My tax documents have been sent to my accountant; someday soon I’ll find out what I need to pay Uncle Sam. And when I do, I expect to once again feel like Arthur Godfrey, who once quipped, “I’m proud to pay taxes in the United States; the only thing is, I could be just as proud for half the money.”
Yes, today’s subject is taxes, in part because today is the 243rd anniversary of the repeal of the Stamp Act, a taxation measure enacted to raise revenues for a standing British army in America.
“Taxation without representation is tyranny!” was the battle cry that brought about the repeal in just under a year, and which led, eventually, to our independence. Hurray!
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Every school kid is familiar with that story, or at least was when I was in school; some events that led up to the revolution actually took place right here in Salem.
But when I think about taxes, I also think about the unintended consequences that come from some tax decisions.
For example, what do a mansard roof and a Cadillac Escalade have in common?
Both became a way of avoiding taxes.
In 18th century France, building heights were measured up to the cornice line, making any space above that untaxed, and encouraging the trend toward steep pitched roofs that held one or more floors of living space.
And in the 1970s, when the oil crisis gave birth to Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) ratings, while some people moved to smaller fuel efficient cars like Toyotas, Datsuns and Volkswagens, others gravitated towards the larger, heavier vehicles that U.S. manufacturers produced under the label of “trucks,” vehicles for the working man. These “trucks” were allowed lower fuel efficiency, so manufacturers worked overtime making them more carlike inside while still meeting the spirit of the “truck” law on the outside.
Unintended consequences. It’s something to think about in this season when every politician has a tax plan.
In the meantime, here are some nuggets of wisdom regarding taxes that have stood the test of time:
Famous Quotes about Taxes
“To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”
-Thomas Jefferson
“Death, taxes and childbirth! There’s never any convenient time for any of them.”
-Margaret Mitchell
“After military service, the most patriotic thing you can do as a wealthy person is pay your taxes.”
-Mark Cuban
“The power to tax is the power to destroy.”
-Chief Justice John Marshall
“You can’t have a rigid view that all new taxes are evil.”
-Bill Gates
“I hate paying taxes. But I love the civilization they give me.”
-Oliver Wendell Holmes
“One thing is clear: The Founding Fathers never intended a nation where citizens would pay nearly half of everything they earn to the government.”
-Ron Paul
“The art of taxation consists of plucking the goose so as to obtain the most feathers with the least hissing.”
-Jean-Baptiste Colbert
“The expenses of government, having for their object the interests of all, should be borne by every one, and the more a man enjoys the advantages of society, the more he ought to hold himself honoured in contributing to these expenses.”
-Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot
“We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”
-Winston S. Churchill
“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
-Benjamin Franklin
“Among the many other questions raised by the nebulous concept of ‘greed’ is why it is a term applied almost exclusively to those who want to earn more money or to keep what they have already earned—never to those wanting to take other people’s money in taxes or to those wishing to live on the largesse dispensed from such taxation. No amount of taxation is ever described as ‘greed’ on the part of government or the clientele of government.”
-Thomas Sowell
“A tax-supported, compulsory educational system is the complete model of the totalitarian state.”
-Isabel Paterson
“The biggest source of getting the country to a balanced budget is not by raising taxes or cutting spending. It’s by encouraging the growth of the economy.”
-Mitt Romney
“The politician’s promises of yesterday are the taxes of today.”
-William Lyon Mackenzie King
“I am in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it’s possible.”
-Milton Friedman
“There is no art which one government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.”
-Adam Smith
“Dear IRS, I am writing to you to cancel my subscription. Please remove my name from your mailing list.”
-Snoopy
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