Law and Order 24/7, Except at Tax Time

[marmar]

from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:



Law and Order 24/7, Except at Tax Time
January 14, 2012

The rich don’t much like paying taxes when tax rates run high. They don’t much like paying taxes when tax rates run low either.

By Sam Pizzigati


Any tax system that subjects rich people to high taxes is asking for trouble. Or so the politicians who cater to people of means incessantly argue. The higher the tax rate on high incomes, the argument goes, the greater the incentive the rich have to waste time and energy figuring out ways to evade paying taxes.

“Conservatives tend to talk about noncompliance as if it were solely a function of tax rates,” as former Reagan administration policy aide Bruce Bartlett noted last week, a perspective that makes tax evasion “yet another excuse to cut taxes.”

In 2001 and then again in 2003, that convenient excuse helped the Bush White House chop away at the taxes the IRS expects rich people to pay. The tax rate on top tax-bracket income slipped from 39.6 to 35 percent, and the rates on capital gains and dividends both dropped to 15 percent, from 20 and 39.6 percent.

According to rich people-friendly right-wing ideology, these cuts should have boosted tax compliance, since, as Bartlett points out, “the return to evasion fell.” ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://toomuchonline.org/tax-gap-law-and-order/