Tax Lawyer's Blog

If you listen to the tax-the-rich crowd you’d think there is a phalanx of rich people itching to pay more taxes simply because it’s the right and decent thing to do.

This got me thinking.

Why not see how much revenue the government can voluntarily raise from rich people before forcibly taking money from them?

We could do this simply by adding to the IRS Form 1040 the following series of checkoffs:

(   )  Check here if you would like to make a donation to the government equal to 10% of your taxable income 

(   )  Check here if you would like to make a donation to the government of an amount equal to 5% of your taxable income

(   )  Check here if you would like to make a donation to the government of an amount equal to ___ % (insert percentage of your choice) of your taxable income 

(   )  Check here if you do not want to make a donation to the government 

We know there are some very rich people who are in favor of an across-the-board tax increase on the rich for the common good, but are these self-anointed do-gooders willing to put their money where their mouths are and donate some of their money to the government?

For the common good, of course.

Instead of donating to private charity or the arts are these folks willing to check one of the first 3 boxes shown above and redirect their largess to the place they obviously believe it will do the most good: The federal bureaucracy?

Taxpayers can donate now:

Incidentally, there are many ways individual citizens can now pay additional taxes to the government.

They could simply fail to claim tax deductions to which they are entitled or declare more income on their tax return than they actually had earned. Each of these actions would increase the amount of taxes paid.

It’s very telling that nobody now pays more taxes than he is legally required to pay. And this is true in spite of the fact that there are (we are told) myriad rich people who think they pay too little in taxes and who want the government to force those who think they pay too much taxes to pay more.

Word to the wise:

Never trust the man who wants a pat on the back for doing good things with your money. It’s easy to be magnanimous with someone else’s property.

Other posts:

Paul Caron alerts us to an article written by Sherry Xin Li (University of Texas, Dallas), Catherine C. Eckel (University of Texas, Dallas), Philip J. Grossman (St. Cloud State University) & Tara Larson (University of Texas, Dallas) titled Giving to Government: Voluntary Taxation in the Lab in which the authors employ,

[A} 'real donation' experiment to compare giving to government agencies and nonprofits with similar missions, for four different causes (cancer research, disaster relief, education, parks and wildlife) at three levels (federal, state, local). We find that individuals will give to government, paying voluntary taxes to support specific functions. Donations average 22 percent of an endowment to government, and 27 percent to private nonprofits, and are influenced by their cause, level, and perceptions of effectiveness and efficiency.

Related posts:

• Tax On Rich is No-Brainer, Author of “Skinny Dip” Says
• Should the Rich Pay More Taxes
• Taxes & Healthcare Reform: Asking or Forcing the Rich to Pay More
• The Pro-Tax Rich Should Voluntarily Pay More Taxes or Shut the $#@& Up!

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