It's not a belief, but rather, a fact. You haven't addressed the issue of why you don't consider taxation to be theft. In what manner is it fundamentally different from theft?
1) It is involuntary - ...
2) It's not in exchange for services. If you don't use the services that taxation pays for, you still have to pay the taxes. ...
I could go on but I'd rather address your specific arguments than try to guess at what they are.
Since you ask nicely, I suppose an answer is only polite.
I believe taxes are fundamentally different from theft because people, as a whole, are social animals who have rules about how to get along. Some call it a social contract, some call it common courtesy; the language is unimportant. The point is, we live in close proximity and get along with each other.
In order to do that without everyone just living on their own plot of land and being totally self-sufficient (which has never been the way tribes of any size existed), we divide labor and exchange our labor and goods with each other. This doesn't require a lot of complex rules but it does require a few.
Inevitably, there will be disputes about what's right and wrong. There will be times when some recognized authority must mediate. In a small tribe that might be the elders.
Also inevitably, because people are not just social but also occasionally covetous and violent, there will be times when groups come together and engage in the wholesale rejection of societal norms. They decide to live by violence, the threat of it, and plunder instead of societal norms. That recognized authority will then be called upon to marshall the collective resources of the group to restore order.
Now, scale that up to over 300 million people. Local tribal elders cannot handle, on a purely voluntary basis, the volume of problems that will arise. Some sort of organized group of folks will need to spend all their time working on, at minimum, the most basic tasks of staffing a justice system and providing for the common defense.
Those administrators are called "government". Courts and some sort of minimal military are administered by that government.
In short, we need a government. For one to exist, it must be paid for.
No one appreciates the need of a government until they personally need it, yet it can't exist without general contributions from everyone. People won't give to it like a charity, so it levies taxes.
Thus, taxes really are voluntary. Most people prefer paying taxes to the alternative which is anarchy. Nobody likes paying them but they recognize the necessity.
Also, taxes really are paid in exchange for something of value. Think of it as insurance; you pay your taxes and what you get is a court system and a defensive collective that will serve the common good when the need arises.
Since taxes need to be a shared burden or they don't work right, some sort of enforcement mechanism for bringing them in is required. Yes, that implies force (of some sort) used on those outliers who don't want to help out.
I find none of this objectionable or equivalent to theft. I find it merely the natural price of living in close proximity to others.
Now, I would not strongly dispute that taxes go to wasteful, unnecessary things. I would not argue with someone who says that taxes above a certain level necessary to sustain a minimal government are theft. That is an argument merely about where to draw the line.
But I do not accept that those initial taxes that pay for the most basic administration of a society are theft. They are, instead, self-evidently necessary, a state that removes them from any reasonable definition of theft.
...It's in our animal nature...
Indeed it is. I agree completely.
Unfortunately, I consider that our animal nature is a given that cannot be changed sufficiently to make governments (and therefore taxes) unncessary. Everyone should try but most efforts will fail. Many millennia of evolution have contributed to that nature and it will not fundamentally change for a long, long time.
At least, not before Star Trek replicators come along and eliminate all want. Even then, there will be violent outliers who must be addressed through a central authority...and we're back to government and taxes.
Until then, all I can do is point out various inconsistencies,,,
Good. Keep it up. People who observe and ask questions frequently spur others to constructive action. Not having the answers doesn't make your viewpoint less valid.