Tax Quotes
“April 15th. In a functioning democratic society that would be a day of celebration, the day you hand in your taxes. You would be saying: ‘Alright, we got together, we worked out some plans and programs that we think ought to be implemented and we’re now participating in providing the funding to get these things done.’ That’s a democracy” — Noam Chomsky
“People who complain about the tax system fall into two categories — men and women” — Barry Steiner
“We hold these truths to be self-evident and federally taxable: that all men are created equal – just in different brackets; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness… these are NON-DETUCTIBLE!” — Leo Anthony Gallagher Jr.
“Psychiatrists say it’s not good for man to keep too much to himself. The Internal Revenue Service says the same thing” — Harold Smith
“The middle class pays all of the taxes, does all of the work. The poor are there just to scare the shit out of the middle class” — George Carlin
All things built with tax money are beautiful: so we must think or go mad
— Catherynne M. Valente
(if you drive a car, car;) I’ll tax the street;
(if you try to sit, sit;) – I’ll tax your seat;
(if you get too cold, cold;) – I’ll tax the heat;
(if you take a walk, walk;) – I’ll tax your feet.
Don’t ask me what I want it for
If you don’t want to pay some more
Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
— The Beatles (1966)
“We should put money back into the pockets of American families to address rising costs of childcare, housing, tuition, and other expenses, our tax code should reflect our values and instead of more tax breaks for the top 1 % and corporations, we should be lifting up millions of American families” — Kamala Harris
“They get a new one page form 1040 to send the IRS saying, ‘I win,’ those who would otherwise owe income taxes will save an average of nearly $1,000 each” — Donald Trump
“You can be a millionaire.. and never pay taxes! You say.. ‘Steve.. how can I be a millionaire.. and never pay taxes?’ First.. get a million dollars. Now.. you say, ‘Steve.. what do I say to the tax man when he comes to my door and says, ‘You.. have never paid taxes?’ Two simple words. Two simple words in the English language: ‘I forgot!'” — Steve Martin
“You’ve got to ask yourself, why won’t Donald Trump release his tax returns? I think there may be a couple of reasons. First, maybe he’s not as rich as he says he is. Second, maybe he’s not as charitable as he claims to be. Third, we don’t know all of his business dealings, but we have been told through investigative reporting that he owes about $650 million to Wall Street and foreign banks. Or maybe he doesn’t want the American people to know that he’s paid nothing in federal taxes” — Hillary Clinton
“Every culture has some ritual for joining two people together and making them stay that way, and ours is giving tax breaks” — Bauvard
“Why does tax filing time cause such stress? Wretched forms to fill out—it’s a mess! All confused, you say, “Heck!” Then you write out a check For what’s due or, at least, your best guess” — Madeleine Begun Kane
“Arithmetic makes it plain that inflation is a far more devastating tax than anything that has been enacted by our legislature. The inflation tax has a fantastic ability to simply consume capital” — Warren Buffett
“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes” — Benjamin Franklin
“Isn’t it appropriate that the month of the tax begins with April Fool’s Day and ends with cries of ‘May Day!'” — Rob Knauerhase
“Don’t take advantage of tax breaks? Then you’re stupid in business” — Bono
From today’s @FinancialTimes #panamapapers #DavidCameron pic.twitter.com/q2FI9iFh8p
— Jeremy Banx (@Banxcartoons) April 13, 2016
Tax havens harm every economy — and the US and the UK promote them https://t.co/9vLgV7N3v4 … #PanamaPapers #Taxation pic.twitter.com/UfCoXPJkAp
— #MurdochsDemocracy (@evertonfc2) April 9, 2017
“1913 wasn’t a very good year. 1913 gave us the income tax, the 16th amendment and the IRS” — Ron Paul
“I’m spending a year dead for tax reasons” — Douglas Adams
Cartoon: The tax haven (in support of #EndTaxHavens campaign by @oxfamgb, @christian_aid and others today) pic.twitter.com/S7tRD3vsUh
— Dave Walker (@davewalker) May 12, 2016
“As a taxpayer, you are required to be fully in compliance with the United States Tax Code, which is currently the size and weight of the Budweiser Clydesdales” — Dave Barry
“Major corporations that earn billions in profits stash their money in tax havens and pay nothing in federal income taxes, while billionaire hedge fund managers pay a lower effective tax rate than nurses or teachers” — Bernie Sanders
“This kind of gap between the wealthiest and the poorest will get closed. History shows it usually ends in one of three ways — either higher taxes, revolution, or war. None of those are on my bucket list” — Paul Tudor Jones
“Look, I frankly don’t care about the level of my taxes that much, the reason I’m generally against higher taxes is because I think our government spending is commensurately as inefficient as the tax itself” — Paul Tudor Jones
The Best Way to teach your kids about taxes is by eating 30% of their ice cream — Bill Murray
“Maybe we do need to trim some spending, but we also need revenue. Again, you can’t fill a pothole with a tax cut. You can’t put in special operations forces with a tax cut. You can’t build a missile defense system with a tax cut. You need to make these investments” — Tim Ryan
“The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least possible amount of hissing” — Jean-Baptiste Colbert
“A small business person has Uncle Sam as a partner, a partner who puts up no money, does no work, and wants 30 or 40 percent” — Irwin Schiff
“The government deficit is the difference between the amount of money the government spends and the amount it has the nerve to collect” — Sam Ewing
“All taxes discourage something. Why not discourage bad things like pollution rather than good things like working?” — Lawrence Summers
“The power to tax involves the power to destroy” — Chief Justice John Marshall
“Count the day won, when the earth, turning on its axis, imposes no additional taxes” — F. P. Adams
“There’s a tax form that makes me irate: Form 1040, a long form I hate, Due mid-April, each year, With my check. (Will it clear?) It’s no wonder I always file late” — Madeleine Begun Kane
“Print neatly. That’s the kind of advice that the IRS considers a ‘dynamite’ tax tip. If you ask them a real tax question, such as how you can cheat, they’re useless” — Dave Barry
“The current tax system is defended by no one. I don’t believe it can be fixed. We must tear the income tax out by its roots so that it can never grow back” — Bill Archer
“We must care for each other more, and tax each other less” — Bill Archer
![Country is run by... financial powers & corporate interests [who] send their lawyers to Congress to make laws so that they don't have to pay taxes Quote](https://itsamoneything.com/money/wp-content/uploads/Gore-Vidal-Financial-Powers-Corporate-Interests-Lawyers-Congress-Pay-Taxes.jpg)
“Country is run by… financial powers & corporate interests [who] send their lawyers to Congress to make laws so that they don’t have to pay taxes” — Gore Vidal
“Tens of billions … are going into the pockets of tens of thousands of tax preparers who … love complexity as much as the rest of us hate it” — Nicholas Von Hoffman
“We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes” — Leona Helmsley
“The tax bill does nothing to address our most pressing economic challenges like wage stagnation, inequality, rising deficits and crumbling infrastructure. In fact, it makes each of them worse” — Mike Bloomberg
The tax bill does nothing to address our most pressing economic challenges like wage stagnation, inequality, rising deficits and crumbling infrastructure. In fact, it makes each of them worse. https://t.co/5UllWnkvXZ
— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) December 15, 2017
“Death, taxes and childbirth! There’s never any convenient time for any of them” — Margaret Mitchell
“My records are scattered. Oh dear! And tax filing day’s almost here. My receipts are all over — Some eaten by Rover. I’m destined for prison, I fear” — Madeleine Begun Kane
“In america, there are two tax systems: one for the informed and one for the uninformed. Both are legal” — Learned Hand
“Pay your taxes. Al Capone didn’t get busted for all the murders… Like Heidi Fleiss, he was convicted for tax evasion” — Catherine La Croix
![The cost of taxpayer compliance with [the tax code] is over $80 billion per year, more than eight times the cost of the IRS budget Quote](https://itsamoneything.com/money/wp-content/uploads/Charles-Rossotti-Cost-Taxpayer-Compliance-Cost-IRS-Budget.jpg)
“The cost of taxpayer compliance with [the tax code] is over $80 billion per year, more than eight times the cost of the IRS budget” — Charles Rossotti
“The blame for the maddening complications of the federal tax system goes to the people with the most money” — Nicholas Von Hoffman
A fine is a tax for doing something wrong. A tax is a fine for doing something right
— Malcolm St. Pier
“Intaxication: euphoria at getting a refund from the IRS, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with” — Greg Oetjen
![[The Internal Revenue Code is] about 10 times the size of the Bible and, unlike the Bible, contains no good news Quote](https://itsamoneything.com/money/wp-content/uploads/Don-Nickels-Internal-Revenue-Code-Bible-No-Good-News.jpg)
“[The Internal Revenue Code is] about 10 times the size of the Bible and, unlike the Bible, contains no good news” — Don Nickles
Milt Priggee CagleCartoons.com
“If the IRS took 100 taxpayers at random and sent each an incorrect notice that they owed an extra $92.35 in taxes and interest, more than two-thirds would probably just send in a check without investigating further” — G. Guttman
“I love America, but I can’t spend the whole year here. I can’t afford the taxes” — Mick Jagger
“I told the Inland Revenue I didn’t owe them a penny because I lived near the seaside” — Ken Dodd
“Day in and day out, your tax accountant can make or lose you more money than any single person in your life, with the possible exception of your kids” — Harvey Mackay
The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax
— Albert Einstein
“I wouldn’t mind paying taxes – if I knew they were going to a friendly country” — Dick Gregory
“The purpose of a tax cut is to leave more money where it belongs: in the hands of the working men and working women who earned it in the first place” — Robert Dole
“I like to pay taxes. It is purchasing civilization” — Oliver Wendell Holmes
“Taxation is the price which civilized communities pay for the opportunity of remaining civilized” — Albert Bushnell Hart
“I guess I think of lotteries as a tax on the mathematically challenged” — Roger Jones
“The taxpayer: that’s someone who works for the federal government, but doesn’t have to take a civil service examination” — Ronald Reagan
“And to you taxpayers out there, let me say this: Make sure you file your tax return on time! And remember that, even though income taxes can be a ‘pain in the neck,’ the folks at the IRS are regular people just like you, except that they can destroy your life” — Dave Barry
“Businesses who think that they can carry on dodging that fair share or that they can keep on selling to the UK & setting up ever-more complex tax arrangements abroad to squeeze their tax bill right down – well, they need to wake up and smell the coffee because the public who buy from them have had enough” — David Cameron
“The United States has a system of taxation by confession” — Hugo Black
“Few of us ever test our powers of deduction, except when filling out an income tax form” — Laurence J. Peter
“Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
“When there’s a single thief, it’s robbery. When there are a thousand thieves, it’s taxation” — Vanya Cohen
“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
“Rich bachelors should be heavily taxed. It is not fair that some men should be happier than others” — Oscar Wilde
“The tax collector must love poor people, he’s creating so many of them” — Bill Vaughan
“The term ‘tax humor’ is no doubt an oxymoron to many people; to the more cynical, it is an apt description of the entire tax code” — John F. Iekel
“Earlier today, the White House released President Bush’s tax return. Not surprisingly, under dependents, the president listed Iraq” — Conan O’Brien
![[Tax loophole is] something that benefits the other guy. If it benefits you, it is tax reform Quote](https://itsamoneything.com/money/wp-content/uploads/Russell-Long-Tax-Loophole-Tax-Reform.png)
“[Tax loophole is] something that benefits the other guy. If it benefits you, it is tax reform” — — Russell B. Long
Worried about an IRS audit? Avoid what’s called a red flag. That’s something the IRS always looks for. For example, say you have some money left in your bank account after paying taxes. That’s a red flag
— Jay Leno
“Taxation: how the sheep are shorn” — Edward Abbey
“The best measure of a man’s honesty isn’t his income tax return. It’s the zero adjust on his bathroom scale” — Arthur C. Clarke
“Like mothers, taxes are often misunderstood, but seldom forgotten” — Lord Bramwell
“The most important ways in which I think the Internet will affect the big issue is that it will make it more difficult for government to collect taxes” — Milton Friedman
“The difference between death and taxes is death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets” — Will Rogers
“Congress can raise taxes because it can persuade a sizable fraction of the populace that somebody else will pay” — Milton Friedman
“How is the government going to get the extra taxes? Out of the rich, or just out of the poor, as usual?” — Will Rogers
“Income taxes have made more liars out of the American people than golf” — Will Rogers
“The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward” — John Maynard Keynes
“Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury” — Judge Learned Hand
“Over and over again the Courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands” — Judge Learned Hand
“Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery” — Calvin Coolidge
“No matter what anyone may say about making the rich and the corporations pay taxes, in the end they come out of the people who toil” — Calvin Coolidge
“I’m a middle-bracket person with a middle-bracket spouse, And we live together gaily in a middle-bracket house. We’ve a fair-to-middlin’ family; we take the middle view; So we’re manna sent from heaven to internal revenue” — Phyllis McGinley
“Tax reform is taking the taxes off things that have been taxed in the past and putting taxes on things that haven’t been taxed before” — Art Buchwald
“Short term, the most important thing is to put people back to work … If they’re working, that means they’re paying taxes, that means that they’re buying goods and services – and the economy, instead of being on a downward spiral, starts back up on an upward spiral” — Barack Obama
“I think that we’ve had an economy that’s been out of balance for too long. So the general principle of raising taxes on higher income Americans, like myself, and providing relief to those who haven’t benefited as much from this new global economy, I think is a sound one” — Barack Obama
“I’m proud to be paying taxes in the United States. The only thing is — I could be just as proud for half the money” — Arthur Godfrey
“Tax deductible, That’s what you are: Tax deductible. Just like my car, like a gift to local charity, you give my 1040 clarity” — Steven Zelin
“The politicians don’t just want your money. They want your soul. They want you to be worn down by taxes until you are dependent and helpless. When you subsidize poverty and failure, you get more of both” — James Dale Davidson
“If the Lord loveth a cheerful giver, how he must hate the taxpayer!” — John Andrew Holmes
“It’s income tax time again, Americans: time to gather up those receipts, get out those tax forms, sharpen up that pencil, and stab yourself in the aorta.” — Dave Barry
“Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today” — Herman Wouk
“America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation” — Dr. Laurence J. Peter
“You know, gentlemen, that I do not owe any personal income tax. But nevertheless, I send a small check, now and then, to the Internal Revenue Service out of the kindness of my heart” — David Rockefeller
“Thinking is one thing no one has ever been able to tax” — Charles F. Kettering
RJ Matson, Roll Call
“The rich hire lawyers and accountants for a reason – to pass the tax bill on to you” — George W. Bush
“The wages of sin are death, but by the time taxes are taken out, it’s just sort of a tired feeling” — Paula Poundstone
“War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen circumstances that no human wisdom can calculate the end; it has but one thing certain, and that is to increase taxes” — — Thomas Paine
Taxes Done Right with TurboTax
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TAXES
Did you know PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN, one of America’s most beloved leaders, also enacted one of its least liked obligations – the income tax?
NOTE: TAX RATES LISTED BY YEAR ARE HIGHEST POSSIBLE RATE ON INDIVIDUAL TAXPAYERS
- 1862 – PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN signs a revenue-producing measure to help pay for expenses caused by the Civil War.
The law creates the nation’s first income tax:INCOMES BETWEEN $600 – $10,000 – 3% Tax Rate
INCOMES BETWEEN $10,000 – ABOVE – 5% Tax Rate
- 1872 – INCOME TAX IS REPEALED.
- 1894 – WILSON TARIFF ACT revives the income tax and an income tax division within the BUREAU OF INTERNAL REVENUE is created.
- 1913 – WOODROW WILSON DEMOCRAT in office from 1913-1921 States ratify the 16th Amendment, which says,
Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census or enumeration. Later Congress will adopt
NET PERSONAL INCOME
UNDER $20,000 – Tax Rate 1%NET PERSONAL INCOME
MORE THAN $500,000 – Tax Rate 7%It also repealed a previous corporate income tax.
THE FIRST FORM 1040 WAS INTRODUCED. - 1916 – 15% Tax Rate
- 1917 – 67% Tax Rate
- 1917 – The War Revenue Act of 1917 raised the top tax bracket to 67% to help fund World War I.
- 1918 – 77% Tax Rate
- 1919 – TAX RATE 73% The states ratify the 18TH AMENDMENT, barring the manufacture, sale or transport of intoxicating beverages. Congress passes the VOLSTEAD ACT, which gives the internal revenue commissioner the primary responsibility to enforce Prohibition.
- 1920 – 73% Tax Rate
- 1922 – 56% Tax Rate
- 1924 – 46% Tax Rate
- 1925 – 25% Tax Rate
- 1931 – The IRS Intelligence Unit uses an undercover agent to gather evidence against AL CAPONE, one of the most notorious and feared gangsters in U.S. history. Though law enforcement officials had repeatedly brought Capone up on charges, his intimidation of witnesses and juries always allowed him to escape punishment. But the long arm of tax law would prove too strong. CAPONE was convicted of tax evasion and sent to prison
- 1932 – The Revenue Act of 1932 raised the top tax bracket back up to 63% in response to the Great Depression.
- 1933 – PROHIBITION IS REPEALED. IRS again assumes responsibility for alcohol taxation the following year and for administering the National Firearms Act. Later, tobacco tax enforcement is added.
- 1936 – 79% Tax Rate
- 1940 – 81.1% Tax Rate
- 1942 – TAX RATE 88% THE REVENUE ACT OF 1942, hailed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as “the greatest tax bill in American history,” passes Congress. It increases tax rates and the number of residents subject to income tax. It also creates deductions for medical and investment expenses.
- 1943 – Congress passes THE CURRENT TAX PAYMENT ACT, which requires employers to withhold taxes from employees’ wages and remit them quarterly.
- 1944 – 94% Tax Rate
- 1945 – TAX RATE 94% More than 43 million Americans pay tax with annual receipts in excess of $45 BILLION, up from $9 BILLION in 1941.
- 1946 – 86% Tax Rate
- 1948 – 82% Tax Rate
- 1950 – 91% Tax Rate
- 1952 – 92% Tax Rate
- 1953 – TAX RATE 92% The Bureau of Internal Revenue becomes THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE. DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER in office REPUBLICAN 1953-1961
- 1954 – 91% Tax Rate The filing deadline for individual tax returns is changed from March 15 to APRIL 15.
- 1961 – Tax Rate 91% The computer age begins at the IRS with the dedication Of THE NATIONAL COMPUTER CENTER at Martinsburg, W.Va JOHN F. KENNEDY DEMOCRAT 1961-1963
- 1964 – 77% Tax Rate
- 1965 – Tax Rate 70% IRS institutes its first TOLL-FREE telephone site
- 1968 – 75% Tax Rate
- 1969 – 77% Tax Rate
- 1970 – 71.75% Tax Rate
- 1971 – 70% Tax Rate
- 1976 – President Gerald Ford becomes the first in the modern era TO PUBLICLY RELEASE HIS PERSONAL INCOME TAX RETURN, just a few years after his predecessor, Richard M. Nixon, became mired in a scandal over whether he’d paid enough in taxes. Every president since Ford has released his annual return until Donald Trump refused to release his taxes in 2016.
- 1981 – 69.13% Tax Rate
- 1982 – 50% Tax Rate
- 1986 – Tax Rate 50% Limited electronic filing begins. President Ronald Reagan signs the TAX REFORM ACT, the most significant piece of tax legislation in 30 years. It contains 300 provisions, taking three years to implement. The act codifies federal tax laws for the third time since the Revenue Act of 1918.
- 1987 – 38.5% Tax Rate
- 1988 – 28% Tax Rate
- 1990 – 31% Tax Rate
- 1992 – Tax Rate 31% Taxpayers who owe money are allowed to file returns ELECTRONICALLY.
- 1993 – Tax Rate 39.6% President Bill Clinton signs the REVENUE RECONCILIATION ACT OF 1993. The act’s purpose was to reduce the federal deficit that would have accumulated in fiscal years 1994 through 1998.
- 1997 – Clinton signs another bill to cut taxes by $152 BILLION, cut capital gains taxes tor individuals and INSTITUTE A $500 PER CHILD TAX CREDIT AND TAX INCENTIVES FOR EDUCATION.
- 2001 – Tax Rate – 38.6% President George W. Bush signs a series of major tax cuts. The largest was the ECONOMIC GROWTH AND TAX RELIEF RECONCILIATION ACT OF 2001. It was estimated to save taxpayers $1.3 TRILLION OVER 10 YEARS, making it the third largest tax cut since WORLD WAR II.
- 2003 – Tax Rate 35% IRS administers another mid-year refund program, this time providing an advance payment of an increase in the Child Tax Credit. Electronic filing reaches a new high, 52.9 MILLION TAX RETURNS, more than 40% of all individual returns.
- 2009 – The IRS processes 230 million federal tax returns and supplemental documents, collecting $2.3 TRILLION in gross taxes. In 1960, the total collection was $91 million.
.
SOURCES FORBES.COM, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, IRS, TAX POLICY CENTER
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