quotations about taxes
To please universally was the object of his life; but to tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men.
EDMUND BURKE
speech on American taxation, House of Commons, April 19, 1774
What at first was plunder assumed the softer name of revenue.
THOMAS PAINE
Rights of Man
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
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
If you master your destiny, you will find out there is a destiny tax.
JOSEPH BONKOWSKI
Quote Me
Taxation according to income is the most effective instrument yet devised to obtain just contribution from those best able to bear it and to avoid placing onerous burdens upon the mass of our people.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
Message to Congress on Tax Revision, June 19, 1935
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
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
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
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
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
The Largest business in the world is collecting U.S. tax dollars.
JOSEPH BONKOWSKI
Quote Me
The 16th Amendment gives the Federal government a direct claim on the lives of American citizens by enabling Congress to levy a direct income tax on individuals. Until the passage of the 16th amendment, the Supreme Court had consistently held that Congress had no power to impose an income tax.
RON PAUL
speech, April 30, 2009
We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.
LEONA HELMSLEY
attributed, New York Times, July 12, 1989
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
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
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
I have only one thing to say to the tax increasers: Go ahead, make my day.
RONALD REAGAN
speech, March 13, 1985
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
The American colonies, all know, were greatly opposed to taxation without representation. They were also, a less celebrated quality, equally opposed to taxation with representation.
JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH
The Age of Uncertainty