiss the idea as utopian, consider two very real precedents:

1. A state bank that already profits its people – North Dakota (United States of America)

Since 1919 the state-owned Bank of North Dakota (BND) has pooled every state-agency dollar, then shares those funds with nearly all of the state’s community banks and credit unions, joining their loans instead of competing for them. The profits loop back into low-cost farm and business financing and cash transfers to the state’s general fund; in 2023 BND earned about $193 million on roughly $10 billion in assets. By letting small hometown lenders tackle projects they could never fund alone—and keeping the interest and decision-making on Main Street—BND shows a public bank can be solvent, competitive, and genuinely community-first.

2. A compulsory saving engine – Singapore’s Central Provident Fund (CPF)

Every worker in Singapore sends a slice of salary into a personal CPF account. Those pooled dollars finance nation-building projects while doubling as each citizen’s nest egg for housing, healthcare, and retirement. Contribution rates adjust with age, and returns—though modest—outperform the average savings account. The result: world-class subways, near-universal home ownership, and one of the highest funded-pension ratios on the planet.

My proposal: go all the way

North Dakota shows a public bank can thrive; Singapore shows mandatory saving can bankroll public goods. But neither has replaced income tax itself. My plan folds the tax slice straight into a universal public bank account, lets everyone share in the gains, and directs the capital into both mega-infrastructure and hyper-local self-sufficiency projects. In short, it fuses the best of both examples—then dares to go several steps further.

Why Flip the System?

Today’s money circuit is a two-step relay:

1. Taxes disappear into government ledgers. Before a single shovel hits dirt, that cash detours through ministries, audits, and bureaucracy—each layer shaving off time and, often, efficiency. Think of it as tax churn: money moving in loops before landing where it’s needed.

2. Governments then borrow—issuing bonds (IOUs sold to big investors) at interest—to fund roads, hospitals, or climate projects. Taxpayers eventually repay both the principal and the interest, doubling the price tag over decades.

Meanwhile, private banks collect deposits, lend them out, and send the profits to shareholders. Citizens fund the system twice: first through taxes, then through bank fees and loan interest.

Flipping the system collapses those steps. Your deposit is the funding—no bond middle-man, no shareholder skim. The return on that deposit isn’t a line on someone else’s balance sheet; it’s the new bridge you drive over and the clinic that cuts your waiting time in half.

Benefit #1: Citizens Earn Returns

When you park money in a normal bank, the bank lends it out, collects interest, and funnels the profit to private shareholders. In this model every depositor is the shareholder.

What’s a “return”?

A return is the extra money you receive because your dollars were put to work—like the interest on a savings account or the dividend a company pays its owners.

How the return shows up here

1. Cash credits. Once projects begin earning—think utility fees from a solar farm or lease payments on a fibre-optic network—the national bank can pay an annual dividend (a slice of profit) straight into each citizen’s account.

2. Service discounts. Profits can also flow back as cost-free public transit passes, zero-interest student loans, or lower power bills—tangible savings that feel like cash in your pocket.

3. Asset growth. Because the bank’s portfolio is public infrastructure, every bridge, clinic, or micro-grid it funds becomes part of a national balance sheet you own collectively.

Why this beats the current setup

• No shareholder skim. The margin that used to disappear to private investors now circles back to the people who supplied the capital in the first place—us.

• Lower risk, broader reward. A diversified mix of roads, clean-energy plants, and community loans spreads risk far wider than a single mutual fund or stock pick.

• Built-in fairness. Returns are distributed per capita, not by who already has the biggest portfolio, keeping the wealth-building engine accessible to everyone.

In short, your “tax” line transforms into an investment slip, and the upside finally lands where it belongs: in citizens’ wallets and neighbourhoods.

Benefit #2: Faster Hospitals & Roads

Traditional public works crawl through a two-stop money maze:

1. Budget season. Lawmakers haggle, agencies queue for limited tax dollars, and shovel-ready plans sit on shelves.

2. Bond market detour. Even after approval, governments still borrow—issuing bonds (IOUs sold to investors) that must be repaid with interest. That adds years of paperwork and millions in finance charges before concrete pours.

A national-bank model clips both delays.

Direct-deposit funding

• Instant capital pool. Deposits arrive with every payday, creating a steady river of cash that can be matched to projects month by month, not budget year by budget year.

• No bond markup. Because the bank already holds the money, it can lend to ministries or municipalities at near-zero interest, erasing the usual premium investors charge.

What “faster” looks like

• Hospitals, clinics, and labs break ground much sooner once need is identified, cutting queue times for public healthcare needs.

• Roadwork gets financed in spring and completed by autumn—before inflation inflates materials costs.

• Tech upgrades (think rural fibre internet) launch in quarters, not decades, because funding isn’t hostage to election cycles.
  

Speed with accountability

Every project ledger is published on a public dashboard: amount drawn, milestones hit, cost-per-kilometre or cost-per-bed built. Citizens can see at a glance whether each dollar laid more asphalt or was lost to overruns.

Bottom line: when funding is wired straight from your National Savings Account to a bulldozer, communities stop waiting and start riding, healing, and learning faster—while saving the interest that once fattened somebody else’s bond portfolio.

Benefit #3: Your Money Stays Yours

Picture a worker who earns $3,000 this month. Today, the tax system scoops out about $600 before the pay even reaches their bank. That $600 disappears into government accounts and the worker never sees it again.

Under the national-bank swap, the same $600 still leaves the paycheque, but it is redirected into a personal National Savings Account held at the public bank. From day one the worker owns that $600 as an asset, and it starts earning a share of the profits generated by bridges, hospitals, or local solar grids the bank finances.

Because employers no longer need to file and process complicated withholding paperwork, the small payroll-admin/tax filing fees—say $20 each month—also vanishes. The worker’s immediate spending cash therefore rises slightly (from $2,380 to $2,400 in this example), while their personal balance sheet suddenly shows a $600 investment instead of zero.

Policymakers can sweeten the deal further:

• Lower flat rate. If the universal deposit is set below the average current tax rate, most people would see a genuine pay-rise on day one.

• Employer match. Requiring companies to add an extra five percent turns every deposit into an automatic gain for employees.

Bottom line: you may not feel richer at the checkout right away, but you now own the money that used to vanish—watching it grow alongside the public projects it funds.

Benefit #4: Simpler Paperwork, Fewer Headaches

If you have ever wrestled with withholding slips, deduction codes, or last-minute tax-return software, you already know administrative drag—the time and money everyone spends just to prove they paid.

Withholding is the current system’s safety net: your employer forwards part of each paycheque to the government so you don’t forget, then you spend hours each tax-season reconciling the numbers.

The national-bank model erases that maze. Your employer’s payroll department makes one automatic transfer into your National Savings Account, and you’re done. No separate tax agency forms, no quarterly estimates for freelancers, no receipts stuffed into shoe boxes.

For governments the gain is just as big: fewer staff chasing late filings, fewer audits, and radically simpler budgeting because deposits arrive like clockwork every payday. Strip away the paperwork, and both citizens and civil servants reclaim time, money, and mental bandwidth—resources better spent on life, work, or building the next great project.

Objection #1: “Can We Trust Government With Our Savings?”

Sceptics rightly ask, “I already worry about potholes and paperwork—why would I hand my life savings to the same system?” Three guardrails can address that fear:

1. Independent board – Think of a central bank’s policy committee, but laser-focused on safeguarding deposits. Independent board means a panel whose members serve fixed, staggered terms and cannot be fired by the government of the day. Their job: approve every loan, publish every performance metric, and blow the whistle if politics tries to meddle.

2. Deposit insurance – The first slice of every account—say the initial $100,000—is guaranteed by law. Deposit insurance is a public back-stop fund that repays you, in full, if the bank ever stumbles. It works like the safety nets that already protect customers of commercial banks in countries like Canada, only funded upfront so confidence never wobbles.

3. Radical transparency – A live, searchable dashboard shows where every dollar is invested and how each project is tracking on cost, carbon, and completion date. Citizens can see—daily—whether their money laid new rail or sat idle. Add annual third-party audits and you have sunlight powerful enough to disinfect any hint of cronyism.

Taken together, these checks shift the question from “Can we trust government?” to “Can government earn—and keep—our trust?” The difference is accountability you can click on, not faith you must swallow.

Objection #2: “Won’t This Kill Private Banks?”

A public mega-bank sitting on every citizen’s deposits sounds like an extinction-level event for commercial lenders. It doesn’t have to be.

Defined lanes

The National Savings Bank funds roads, energy grids, hospitals—public-interest assets only. Everyday products — credit cards, mortgages, start-up lines of credit — remain the domain of private banks.

Partnership model

Big projects can still be co-financed: the public bank supplies long-term, low-cost capital; private banks bundle short-term construction loans, earning fees and keeping their underwriting skills sharp.

Innovation niche

Freed from chasing cheap deposits, nimble lenders can pivot to fintech, green bonds, venture debt—areas a cautious public bank won’t touch.

Shareholder upside, just slimmer

Yes, basic deposit profit margins shrink, but healthy returns survive in higher-value advisory, wealth management, and specialised lending.

Result: a smaller but more focused private-bank ecosystem that competes on service and creativity instead of harvesting the public’s savings.

Ultimately, a national-bank and a citizen’s National Savings Account, is not a replacement for your personal savings, retirement savings, or personal investments; it is income taxation reimagined.

How We Phase It In

Year 0 – 1: Pilot

Start with a voluntary 10% deposit swap for public-sector employees. Publish daily dashboards so everyone can watch the money move and the first projects break ground.

Year 2 – 4: Scale to 50%

Invite all workers; make payroll software do the routing. Launch an independent board and fully fund the deposit-insurance pool before accepting the other half of today’s tax stream.

Year 5 – 10: Full swap—if metrics are met

Only when on-time project delivery, audit scores, and citizen-confidence polls all hit agreed-upon targets does the remaining income tax line vanish.

Safety valve

A reduced back-up tax (one or two percent) stays on the books for emergencies, disappearing once the national bank’s profits consistently exceed spending needs.

National wealth as something ordinary people can see, touch, and count.

A Glimpse of Tomorrow

Fast-forward five years after full roll-out.

You tap your phone at a cafe. Instead of “VAT paid” on the receipt, a note reads: Dividends applied—coffee discounted 12%. Those pennies come from the solar array your city co-owns through the National Savings Bank. The panels paid themselves off last quarter; now they’re paying you back—cup by cup.

Outside, a silent electric bus glides past. It’s free to ride because ticket machines were scrapped: operating costs are covered by the same dividend pool. The route used to snake around potholes; today, freshly poured asphalt hums under the tires, funded without a single bond issue.

On the edge of town a young couple moves into a net-positive-energy house. Their mortgage rate is half a percent lower because borrowers who maintain a healthy National Savings balance qualify for “citizen-saver” borrowing rates. Behind the house, community gardens bloom—starter grants came from micro-loans voted in by neighbourhood depositors.

At the hospital, a new pediatric wing opens. A push notification pings every phone: “Project 241 complete—returns on track for next quarter.” Parents who once queued six hours for a doctor now wait twenty minutes.

Retirees gather at the park, scrolling the bank’s public dashboard. They can tell you, to the dollar, how many trees last month’s profits helped plant, how much broadband latency fell after the rural fibre rollout, and when the next dividend lands.

The skyline is oddly quiet. Tower cranes have slowed because the big builds are largely done; maintenance is prepaid by the cash-flow of assets already in service. For the first time in generations, national wealth feels like something ordinary people can see, touch, and count.

Closing Challenge

If our deposits can pave streets, light homes, and reduce doctor waits, why are we still surrendering that power as taxes that disappear? The truth is uncomfortable: systems persist only because we tolerate them.

We grumble at bank fees and laugh at potholes, then keep feeding both. Imagine instead demanding a savings slip—proof that your money is building the future, not vanishing into it. You just read the blueprint, you can see how this adds up, the precedents—beyond this writer’s imagination—exist. The only missing ingredient is public insistence. So ask yourself: why don’t we have this yet—and what will it take for us to finally insist?

Endnotes

• Bank of North Dakota. (2023). Annual Report 2023. https://bnd.nd.gov/pdf/2023AnnualReport.pdf

• Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. (2021). The Bank of North Dakota: A model for today? https://www.minneapolisfed.org/article/2021/the-bank-of-north-dakota-a-model-for-today

• Singapore Central Provident Fund Board. (2024). CPF Contribution and Allocation Rates.

• World Bank. (2023). Singapore’s CPF: Saving for a Nation’s Needs.

• Government of Canada. (2024). Federal Income Tax Rates. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/frequently-asked-questions-individuals/canada-income-tax-rates.html

• Canadian Encyclopedia. (2021). Victory Bonds. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/victory-bonds

• U.S. Social Security Administration. (2024). Maximum Taxable Earnings.

• Bank for International Settlements. (2023). Basel III Overview. https://www.bis.org/bcbs/basel3.htm

• Public Banking Institute. (2022). Public Banks: How They Work.

• Open Government Canada. (2023). Federal Deposit Insurance Framework.