TAXES QUOTES IV

quotations about taxes

Above all things, a tax attorney must be an indefatigable skeptic; he must discount everything he hears and reads. The market place abounds with unsound avoidance schemes which will not stand the test of objective analysis and litigation. The escaped tax, a favorite topic of conversation at the best clubs and the must sumptuous pleasure resorts, expands with repetition into fantastic legends. But clients want opinions with happy endings, and he smiles best who smiles last. It is wiser to state misgivings at the beginning than to have to acknowledge them ungracefully at the end. The tax adviser has, therefore, to spend a large part of his time advising against schemes of this character. I sometimes think that the most important word in his vocabulary is "No".

RANDOLPH PAUL

The Lawyer as Tax Adviser


An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy.

DANIEL WEBSTER

McCulloch v. Maryland, 1819

Tags: Daniel Webster


If you master your destiny, you will find out there is a destiny tax.

JOSEPH BONKOWSKI

Quote Me


When a law becomes so impossible to understand that the ordinary citizen must look to the "super expert," the law becomes a trap and not a viable guideline. For years, the income tax and gift and estate tax laws have been modified and amended to the degree that only tax lawyers and accountants could really make any sense out of them. Now, with the advent of the Tax Reform Act of 1976 and all of its cross implications, not even the tax lawyers and accountants are so sure of themselves.

ROBERT S. TAFT

New York Law Journal, December 30, 1976


I don't think meals have any business being deductible. I'm for separation of calories and corporations.

RALPH NADER

Wall Street Journal, July 15, 1985

Tags: Ralph Nader


If you make any money, the government shoves you in the creek once a year with it in your pockets, and all that don't get wet you can keep.

WILL ROGERS

Will Rogers Speaks


Death and taxes and childbirth! There's never any convenient time for any of them!

MARGARET MITCHELL

Gone With the Wind

Tags: Margaret Mitchell


People who avoid taxes, like corporations that move to Bermuda or look for big tax cuts, are not paying their dues to their country. You use our banking system, our Treasury, our roads, our schools to train your workers, our sewers, our governmental protections, our court systems. It is patriotic to be a taxpayer. It is traitorous to desert your country and not pay your dues, putting the burden on people with less means to support your business. Do your duty to the country. Pay your fair share of taxes.

PAMELA BOYD

"Taxes are like US membership fees", Missoulian, May 31, 2017


Taxes are collected by governments in order to finance their expenditures and also for purposes of stabilization, distribution and allocation. Particular taxes may cause changes in people's behaviour and have an impact on aggregate demand that, therefore, influences the level of economic activity. Taxes are the instruments through which governments redistribute income and wealth and, moreover, they are an integral part of a government's fiscal policy as they are used to stabilize aggregate demand.

NIKOLAOS KARAGIANNIS

Modern State Intervention


I have only one thing to say to the tax increasers: Go ahead, make my day.

RONALD REAGAN

speech, March 13, 1985

Tags: Ronald Reagan


Taxes are like the wheat poured into the public hopper; rent, in whatever form, may be described as the flour that comes from the public mill. The privileged man, who is allowed to carry off the grist, eats his bread, as it were, at the taxpayer's expense.

CHARLES BOWDOIN FILLEBROWN

The ABC of Taxation


The continual whine of lamenting the burden of taxes, however successfully it may be practiced in mixed governments, is inconsistent with the sense and spirit of a republic. If taxes are necessary, they are of course advantageous, but if they require an apology, the apology itself implies an impeachment. Why, then, is man imposed upon, or why does he impose upon himself?

THOMAS PAINE

Rights of Man


The current tax code is a daily mugging.

RONALD REAGAN

Labor Day address in Independence, Missouri, October 2, 1985

Tags: Ronald Reagan


Recognizing that all taxes have negative effects, a "good" tax is broad-based--it affects everybody. It has a low rate and does not have loopholes. When a tax is broad-based and has a low rate, everyone pays something but no one pays too much.

KATHLEEN VINEHOUT

"Is there a 'good' tax?", Jackson County Chronicle, May 31, 2017


The wages of sin are death, but by the time taxes are taken out, it's just sort of a tired feeling.

PAULA POUNDSTONE

stand-up routine


Many people believe that where taxes are concerned, they are victims, held hostage by an inevitable process that allows them no input, no control. This passive approach becomes something of a self-fulfilling prophecy; where people believe that they lack control, they seldom try to assert control.

RICHARD CARLSON

The Don't Sweat Guide to Taxes


Printing money is merely taxation in another form. Rather than robbing citizens of their money, government robs their money of its purchasing power.

PETER SCHIFF

"Peering into the Abyss", March 29, 2009


Taxes are like membership dues. We pay them to fund our priorities -- the services and programs we care about -- and they are also an investment in our country's future. They go back into our communities and pay for things we value, like Medicare and Social Security. But ... because our political system has allowed the tax system to be manipulated by moneyed special interests, we have a tax system that fails to accurately reflect my priorities.

NORA RANNEY

"Tax Day 2017: Taxes and All the Feels", National Priorities, April 18, 2017


A tax loophole is something that benefits the other guy. If it benefits you, it is tax reform.

RUSSELL B. LONG

attributed, Contemporary Tax Practice


Income taxes are responsible for the transformation of the Federal government from one of limited powers into a vast leviathan whose tentacles reach into almost every aspect of American life. Thanks to the income tax, today the Federal government routinely invades our privacy, and penalizes our every endeavor.

RON PAUL

speech, April 30, 2009

Tags: Ron Paul