Tax Lawyer's Blog

Yet another reason why you should never, ever believe any politician who tells you he just wants to raise the other guy’s taxes.

Matthew Saltmarsh¹ of the New York Times in an article titled To Fill Budget Gaps, “Stealth” Taxes are Creeping Up confirms what I and other tax bloggers have been reporting for the last year and a half (emphasis added):

At a time when political leaders in Europe and the United States are committed to no additional income-tax burden on the middle class, they also share the advantage of raising revenue without drawing too much attention to the tightening fiscal noose.

As a result, analysts say, taxpayers from California to Copenhagen should brace themselves for more “stealth taxes” — indirect levies like sales taxes, or microcharges on services once provided free, like registering a pet.

Such charges can have many benefits for tax collectors. For one thing, they are less volatile and less dependent on the economic cycle than corporate or income taxes. For another, they are less prone to avoidance and cheaper to collect. Finally, analysts say, they are generally easier to enact.

“Politics comes into it,” said Stephen Matthews, a tax expert at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Raising income taxes is more of a “last resort,” he said.

Consider the highlighted blurbs:

• raising revenue without drawing too much attention
• brace for more stealth taxes
• many benefits to tax collectors
• generally easier to enact

The cynical goal here is to sneak tax increases on the middle-class without them knowing it. Our legislators, then, are intentionally deceiving the people they claim to serve when they promise not to raise taxes on the middle-class.

In short, indirect taxes are “easier to enact” because these eunuchs are more likely to vote for them knowing that they won’t later have to pay a price for having broken their campaign pledges not to raise taxes.

Very brave of them, huh?

Saltmarsh’s piece includes this cool graphic which shows the many things governments have attempted to tax:

Footnotes:

¹  Saltmarsh is an almost too-good-to-be-true surname for the author of an article on backdoor taxes. Governments have attempted to impose taxes on both salt and marsh land.

Related Posts:

• Backdoor Taxes: Obama to Consider Consumption Tax
• Pelosi Likes the VAT: Who Left the Backdoor Open?
• Taxing the Middle-Class Through the Backdoor 

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