the downside of the Greens

Max Sawicky sawicky at epinet.org
Thu Oct 1 09:17:23 PDT 1998



>It very well could be true, but I'd bet it makes a huge different whether
or not your income comes from a paycheck. . . . .

Right. Salaries and wages get hammered. The self-employed, proprietors, and professionals as you say are the ones who are cheating their asses off. Conversely, in the U.S., the extent of obstruction of this by the IRS fuels the so-called "tax revolt."


>In the US, it is my impression that outright tax fraud (as oppposed of
taking advantage of loopholes) is relatively rare. Of course, IRS neutering (aka 'reform') will probably change all that.>

The IRS says one dollar in six of tax liability goes unpaid, in the personal income tax. Interesting is that only two percent of liability is directly recovered by enforcement action. (Obviously the threat factor means something.)

The extent of neutering will indeed be an important matter.


>Yep. Many Yank lefties take for granted the fact that rich people in the
US, by and large,_do_ pay something like the taxes they are supposed to. It doesn't have to be that way, which is why the left's silence during the incredibly demagogic abnd tendentious roasting of the IRS was so disappointing.>

No disagreement there. In its own way, this rollover was as egregious and widespread as the Democrats' tank job on welfare reform. Definitely not one of the finer hours.

MBS



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