quotations about taxes
I am in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible.
MILTON FRIEDMAN
attributed, Democrats and Republicans: Rhetoric and Reality
I'd say taxes are like foods. You can't rely too heavily on one form and be healthy. You need variety, which helps keep burdens from getting too heavy on one group.
ZACH MITCHAM
"T-SPLOST would be huge boost for Madison County", Madison Journal, June 20, 2017
What at first was plunder assumed the softer name of revenue.
THOMAS PAINE
Rights of Man
If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
The evils of a bad tax are quite sure to be pressed upon the ears of Parliament in season and out of season; the few persons who have to pay it are thoroughly certain to make themselves heard.
WALTER BAGEHOT
The English Constitution
No nation has ever taxed itself into prosperity.
RUSH LIMBAUGH
See, I Told You So
Economists have a saying that "a good tax is an old tax" -- i.e. a tax the effects of which have been taken into account by all relevant economic actors.
MARTIN O'NEILL
"The cost of a windfall", New Statesman, August 18
Like everyone else, I want taxes lower. More money = more choices. BUT, I believe in taking responsibility for the circumstances we find ourselves in. As a citizen I voted for a bunch of the idiots in office. When they were doing stupid shit, I stood by quietly. Even when I spoke up, it didn't impact anything. So while I believe that lower taxes are good. I recognize that I was part of the problem. And given that we are in the middle of a big problem, what I believe is the optimal way doesn't matter. What matters now is fixing the problem. Unfortunately the way to fix the problem is to have those who can pay more to pay more. I've been proactive individually, I've written checks to the City of Dallas. I've written big checks for disasters where I know that anything not financed privately is going to come from taxpayers. So its my small way of trying to help. I think all these politicians who ignore the current context/realities of where we are, hurt more than help. If it were up to me, I would increase taxes and create metrics that triggered declines. If the unemployment rate falls to 6pct nationally and the Debt/GDP ratio declines to a specified amount, we lower taxes. If it goes the other way, we increase them further on the wealthy. I could go on for days on ideas, but no one is listening to me.
MARK CUBAN
"Mark Cuban's Novel Income Tax Proposal Is The Exact Opposite Of What Most Economists Would Endorse", Business Insider, December 24, 2012
The legal right of a taxpayer to decrease the amount of what otherwise would be his taxes, or altogether to avoid them, by means which the law permits, cannot be doubted.
GEORGE SUTHERLAND
Gregory v. Helvering, 1934
As we've seen in other countries, the way to bring about fundamental change in a dysfunctional tax code is to start over -- to rewrite from scratch.
T. R. REID
"Why we need to rewrite our tax code from scratch", PBS, April 17, 2017
Our tax law is a 1,598-page hydra-headed monster and I'm going to attack and attack and attack until I have ironed out every fault in it.
VIVIEN KELLEMS
Los Angeles Times, January 26, 1975
The most pernicious of all taxes are the arbitrary.
DAVID HUME
Essays
Sending money to Washington to have it administered and sent back is like getting a blood transfusion from your right arm to your left arm with a leaky valve.
ERNEST HOLLINGS
attributed, Quotes Worth Repeating
Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
Tax reduction has an almost irresistible appeal to the politician, and it is no doubt also gratifying to the citizen. It means more dollars in his pocket, dollars that he can spend if inflation doesn't consume them first. But dollars in his pocket won't buy him clean streets or an adequate police force or good schools or clean air and water. Handing money back to the private sector in tax cuts and starving the public sector is a formula for producing richer and richer consumers in filthier and filthier communities. If we stick to that formula we shall end up in affluent misery.
JOHN WILLIAM GARDNER
The Recovery of Confidence
When more of the people's sustenance is exacted through the form of taxation than is necessary to meet the just obligations of government and expenses of its economical administration, such exaction becomes ruthless extortion and a violation of the fundamental principles of free government.
GROVER CLEVELAND
attributed, Treasury of Presidential Quotations
The Founding Fathers realized that "the power to tax is the power to destroy," which is why they did not give the Federal government the power to impose an income tax. Needless to say, the Founders would be horrified to know that Americans today give more than a third of their income to the Federal government.
RON PAUL
speech, April 30, 2009
Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
Compania General de Tabacas de Filipines v. Collector of the Internal Revenue, 1904
The American colonies, all know, were greatly opposed to taxation without representation. They were also, a less celebrated quality, equally opposed to taxation with representation.
JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH
The Age of Uncertainty
People have come to view all taxes as equally bad. But that's terribly unfortunate. Taxation is a necessary aspect of civilized society. If we want roads, police, ambulances, etc., we have to live with some tax responsibility. The bigger issue is this: what's the most equitable way to do this?
ZACH MITCHAM
"T-SPLOST would be huge boost for Madison County", Madison Journal, June 20, 2017