Last month in American Tax Compliance Rates Highest in Civilized World Despite What David Cay Johnston Says I refuted David Cay Johnston’s absurd claim that America’s low tax rates are the cause of it’s alleged rampant tax evasion: Johnston claims that there is “rampant evasion in the U.S.” even though the very study he cites shows that there [...]
Tags: Politics of Taxes · Tax Policy
Please bear with me on this one. If Warren Buffett really does pay taxes at a lower rate than his secretary does, it is a fairer result than if he paid taxes at a higher rate.¹ Here’s why: Warren Buffett employs his secretary. Debbie Bosanek employs no one Warren Buffett, directly and indirectly, employs hundreds of thousands of workers. Debbie [...]
Tags: Politics of Taxes · Tax Policy
In his post Lying About Tax Myths Professor Maule responds point by point to my recent post More Lies About Tax Lies. I have published Maule’s entire post below. After each of his assertions, I give my rebuttal. 1. Maule’s Assertion: Peter Pappas is at it again. My Rebuttal: I agree, I am at it again. “It” being the [...]
Tags: Politics of Taxes · Tax Policy · The Economy
Professor James Maule has, once again, lied about who tells tax lies. He lists five myths – he really means lies – which he says the right tells about taxes. In this post I will discuss and hopefully refute the first three of them. Maule’s First Myth The first myth, that “47% of Americans do not [...]
Tags: Politics of Taxes · Tax Policy
In a 2007 blog post appearing in The American Stephen Moore reported that the top one percent of American income earners pay 37% of the federal income tax: The latest data show that a big portion of the federal income tax burden is shouldered by a small group of the very richest Americans. The wealthiest 1 percent of the population earn 19 [...]
Tags: News · Politics of Taxes · Tax Policy
Self-declared undertaxed billionaire Warren Buffett says he’ll contribute money to the Treasury if self-declared overtaxed Republicans do the same. You read that right. Let me illustrate Buffet’s crazy reasoning with a bit of imaginary dialogue straight from the theater of the absurd: Warren Buffett: All rich people should pay more taxes because I don’t think I don’t pay [...]
Tags: Politics of Taxes · Tax Policy
In today’s WSJ, Stanford economics professor Ronald McKinnon makes what he calls a “conservative” case for a wealth tax (the emphasis is mine): In order to have a fairer tax system, we should implement a new federal wealth tax in addition to the federal income tax. Unlike the current income tax, the wealth tax would not rely on how [...]
Tags: Tax Policy
