quotations about taxes
Republicans spend their time trying to rig the tax system so that the kinds of income rich people get--capital gains, inheritances, and the like--get taxed at a lower rate than the kind of income you get when you work for a living.
PAUL WALDMAN
"Paying a Fair Share"
The best taxes are such as are levied upon consumptions, especially those of luxury; because such taxes are least felt by the people. They seem, in some measure, voluntary; since a man may choose how far he will use the commodity: They naturally produce sobriety and frugality, if judiciously imposed: And being confounded with the natural price of the commodity, they are scarcely perceived by the consumers. Their only disadvantage is that they are expensive in the levying.
DAVID HUME
Essays
If we give all of the people who filed incorrect tax returns the benefit of the doubt and assume that every single one of them simply made an honest mistake, then doesn't common sense tell us that maybe the tax code is just a little too complex?
GLENN BECK
Glenn Beck's Common Sense
Every culture has some ritual for joining two people together and making them stay that way, and ours is giving tax breaks.
BAUVARD
Some Inspiration for the Overenthusiastic
The tax collector must love poor people. He is creating so many of them.
BILL VAUGHAN
attributed, Thoughts for Meaningful Life
There is one difference between a tax collector and a taxidermist--the taxidermist leaves the hide.
MORTIMER CAPLAN
attributed, Taxes: The Tax Magazine, 1970
I'm proud to be paying taxes to the United States. The only thing is--I could be just as proud for half the money.
ARTHUR GODFREY
attributed, The Executive's Book of Quotations
There were really only two men I knew who ever got a laugh out of paying their income taxes. One was cheating the government and getting away with it. The other had a sick sense of humor and would probably have set up a concession stand at the Boston Tea Party and sold sugar cubes and lemon slices.
ERMA BOMBECK
At Wit's End
The fact is that the government, like a highwayman, says to a man: Your money, or your life. And many, if not most, taxes are paid under the compulsion of that threat. The government does not, indeed, waylay a man in a lonely place, spring upon him from the road side, and, holding a pistol to his head, proceed to rifle his pockets. But the robbery is none the less a robbery on that account; and it is far more dastardly and shameful.
LYSANDER SPOONER
No Treason
In levying taxes and in shearing sheep it is well to stop when you get down to the skin.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
When the super-rich use offshore tax havens to avoid paying what they owe in taxes, they're reneging on their duties as citizens. It seems only fair to me that the consequences of that kind of tax avoidance ought to be loss of citizenship.
ROBERT REICH
Common Dreams, May 23, 2007
Taxes are an investment in America.
BILL GATES
attributed, Take This Job and Ship It