How do I create a function that pays another account in Ethereum?

Question

I am currently trying to create a simple program that does tax payments using Geth. I created a function in a smart contract that takes in a user's tax identification (don't mind this, I don't believe it is part of the problem), the amount they want to deposit, and the address to send the amount to.

My function is as below:

function payTaxes(string memory _taxID, uint _amount, address _to) public payable {
    if (msg.sender!= gov6) {
        if (taxStructs[msg.sender][_taxID].bracket != 1) {
            if (taxStructs[msg.sender][_taxID].taxessettled = false) {

                address payable to = payable(_to);
                to.transfer(_amount);
                taxStructs[msg.sender][_taxID].taxessettled = true;
                taxStructs[msg.sender][_taxID].taxdue = 0;
            }
        }
    }
}

The code compiles and all, but I don't see that an amount is being transferred to the destination address. Also, I put a flag that says if the payment is made, the variable taxessettled becomes true, but it is still always false.

Below is a screenshot of the transaction:

Can anybody advise what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks.

Answer 1

I think the problem is you are passing the amount as an argument but forgetting to really send the ether to the contract along with the function call.

The way transfer works is it sends the desired amount From the contract to the recepient.

But for that, the contract need to have that much amount in balance.

Now you want the same person to pay the ether who is calling the function, then you need to put the check inside the function.

require(msg.value == _amount, "Invalid amount of ether sent");

This require statement will check whether the caller has sent the ether or not.

And the person calling the function needs to send the ethers along with the function call.

Let me know if that was clear and solved the problem.

One more thing if you need to know. The way you send ether while calling the function is depicted below

Enter the value here and then call the function.