Taxation

Beware Income-Tax Casuistry, Part 1

by Sheldon Richman August 1, 2006

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 For many opponents of the income tax the name Brushaber is magical. It comes from Frank R. Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., the 1916 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the 1913 income-tax law passed under the Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That income-tax opponents would ...

Death and Taxes

by Gary D. Barnett May 1, 2006

A friend of mine recently passed away at his home. This, in and of itself, is not surprising, as he was 80 years old and had cancer, but this story is about what happened before and up until his death. My friend worked very hard for many years, had a successful career, and then retired. ...

“Failure to File” Says It All

by Sheldon Richman April 14, 2006

“Willful failure to file a tax return is a misdemeanor per IRC Section 7203. In egregious cases, willful failure to file may be elevated to a felony under IRC 7201 Tax Evasion. In addition, a civil penalty for fraudulent failure to file may be applicable per IRC Section 6651(f).” That passage in ...

Tax Revolts against Oppressive Governments

by Doug Bandow November 2, 2005

Tax Revolt: The Rebellion against an Overbearing, Bloated, Arrogant, and Abusive Government, by Phil Valentine (Nashville, Tenn.: Nelson Current, 2005), 256 pages. More than a quarter century ago, Californians rebelled against an overbearing political establishment. Property assessments were climbing, state expenditures were rising, the budget surplus was ...

The IRS vs. Ragnor Danksjold

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 14, 2005

The feds are very upset with Walter Anderson, whom they’re accusing of being the “biggest tax cheat in American history.” They say he evaded taxes on $450 million in income, although he can’t be all bad because in 1998 he paid $494 in income taxes. So, the feds are now going ...

Congressional Sadists

by Sheldon Richman February 25, 2005

Even though April 15 is more than a month and a half away, this is the time of year when people are thinking about and preparing their income-tax returns. So it’s a good time to contemplate this particular bit of oppression under which half the adult population labors. Many people act as ...

Ireland and Big-Spending Republicans

by Benjamin Powell December 1, 2003

Despite some tax cuts, the size of the U.S. government has increased rapidly under President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress. Washington leaders looking to improve the economy could learn a lesson or two from Ireland, which has consistently achieved high rates of growth over the last 15 years by successfully slashing government spending. Under the Republican Congress during Clintons years ...

Is Tax Freedom Now an Act of War?

by Scott McPherson June 27, 2003

In a speech before the National Press Club last January, former New York governor Mario Cuomo charged that President Bush’s tax cut proposals were a form of “class warfare.” Challenging Bush’s claims that liberals and Democrats were fomenting class warfare with their charges that his tax plan favors the rich, ...

Tax-Cut Illusions

by Sheldon Richman June 18, 2003

The problem with big government is that politicians and bureaucrats keep devouring more and more scarce resources instead of leaving them with those who created them. So instead of entrepreneurs’ using those resources to serve consumers, government operatives get to subsidize their supporters in order to keep their ...

Wartime Confessions of a Talk-Radio Heretic

by Charles Goyette June 4, 2003

This speech was given before the Phoenix Economics Group in Phoenix, Arizona on March 19, 2003. I left my radio studio this evening to be here just as President Bush’s ultimatum to Saddam Hussein expired. The ...

A Historian Looks at Tax Havens

by Charles Adams May 1, 2003

The recent attack on tax havens by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has depicted about 20–30 countries, called tax havens, as destructive of the high tax systems of the world, especially Europe. The OECD argues that its members should gang up on these nations and shut down their financial centers unless ...

What’s Wrong with Looting? It’s the American Way!

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 30, 2003

Responding to the massive looting committed by Iraqis as part of their newly found “freedom,” Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld observed, “Stuff happens. It’s untidy. And freedom’s untidy. And free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things.” The reason for his indifference is simple: ...