[sings] These are the laws of my administration: no-one’s allowed to smoke or tell a dirty joke. And whistling is forbidden. If chewing gum is chewed, the chewer is pursued ... This is the land of the free. The last man nearly ruined this place. He didn’t know what to do with it. If you think this country’s bad off now just wait till I get through with it. The country’s taxes must be fixed and I know what to do with it. If you think you’re paying too much now just wait till I get through with it. Duck Soup 1933 starring Groucho Marx & Harpo Marx & Chico Marx & Zeppo Marx & Margaret Dumont & Louis Calhern & Raquel Torres & Edgar Kennedy & Edmund Breese & Edwin Maxwell et al, director Leo McCarey, Rufus T Firefly
The county took a tax assessment of this property last month: they want $5,000. The Blues Brothers 1980 starring John Belushi & Dan Aykroyd & Steve Cropper & Donald Duck Dunn & Murphy Dunne & Willie Hall & Matt Murphy & Carrie Fisher & Ray Charles & John Candy & Aretha Franklin & Twiggy & James Brown & Henry Gibson et al, director John Landis, Penguin
The answer has its roots in the other major social development of the 1980s: the enrichment of the rich. This has been so stupendous as to defy statistics. In all the countries of the world, including the poor countries, the rich have been enjoying the greatest bonanza ever. The top 10 per cent of incomes in the United States of America, already far, far ahead of the rest of the population, increased their share of the wealth by another 7 per cent. In Britain the value of shares on the stock exchange multiplied five times between 1983 and 1987, and even the stock exchange crash of 1987 did not stop the fantastic accumulation of riches for the already super-rich.
Old-fashioned ideas, especially in publicly owned state industries, that the chairmen and managing directors should keep their earnings down as an example to their workers, vanished. As the public utilities in Britain were turned, ‘in the interests of competition’, from public monopolies to private monopolies, the chairmen and directors rewarded themselves for what they assessed as their ‘true worth’ – and promptly doubled and tripled their salaries. Enormous fortunes were flaunted by the millionaires’ press. At the start of the decade there were only a handful of billionaires in the world: at the end there were 157. Millionaires increased four times – from half a million to two million.
Tax-cutting everywhere aided the process. The highest rate of income tax in Britain was cut from 83 per cent at the start of the decade to 40 per cent at the end. With this went cuts in all the taxes which affected the rich: corporation tax, capital gains tax, inheritance tax. The poll tax, in abolishing property rates, put further millions into the pockets of the already rich. Paul Foot, The Case For Socialism ch4
The difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion is the thickness of a prison wall. Denis Healey
The anthropomorphic global warming scam is the big one ... An excuse to tax humanity on a scale never before envisaged. James Delingpole, interview Alex Jones
A pollution-based tax system principally CO2: we’re causing it mainly, the vast majority of it. The consequences are bad and will be catastrophic unless we act ... Put a price on the carbon. Tax is the best way. Cap and trade can also do it ... I am in favour of both. Al Gore
Greece has been, in many ways, a partially dysfunctional society. For example, the wealthy barely pay taxes ... to an extent that’s true elsewhere, including the United States, but it’s been pretty extreme in Greece. Noam Chomsky
The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets. Will Rogers
Income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf. Will Rogers, The Illiterate Digest, 1924
Poll Tax ... Thirty thousand people have suddenly disappeared off the face of this city. Alan Bleasdale, GBH II: Only Here on a Message, Robert Lindsay & Lindsay Duncan & Michael Palin & Julie Walters & Tom Georgeson & Andrew Schofield & Jane Danson & David Ross et al, director Robert Young, Nelson at council meeting, Channel 4 1991
If you cut taxes, you make it easier to produce things, you make it easier to employ people, you encourage a dynamic economy, you sell more products and you see your economy grow. It’s as simple as that. Mark Littlewood, Institute of Economic Affairs
The only difference between a taxman and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. Mark Twain
I pay my tax. Frank Costello, New York gangster
The power to tax involved the power to destroy. John Marshall, McCulloch v Marlyland 1819
Taxation without representation is tyranny. James Otis
Instead of a standing revenue, you will have therefore a perpetual quarrel. Edmund Burke
I think we should not want the income tax for several reasons. One is that it is the instrument of totalitarianism. It is the means by which government can manipulate the people and put you into a condition of servitude. G Edward Griffin, author ‘Creature from Jekyll Island’, cited America: Freedom to Fascism
The IRS is actually a private collection agency for the Federal Reserve System. It originated as the Black Hand in medieval Italy, collectors of debt by force and extortion for the ruling Italian mob families. All personal income taxes collected by the IRS are required by law to be deposited in the nearest Federal Reserve Bank. Eustace Mullins
When there is an income tax the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income. Plato
What at first was plunder assumed the softer name of revenue. Thomas Paine
Next to being shot at and missed, nothing is quite as satisfying as an income tax refund. F J Raymond
The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax. Albert Einstein, cited Leo Mattersdorf
We’re not just going to pick on someone our own size; we’re going to pick on someone who can, has and will seriously fuck us up. We’re going after the fucking I fucking R fucking S. And we’ll say it loud: our American taxes are bullshit. Penn & Teller, Bullshit! s7e7: Taxes, Showtime 2009
The IRS takes 40% of fucking everything. ibid.
Unless you’re a church. ibid.
The more complex it is, the better it is for the government. ibid.
Suck my balls, you evil cunts. ibid.
The Barclay Twins don’t pay personal tax in this country – so why is one of their companies claiming a billion pounds from the British taxpayer? Panorama: The Tax Haven Twins, BBC 2013
This is the story of two billionaires who bought their own private island. Identical twins who built a castle. ibid.
The Expenses Scandal did The Telegraph a world of good. ibid.
The UK companies are controlled by offshore trusts set up by the twins. ibid.
More revelations from the leak that’s shocking the world – the Paradise Papers … How Britain’s offshore empire helps the rich and powerful dodge tax. Panorama: Britain’s Offshore Secrets, Richard Bilton reportinng, BBC 2017
The British tax havens happy to help people beat the taxman. ibid.
Almost seven million documents have been leaked from Appleby. We can now see what they and their clients do. ibid.
So that’s Lewis Hamilton renting his own jet to himself. ibid.
The role this country plays in an industry that hides hundreds of billions offshore. ibid.
The UK used to tax these kinds of tax schemes at full rate; not any more. Under the new rules it’s just 4%. ibid.
The piece of land down below … Lidl doesn’t own it: it’s the property of an offshore company based in the Caribbean … This structure can reduce tax bills. It’s exposed by secret files belonging to a large law firm in Panama. The firm specialises in offshore companies. A whistleblower has leaked over 11 million documents to journalists. Among them are 4.5 million emails … It also involves politicians and those close to them. Panama Papers: The Shady World of Offshore Companies, Das Erste 2016
Mossack Fonseca in Panama: with 48 branches around the world it is one of the very biggest. The law firm has established more than 200,000 offshore companies. ibid.
Members of the Italian Mafia are also among Mossack Fonseca’s clients. There are also several Southern American drug barons. ibid.
Only the little people pay taxes. Leona Helmsley, cited New York Times 12th July 1989
If you ... examined [the 16th Amendment] carefully, you would find that a sufficient number of states never ratified the amendment. US District Court Judge James C Fox 2003
And this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the Lord, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.
Their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bondservice unto this day. I Kings 9:15&21