They are more than punishment. You are punished for living in a place, you are punished for earning money, the excuse is that taxes are a payment for services but taxes are the only "service" where you pay a percent of your proerty value or income and not a fixed amount. Just imagine you pay groceries a percentage of income, not a fixed dollar amount per product and you can see why taxes are not what they say they are.
I am happy for anyone proposing a better option to finance a modern society than taxes. As long as this is not the case, I find it hard to understand to see anyone, surely enjoying the benefits of a working modern society, describing the means to finance those benefits as a punishment.