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Tax(es)

Monday 24th of August 2026

Tax audits What county in the United States has the highest rate of tax audits? The answer is Humphreys County in rural Mississippi, where three-quarters of the population is Black and more than one third lives below the poverty line, according to ProPublica and Tax Notes. Tax collectors go after Humphreys County, where the median annual household income is $28,500, because the government targets audits on poor families using the earned- income tax credit, an antipvoerty program, rather than on real estate tycoons who pay their daughters (that's you, Ivanka!) questionable consulting fees. Nicholas Kristof, New York Times, Oct. 10, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Tax avoidance The asymmetry between tech profits and the public interest needs to be corrected. In 2019, only the US, China and Japan had economies larger than the combined market capitalisation of Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google and Microsoft. Lost revenues from the lack of tax on Silicon Valley’s largest companies are at $100bn over the past ten years, according to Fair Tax Mark. The OECD puts the total cost of corporate tax avoidance to governments worldwide at up to $240bn. Marietje Schaake, Financial Times, May 20, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Tax evasion By my estimate, the artificial shifting of profits to low-tax locales enables US companies to reduce their tax liabilities, in total, by about $130 billion a year. Gabriel Zucman, The Hidden Wealth of Nations  © 2016 Kwiple.com
Tax evasion In the United States, according to my estimate, offshore evasion costs about $35 billion annually. Gabriel Zucman, The Hidden Wealth of Nations  © 2016 Kwiple.com
Tax evasion When tax evasion is possible for the wealthy, there can be no consent for taxes. And without taxes, there are no resources to finance schools, hospitals, and roads; nor to redistribute wealth, even slightly, to ensure the equality of opportunities. Gabriel Zucman, The Hidden Wealth of Nations  © 2016 Kwiple.com
Tax rates The wealthiest 400 billionaire families in the US paid an average federal individual tax rate of 8.2 per cent compared with 13 per cent by the average American taxpayer, according to a 2021 White House study. Financial Times, August 30, 2024 © 2024 Kwiple.com
Tax revolts The tax revolts that thundered across America starting in the late 1970s were not so much ideological revolts against government – Americans still wanted all the government services they had before, and then some – as revolts against paying more taxes on incomes that had stagnated. Robert B. Reich, Beyond Outrage © 2020 Kwiple.com
Taxes Apple will see up to $47bn potential benefit from tax reform headline, Financial Times, December 6, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Taxes As often as Trump overstates his properties' worth … he also understates or even hides debts and other liabilities and encumbrances, like mortgages. … Trump's ninety-two page [financial] disclosure report [that Congress requires of presidential candidates] valued one of his best-known properties at $50 million. But he told tax authorities the same property was worth $1 million. David Cay Johnston, The Making of Donald Trump © 2016 Kwiple.com
Taxes Because he's got a 12,000-page tax return that would create … financial auditors out of every person in the country asking questions that would detract from his main message. Donald Trump, Jr., explaining why his father won't release his tax returns and implying that something in them may be politically damaging © 2016 Kwiple.com
Taxes But policymaking through the tax code is comparatively ineffective and exceedingly complicated It means people have to know to take advantage of the credit at tax time, they actually have to take the credit, and in the process, it makes filing taxes more complicated and frustrating (which, in turn, doesn't inspire a fondness for government). But with simple and direct public programs out of favor, policymaking through the tax code became the new normal. Ganesh Sitaraman, The Great Democracy © 2020 Kwiple.com
Taxes Capital gain, by definition, is money you make for the simple fact of having money. That's it. No work, no nothing. Just have some money, wait for it to grow, and then you have more money. Which you clearly should not have to pay taxes on, because that would be unfair. Somehow. Linda Tirado, Hand to Mouth  © 2016 Kwiple.com
Taxes The company's army of lawyers and tax advisers had used every loophole to ensure GE paid a grand total of zero federal taxes on its $5.1 billion of U.S. profits in 2010. The company even claimed a rebate from the Internal Revenue Service. That's what a thousand-strong tax department can do for its employer. Edward Luce, Time to Start Thinking  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Taxes Contrary to Mr. Trump's claim that the United States is one of the most heavily taxed nations, only South Korea, Chile and Mexico, among [the 35] O.E.C.D. countries, collect less in tax revenue  as a share of the economy. That means the American budget for things like prenatal care, low-income housing and worker training is simply not up to the task. Eduardo Porter, New York Times, October 11. 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
Taxes Don't tax you, Don't tax me, Tax that fellow behind the tree Russell B. Long © 2015 Kwiple.com
Taxes He'll release his taxes once the audit is finished. (You remember that audit. Its friends call it Godot.) Gail Collins, New York Times, January 11, 2017, on what Trump promised during his press conference that day © 2017 Kwiple.com
Taxes I hear people talk in the language of participation and justice and equality and transparency, but then almost no one raises the real issue: tax avoidance, right? And of the rich just not paying their fair share. It feels like I'm at a firefighters' conference and no one's allowed to speak about water. Rutger Bregman, 2019 World Ecnomic Forum, Davos, Switzerland © 2020 Kwiple.com
Taxes If my tax bill was 0.05 percent falling to 0.005 per cent, I would think I need to take a second look at my tax bill. Margrethe Vestager, European Union competition commissioner, ordering the Irish government to recover €13 billion ($14.5 billion), plus interest, from Apple, Inc., for allowing it to pay virtually no tax on profits from sales in Europe and other markets for 25 years by allocating them to a “stateless”-for-tax-purposes “head office” located in Ireland that had no employees, no premises and existed only on paper © 2016 Kwiple.com
Taxes  In the early 1990s … Congress reinstated a tax rule allowing real estate professionals who manage their property to take unlimited deductions against their other income. … The reinstated tax provision … meant that legally Trump would not pay income taxes, provided he had enough depreciation to offset his other income. Trump would likely have that much depreciation every year, assuming that the value of his buildings is indeed as high as listed on the financial disclosure form he filed as a candidate for president. David Cay Johnston, The Making of Donald Trump  © 2016 Kwiple.com
Taxes In sum, all the data at our disposal today  suggest that virtually confiscatory tax rates have been an immense historical success.  They have made it possible to greatly reduce the divergences of fortunes and incomes, while at the same time improving the situation of the middle and lower classes, developing the welfare state, and stimulating better economic and social performance overall. Historically, it is the battle for equality and education that has made economic development and human progress possible, and not the veneration of property, stability, and inequality. Thomas Piketty, A Brief History of Equality © 2022 Kwiple.com
Taxes In 2019, Carnival [Cruise Line] paid income tax expenses of $71 million on $20.83 billion in revenue [0.34%]. Royal Caribbean paid $36.2 million in taxes on $10.95 billion in revenue. [0.33%] And Norwegian actually showed a tax benefit, money it is owed, of $18.86 million on $6.46 billion in revenue. New York Times, April 8, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Taxes “It is striking that for a rich person, her tax return is very boring,” said Len Burman, director of the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank that specializes in tax issues … “She certainly could afford to pay people to help her figure out ways to avoid paying more in taxes.” Wall Street Journal, August 13-14, 2016, reporting that Bill and Hillary Clinton's tax returns for 2015 showed they paid an effective federal income tax rate of 34%, 8% higher than average for people with adjusted gross incomes of $10 million, plus a state and local tax rate of 9%, for a combined rate of 43.2% © 2016 Kwiple.com
Taxes It's none of your business. You'll see it when I release. But I fight very hard to pay as little tax as possible. Donald Trump, whose refusal to release his tax returns has fueled speculation that they would reveal he is not as rich as he claims, gives $0 to charity, pays $0 in taxes and stores money offshore © 2016 Kwiple.com
Taxes A lot of them: they are paper-pushers They make a fortune. They pay no tax. It's ridiculous. Donald Trump on hedge fund managers © 2016 Kwiple.com
Taxes Moving to address income inequality on a local level, the City Council in Portland, Ore., voted on Wednesday to impose a surtax on companies whose chief executives earn more than 100 times the median pay of their rank-and-file workers. Under the new rule, companies must pay an additional 10 percent in taxes if their chief executives receive compensation greater than 100 times the median pay … Companies with pay ratios greater than 250 times the median will face a 25 percent surcharge. New York Times, December 8, 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
Taxes Multinationals pay less tax despite curb on avoidance  — — — — — — — — — — — • Effective rate drops 9% in a decade • State cuts make up only half of fall headline, Financial Times, March 12, 2018 [print edition] © 2018 Kwiple.com
Taxes Mr. Trump's accounting “genius” adds up, for the nation, to an existential threat. Eduardo Porter, New York Times, October 11. 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
Taxes Mr. Trump's proud dodge should draw attention to one of America's most damaging weaknesses: The nation does not manage to provide its people with a minimum standard of well-being, something commonplace across the rest of the industrial world. Eduardo Porter, New York Times, October 11. 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
Taxes The new corporate tax cuts are unlikely to stimulate the level of job creation and wage growth that the Trump administration has promised, a trio of prominent economists has concluded, because high tax rates were not pushing much investment out of the United States in the first place. Instead, the researchers conclude, multi- national corporations based in the United States and other advanced economies have sheltered nearly 40 percent of their profits in tax havens like Bermuda, depriving their domestic governments of tax revenues and enriching wealthy shareholders. New York Times, December 8, 2016 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Taxes Operating largely out of public view – in tax court, through arcane legislative provisions and in private negotiations with the Internal Revenue Service – the wealthy have used their influence to steadily whittle away at the government's ability to tax them. The effect has been to create a kind of private tax system, catering to only several thousand Americans. New York Times, December 30, 2015 © 2015 Kwiple.com
Taxes The Senate's three richest members – Democrats Mark Warner (VA), Richard Blumenthal (CT) and Diane Feinstein (CA) – voted against the 2017 tax bill. The Senate's three richest Republicans – Jim Risch (ID), Bob Corker (TN) and John Hoeven (ND) – voted for it. The House's three richest Democrats – John Delaney (MD), Jared Polis (CO) and Scott Peters (CA) – voted against the 2017 tax bill. 2 of the 3 richest House Republicans – Greg Gianforte (MT, richest)  and Michael McCaul (TX, 3rd richest) – voted for it. © 2017 Kwiple.com
Taxes Tax havens on some tropical island aren't some sideshow to Western capitalism; they are a central reality. Thomas Frank, The Guardian, November 9, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Taxes There is nothing built into the economy that says you can't tax unrealised capital gains. It's not an immutable law of economics, it's a deliberate policy choice, a choice that, based on the explosion of inequality in the US in recent decades, appears to be a pretty bad one. Wealthy investors like me, a former Wall Street executive, simply should not be allowed to pick and choose when we want to pay taxes on our investments. Morris Pearl, Financial Times, June 14, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Taxes There's nothing to learn from them. Donald Trump, on his tax returns, which he refuses to release knowing that voters would learn why he's being audited, how much he earned, how much he gave to charity, which loopholes he took advantage of, how close he came to skirting the law, how much he paid in taxes (if anything), how much he'd benefit from the changes he's proposed to tax law, etc. © 2016 Kwiple.com
Taxes To capture the financial reality of the richest Americans, ProPublica undertook an analysis that has never been done before. We compared how much in taxes the 25 richest Americans paid each year to how much Forbes estimated their wealth grew in that same period. We're going to call this their true tax rate. The results are stark. According to Forbes, those 25 people saw their worth rise a collective $401 billion from 2014 to 2018. They paid a total of $13.6 billion in federal income taxes in those five years, the IRS data shows. That's a staggering sum, but it amounts to a true tax rate of only 3.4%. ProPublica, June 8, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Taxes Today, the top one-tenth of one percent in America pay total taxes of about 3.2 percent of their net worth every year. Meanwhile, the 99.9 percent pay about 7.2 percent. Think about that: Collectively, all those teachers and waitresses and factory workers and computer programmers and small businesss owners are paying total taxes at more than double the rate of the thinnest slice at the top. For the four hundred richest households in America, the numbers are even more obscene. They pay taxes at a lower rate than any other group — including the poorest 10 percent of all Americans. Elizabeth Warren, Persist  [2021] © 2021 Kwiple.com
Taxes Trump Could Save More Than $1 Billion Under His New Tax Plan headline, New York Times, September 28, 2107, based on information from his 2005 federal tax return and an estimated net worth of $2.86 billion © 2017 Kwiple.com
Taxes  Trump tax cut heralds $1tn bonanza for US investors — — — — — — — — — — — • Buybacks and dividends to set record • Returns to exceed R&D and wages headline, Financial Times, March 5, 2018 [print edition] © 2018 Kwiple.com
Taxes Trump's 1995 Tax Records Claim a $916 Million Loss — — — — — — — — — — — — — Deduction Means He Could Have Avoided Federal Income Taxes for 18 Years headline, New York Times, October 2, 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
Taxes The ultimate goal of income taxes should be to make money as meaningful to a millionaire as it is to you and me. Salvatore Babones, Sixteen for '16 © 2016 Kwiple.com
Taxes Under the new law, income made by American companies' overseas subsidiaries will face United States taxes that are half the rate applied to their domestic income, 10.5 percent compared with the new top corporate rate of 21 percent. … Under the new rules, beyond the lower rate, companies will not have to pay United States taxes on the money they earn from plants or equipment located abroad, if those earnings amount to 10 percent or less of the total investment. New York Times, January 8, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Taxes What is commonly referred to as the tax code might be better described as two codes: one that forces most Americans to account for every nickel of income they earn, and another that allows the wealthy to reveal or conceal [it] at their discretion. David Cay Johnston © 2017 Kwiple.com
 
Taxes When they evaluate their taxes, people bring a version of consumer fairness with them. Americans do not only want a free lunch. As the saying goes, there no such thing. As consumers, they're willing to pay more when the costs of producing a good are made salient, or when a price increase appears commensurate to perceived costs to the firm. Similarly, when people are led to believe that government costs approximte the value of benefits that government provides, they respond by viewing their taxes more favorably than they would otherwise. … Counterintuitive though it may sound, present- ing costs and benefits together can have just as powerful effects on attitudes toward taxes as presenting the value of the benefits alone. Ethan Porter, Democracy Journal, Winter 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com