Business may pass on taxes.

-- Stanley F. Reed

Only little people pay taxes.

--Leona Helmsley (attributed)

Never let the tax tail wag the economic dog.

--Laura Peebles

An Englishman's home is his tax haven.

--Economist Magazine

There can be no taxation without misrepresentation.

--J.B. Handelsman

An economy breathes through its tax loopholes.

--Barry Bracewell-Milnes

Today is the first day of the rest of your taxable year.

--Jeffery L. Yablon

We have a tax code that favors those with the best accountants.

--Shane Keats

The avoidance of tax may be lawful, but it is not yet a virtue.

--Lord Denning

If you don't drink, smoke, or drive a car, you're a tax evader.

--Thomas S. Foley

It is sinful to deceive the government regarding taxes and duties.

--The Talmud

It is seldom given to mortal man to feel superior to a tax lawyer.

--Anthony C. Amsterdam

Who will protect the integrity of the tax law if the tax lawyers won't?

--Christopher Bergin

Sixty-four percent of women attorneys think that tax lawyers make undesirable dates.

--Daniel Dolan

The difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion is the thickness of a prison wall.

--Denis Healey

The many small stockholders cannot afford professional counsel or evasion devices.

--Robert H. Jackson

Just let 'em feel that you can save 'em something on taxes and nobody will keep you out.

--Warren Buffett

From a tax point of view you're better off raising horses or cattle than children.

--Patricia R. Schroeder

A dog who thinks he is man's best friend is a dog who obviously has never met a tax lawyer.

--Fran Lebowitz

Why shouldn't the American people take half my money from me? I took all of it from them.

--Edward A. Filene

The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward.

--John Maynard Keynes

It scarcely lies in the mouth of the taxpayer who plays with fire to complain of burnt fingers.

--Lord Greene

The First Rule of Practicing Tax Law: If someone has to go to jail, make sure it's the client.

--Fred Drasner

[Game Show Host:] You're a genius.

[Contestant:] No, I'm a tax attorney.

--Regis Philbin and Bill MacDonald

It's time we tell the bar associations and the IRS to shove their opinions up their cash cows.

--James Traficant

Those who have large estates and watchful lawyers will find ways of minimizing these tax burdens.

--Robert H. Jackson

Tax lawyers spend about a third of their time converting ordinary income into capital gain.

--Walter Blum (attributed)

[A] society which turns so many of its best and brightest into tax lawyers may be doing something wrong.

--Hoffman F. Fuller

[Headline:] Tax Planning May Be Futile

--Albert B. Crenshaw

In America , in 1913, an income tax law was passed and the rich have been devising tax dodging rackets ever since.

--Elliot Paul

[I]n the area of taxation, it is often difficult to determine where business ends and the law begins . . . .

--Ellen Bree Burns

Too many business decisions are made on the basis of tax consequences rather than what makes good business sense.

--Harold Igaldoff

[A] tax lawyer is a person who is good with numbers but does not have enough personality to be an accountant.

--James D. Gordon III

[As Justice Potter Stewart said about pornography:] I can't define tax evasion, but I know it when I see it.

--Fred T. Goldberg Jr.

I know all those people [i.e., tax evaders]. I have friendly, social, and criminal relations with the whole lot of them.

--Mark Twain

If you are truly serious about preparing your child for the future, don't teach him to subtract -- teach him to deduct.

--Fran Lebowitz

The net worth method, it seems, has evolved from the final volley to the first shot in the Government's battle for revenue.

--Tom C. Clark

The tax bar is the repository of the greatest ingenuity in America , and given the chance, those people will do you in.

--Martin D. Ginsburg

I'm against an income tax because all the rich people hire lawyers and accountants to be sure that they don't pay income tax.

--Ann Richards

[T]here is nothing wrong with a strategy to avoid the payment of taxes. The Internal Revenue Code doesn't prevent that.

--William H. Rehnquist

Congress should know how to levy taxes, and if it doesn't know how to collect them, then a man is a fool to pay the taxes.

--J. Pierpont Morgan

A taxpayer may engineer his transactions to minimize taxes, but he cannot make a transaction appear to be what it is not.

--Irving Loeb Goldberg

A taxpayer need not arrange its affairs so as to maximize taxes as long as the transaction has a legitimate business purpose.

--Cornelia G. Kennedy

[Definition of a corporate tax shelter:] A deal done by very smart people that, absent tax considerations, would be very stupid.

--Michael J. Graetz

They [i.e., welfare cheaters] are no more evil than industrialists using high-powered accountants to avoid taxes.

--Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

The less chance you have of successfully defending your income tax return, the greater the chance it will be randomly selected for audit.

--John Peers

I think there is something desperately wrong with the system when there is only a small subset of people who understand how it works.

--Todd McCracken

We have always been fascinated with the mysteries of the tax code and with the people who struggle so mightily to plumb its depths.

--Joel and Ethan Coen

[The tax evader is] in every respect, an excellent citizen, had not the laws of this country made a crime which nature never meant to be so.

--Adam Smith

Our entire tax system is threatened by the existence of tax avoidance techniques that are only available to the wealthy in our society.

--Barbara Kennelly

A tax return is an attested document. It is signed by the taxpayer and the preparer under penalties of perjury. It is not an opening offer.

--Lee A. Sheppard

[T]o base all of your decisions on tax consequences is not necessarily to maintain the proper balance and perspective on what you are doing.

--Barber Conable

By the late 1970s, the vast majority of the public had come to believe that everybody else was engaging in tax avoidance or outright tax evasion.

--Michael J. Graetz

To the extent that some people are dishonest or careless in their dealings with the government, the majority is forced to carry a heavier tax burden.

--John F. Kennedy

Tax law . . . requires that the intended transactions have economic substance separate and distinct from economic benefit achieved solely by tax reduction.

--David Laro

[It] was like listening to a tax lawyer read the lyrics to a love song. All the words were there, nothing was inaccurate, but all the sizzle was gone.

--Patricia Thomas

Needless tax complexity promotes chaos and confusion and gives the taxpayer a ready excuse for inattention to detail merging toward outright noncompliance.

--Gene Steuerle

As a citizen, you have an obligation to the country's tax system, but you also have an obligation to yourself to know your rights under the law. . . .

--Donald C. Alexander

The tax bar is commonly referred to as a "special priesthood," and it is only slightly more tolerant than the Catholic Church in ordaining women tax priests.

--Paul L. Caron

[R]elying on the legal and accounting professionals to prescribe appropriate standards of practitioner conduct . . . is an idea whose time has surely passed.

--Michael J. Graetz

The young century wore a merry, untaxed look. People could get rich without cheating the government.

--Ben Hecht

The ancient Egyptians built elaborate fortresses and tunnels and even posted guards at tombs to stop grave robbers. In today's America , we call that estate planning.

--Bill Archer

The problem with practicing tax law is that the general rule never seems to apply to anything.

--Anonymous Tax Lawyer

I always imagined that a client needs at least two tax advisors. One tells him what the law is. The other tells him what he wants the law to be. Then he can choose.

--Terence Floyd Cuff

There is hardly an American citizen above the poverty level whose tax conscience is so completely clear that he isn't scared of being audited.

--"Diogenes" (nom de plume of an IRS agent)

The legal right of a taxpayer to decrease the amount of what otherwise would be his taxes, or altogether avoid them, by means which the law permits, cannot be doubted.

--George Sutherland

It is often not enough for tax advisers to take the current law into account. In many situations, they must also consider their clients' exposure to the risk of change.

--Franklin L. Green

The Inland Revenue is not slow -- and quite rightly -- to take every advantage which is open to it under the taxing statutes for the purpose of depleting the taxpayer's pocket.

--Lord Clyde

If you cheat [on your corporate taxes], your employees will notice that, and they'll cheat you.

--Anonymous Corporate Executive

In sum, the accepted view is that the taxpayer, or the preparer, may sign a return as "correct" if he believes there is a reasonable possibility the return is not incorrect.

--Frederic G. Corneel

It's a game. We [tax lawyers] teach the rich how to play it so they can stay rich -- and the IRS keeps changing the rules so we can keep getting rich teaching them.

--John Grisham (The Firm)

Cheating on federal and state income tax is all pervasive in all classes of society; except among the compulsively honest, cheating usually occurs in direct proportion to opportunity.

--Richard Neely

[Making tax evasion a felony] destroys all proportion of punishment, and puts murders upon equal footing with such as are really guilty of no natural, but merely a positive offense.

--William Blackstone

Tax planning is driven by the fact that under a non-neutral tax law, transactions or arrangements whose economic differences are minor can have significantly different tax consequences.

--James W. Wetzler

Delinquent taxpayers as a class are a poor credit risk; tax default, unless an incident of legitimate tax litigation, is, to the eye sensitive to credit indications, a signal of distress.

--Robert H. Jackson

In tax shelter transactions, an elaborate series of formal steps is contrived to lead to an unreasonably beneficial tax result, usually flowing from some defect or ambiguity in the tax law.

--Peter C. Canellos

That a great reluctance to pay taxes existed in all the colonies, there can be no doubt. It was one of the marked characteristics of the American People long after their separation from England .

--G.S. Callender

Avoid falsehoods like the plague except in matters of taxation, which do not count, since here you are not lying to take someone else's goods, but to prevent your own from being unjustly seized.

--Giovanni Morelli

[Taxes cannot be escaped] by anticipatory arrangements and contracts however skillfully devised . . . by which the fruits are attributed to a different tree from that on which they grew.

--Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

There are few greater stimuli to human ingenuity than the prospect of avoiding fiscal liability. Experience shows that under this stimulus human ingenuity outreaches Parliamentary prescience.

--Lord Justice Diplock

A business is nothing more than a conduit for passing along costs to its customers. Taxes are a cost, so tax avoidance is part and parcel of competition to bring consumers better stuff at lower cost.

--Holman W. Jenkins Jr.

Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes.

--Learned Hand

Tax law is a funny thing. I think it fair to say that most CPAs know something about the federal income tax; many if not most lawyers do not.

--Bernard Wolfman

[T]o a fee-maximizing tax professional, the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, is merely a platform waiting for energetic entrepreneurs to construct a superstructure of previously unimaginable complexity.

--Boris Bittker

Let the tax experts employed by the wealthy work a little harder to figure the proper tax obligation of their clients rather than working hard to enable their clients to avoid their fair burden of tax obligation.

--Walter Reuther

No man in this country is under the smallest obligation, moral or other, so to arrange his legal relations to his business or to his property as to enable the Inland Revenue to put the largest possible shovel into his stores.

--Lord Clyde

One information-reporting requirement added in 1986 required people to include on their tax returns Social Security numbers of all dependents over age two. This caused seven million dependents to disappear from the tax rolls.

--Michael J. Graetz

Trying to control tax shelters is like stepping on Jell-O. It just squeezes out between your toes and the mess is worse than when you began.

--Anonymous Congressional Staff Member

The tax lawyer assists clients solely with their selfish monetary concerns. He helps them in their unchristian endeavor to shift their tax burden to their neighbors. He deprives the government of revenue needed for the common good.

--Frederic G. Corneel

[Without related-party rules, a taxpayer could] reduce his income tax by transferring his money from one pocket to another even though he uses different trousers. A man with a half-dozen pockets might almost escape liability altogether.

--John Marvin Jones

A tax system of rather high rates gives a multitude of clever individuals in the private sector powerful incentives to game the system. Even the smartest drafters of legislation and regulation cannot be expected to anticipate every device.

--Stephen F. Williams

The fact that the incidences of income taxation may have been taken into account by arranging matters one way rather than another, so long as the way chosen was the way the law allows, does not make a transaction something else than it truly is.

--Felix Frankfurter

In the United States we have observed that there are two Internal Revenue Codes -- one for Wall Street and one for Main Street . Wall Street can afford and often needs the services of sophisticated tax lawyers. Main Street often can't and doesn't.

-- Sheldon I. Banoff

A rate of interest on tax delinquencies which is low in comparison to the taxpayer's borrowing rate -- if he can borrow at all -- is a temptation to use the state as a convenient, if involuntary, banker by the simple practice of deferring the payment of taxes.

--Robert H. Jackson

I do not want you ever to initiate any action for any refunds of taxes without first consulting me and presenting the matter fully to me so that I may judge whether it is an honorable and ethical action to take, not simply legally, but according to my own personal standards.

--Ernest Hemingway

Law students who plan to practice in the tax field often take as few advocacy courses as they can get away with. In fact, the persuasive abilities of tax lawyers and tax accountants are probably about the same. Neither group is known for its advocacy skills.

--Joel S. Newman and Michael B. Lang

True, of course, it is that in a system of taxation so intricate and cast as ours there are many other loopholes unsuspected by the framers of the statute, many other devices whereby burdens can be lowered.

--Benjamin N. Cardozo

The only purpose of the [taxpayer] was to escape taxation. . . . The fact that it desired to evade the law, as it is called, is immaterial, because the very meaning of a line in the law is that you may intentionally go as close to it as you can if you do not pass it.

--Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

[W]hile a taxpayer is free to organize his affairs as he chooses, nevertheless, once having done so, he must accept the tax consequences of his choice, whether contemplated or not, . . . and may not enjoy the benefit of some other route he might have chosen to follow but did not.

--Harry Blackmun

Everything today is taxes. . . . What better seat on the grandstand of life can I offer you than that of tax counsel. . . . Who is the figure behind every great man, the individual who knows his ultimate secrets? A father confessor? Hell no, the tax expert.

--Louis Auchincloss (The Partners)

[T]he worst thing about [the week before tax returns are due] may not be the taxes themselves, but the commiserating rhetoric of the politicians who, having created the present tax system, will spend the next few days deploring it as if it were the handiwork of strangers.

--The Washington Post

Where there is at least a general suspicion of much unnecessary expense, and great misapplication of the public revenue, the laws which guard it are little respected.

--Adam Smith

Anybody has a right to evade taxes if he can get away with it. No citizen has a moral obligation to assist in maintaining the government. If Congress insists on making stupid mistakes and passing foolish tax laws, millionaires should not be condemned if they take advantage of them.

--J. Pierpont Morgan

Let's face it, there is no discernable business reason to try to locate a transaction in a place like the Cayman Islands . . . . nothing that purports to be resident in the Caymans is managed and controlled there, even if the principals do occasionally visit to conduct scripted board meetings.

--Lee A. Sheppard

The greatest scourge of mankind, the detestable race of tax informers, must be stopped. We must stifle it in its first efforts and tear out the pernicious tongue of envy. Let not the judges receive . . . information of the informer; let them be given up to punishment as soon as any of them appear.

-- Constantine

A tax adviser who instills confidence and trust in his or her client or corporate partner becomes highly valued. Indeed, the term guru is generally reserved for two types of individuals -- spiritual guides for followers of Eastern religion and tax advisers for adherents of Western capitalism.

--Franklin L. Green

The American people as taxpayers have begun in wholesale numbers to cheat, out of resentment of a tax system they think is unfair, too complicated and wasteful of their money. The so-called underground economy is growing rapidly -- people working for cash only, reporting nothing, paying nothing.

--David Brinkley

Tax evaders under-report the earnings of their legal enterprises, thereby paying less tax than they legally should. Criminals, by contrast, over-report the earnings of any legal enterprises they use for cover, therefore paying more tax than their legitimate front companies would normally be required.

--United Nations Report

The argument that "if everyone cheated on their tax returns, we would all suffer," understandably dissuades almost no one from cheating. On the contrary, tax evaders are quite certain that nearly everyone else is cheating, and it is precisely this fact that serves as their justification for doing the same.

--Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin

Antiabuse doctrines are needed . . . because it is impossible for drafters of the tax law to anticipate each and every interaction of the various tax rules. Inevitably, there will be some unforeseen interaction of the tax rules so that, if one arranges one's affairs in just the right manner, magic happens.

--Daniel N. Shaviro and David A. Weisbach

The tax code makes tax avoidance (which is perfectly legal and proper) easy; and tax evasion (which is a felony), tempting. After all, if the best place to hide a book is in a library, the best place to hide a tax dodge (legal, illegal, or somewhere in between) is in the depths of a tax return the size of one or more phone books.

--John Steele Gordon

It does not surprise anyone when I tell them that the most important tax haven in the world is an island. They are surprised, however, when I tell them that the name of the Island is Manhattan . Moreover, the second most important tax haven in the world is located on an island. It is a city called London in the United Kingdom .

--Marshall J. Langer

Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one's affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.

--Learned Hand

The reality is that most of us practicing tax today have long since compromised our integrity. But if we care about future generations we need to face the fact that tax practice turns our best and brightest into little more than well-paid tax cheats. [I question] whether it is even possible to be a person of integrity and still engage in a lucrative tax practice.

--Paul Streckfus

[My law firm] had a rule -- at least it seemed to be a rule -- that everybody that came had to spend at least a year working on taxes. The general rationale for that rule as far as I could understand it was that taxes were so important to everything that you do, whatever the kind of case you are handling, you have got to know something about the tax consequences of things.

--Charles A. Horsky

Distinguishing tax shelters from real transactions is often a frustrating exercise because tax shelters are usually designed to mimic real transactions. In this respect, tax shelters and real transactions have a relationship analogous to the relationship between money laundering and banking. In both areas, rules designed to curb the abusive activity are a source of complexity in nonabusive cases.

--Peter C. Canellos

When a tax controversy erupts, it is common for clients to blame their tax advisors as well as the IRS for the aggravation they are undergoing; and, if the outcome of the tax controversy is that the taxpayer must write a sizable (as seen by the taxpayer) check to the IRS, it is also common for the client to feel that the tax advisor should somehow share or bear the cost of this disaster.

--Burgess J.W. Raby and William L. Raby

We have been mindful that for some businesses there is little, if any, meaningful difference between an improvement in financial performance achieved by cutting operating expenses and one that results from reducing taxes. Both reductions improve the financial statement. The tax law, however, requires that the intended transactions have economic substance separate and distinct from economic benefit achieved solely by tax reduction.

--David Laro

It is not in the best interests of any tax practitioner to keep a complicated tax system. We spend too much time interpreting confusing provisions and are often placed in the position of charging our clients so that they can pay more taxes. Often, the person with the more sophisticated adviser will pay more tax on a given transaction than the person who takes a stab at it themselves. This is the exact opposite of what the result should be.

--Ron Hegt

Most tax planning adds little or nothing of worth to our society. . . . Tax lawyers perform a legitimate role of interpreting the law, instructing clients in the sometimes bizarre requirements the law imposes to get a given tax treatment, and planning transactions to avoid the occasional warts in the system. It is an honorable profession, and I am a proud member of it. But let's not kid ourselves that most tax planning is productive.

--David A. Weisbach

[W]here the lawyer believes there is a reasonable basis for a position that a particular transaction does not result in taxable income, or that certain expenditures are properly deductible as expenses, the lawyer has no duty to advise that riders be attached to the client's tax return explaining the circumstances surrounding the transactions or the expenditures.

--American Bar Association, Committee on Ethics

The way we currently tax capital encourages uneconomical behavior. To the extent that businesses pay tax on income when it is earned, taxing the appreciation and distributions on the intangible assets held by investors (e.g., stock) represents double taxation. To the extent that we insist on imposing this double tax, we should not be surprised that investors enter into contorted financial transactions to lower the after-tax rate of return on their investments.

--Sheldon D. Pollack

[W]hile I hate all forms of cheating, in my Inferno, tax evaders occupy a circle of their own. I see them not only as backsliders on their own civic responsibility but as stealing from their fellow citizens: The more successfully they escape what they owe, the more the rest of us have to pay. I take great satisfaction, therefore, in the fact that during my tenure as U.S. Attorney for the district of Massachusetts, every tax evader we prosecuted was convicted, and all of them went to jail.

--Elliot L. Richardson

Lie detector operators in North America often ask subjects if they cheat on their taxes. The reaction to this question is usually intense, which gives the polygraph operator an insight into the emotional responses of the subject. Since most people have cheated on their taxes, a negative answer gives the operator an indication of how the subject reacts when lying. European polygraph operators would not use this question because tax evasion is not a crime in many European countries, and even where it is, people do not consider it a moral wrong.

--Charles Adams

We spent much of the rest of the night in a driving, freezing rain probing the muck and pea soup mud with our bayonets and seeking to dig up and defuse booby-trapped antitank mines. . . . As I spent more time working with landmines and explosives, I learned three important principles: !B1 o Be careful. o Be very careful. o Be very, very careful. !EN I also learned to assume that every weapon is loaded until you check it yourself and prove that it is not. Do not rely on what anyone else tells you. These are not bad principles for practicing tax law today . . . .

--Terence Floyd Cuff

There have always been individuals who, for a variety of reasons, argue that various taxes are illegal. They use false, misleading, or unorthodox tax advice to gain followers. . . . The promoters of this tax advice often charge hefty fees or commissions to subscribe to their philosophies. Unfortunately, in the end, you may pay more in penalties, interest, and legal fees for following their bad advice. Their philosophies have lead to the financial ruin of innocent taxpayers deceived by false information. Believe it or not -- a number of individuals who market these ideas actually pay taxes.

--Internal Revenue Service

The purpose of the attorney-client privilege is expressed almost universally as promoting compliance with the law. Yet . . . [t]he larger social interest in facilitating compliance with law in a wide array of disciplines is not so clearly present when it comes to tax. Indeed it is rather difficult to articulate what may be the social interest in tax minimization. . . . While we may despair of the prospect of true tax simplification in our lifetimes, there are meaningful steps that can be taken in that direction. Elimination of the attorney-client privilege in all but criminal tax matters would be one such step.

--Bruce Kayle

Then our new CEO backed up a moving van to the building and robbed us. At first we thought he was breaking the law, but he had a written opinion from his tax lawyer saying it was probably okay.

--Scott Adams ("Dilbert")

When . . . a taxpayer is presented with what would appear to be a fabulous opportunity to avoid tax obligations, he should recognize that he proceeds at his own peril.

--Morton I. Greenberg

A well-timed death is the acme of good tax planning, better even than a well-timed marriage.

--Donald C. Alexander

[L]awyers of high standing at the bar are advising their clients to utilize devious tax avoidance devices, and they are actively using them themselves.

--Henry E. Morgenthau Jr.

The fairer and lower tax rates are, the less tax evasion, avoidance and noncompliance there will be.

--Arthur B. Laffer

Tax-motivated behavior ought to be discouraged. . . . This is because tax planning produces nothing of value to society. It may benefit the taxpayer whose taxes are reduced, but the social product is not increased.

--Martin J. McMahon Jr.

For me it's a little difficult to give tax relief to people [who] don't pay income taxes.

--Tom DeLay

[W]e tax generosity within families -- even as we encourage people to deduct gifts to strangers.

--Allan Reynolds

[I]t is axiomatic that taxpayers lawfully may arrange their affairs to keep taxes as low as possible. Nevertheless, at the same time the law imposes certain threshold duties which a taxpayer may not shirk simply by manipulating figures or maneuvering assets to conceal their real character.

--Morton I. Greenberg

Collection and Administration

Taxes must be laid by general rules.

--Harlan F. Stone

The arm of the tax-gatherer reaches far.

--Wiley B. Rutledge

It took an IRS accountant to catch Al Capone.

--IRS Recruiting Poster

Income taxes are the most imaginative fiction written today.

--Herman Wouk

[Speaking of the IRS:] Thank God they're not doing brain surgery.

--Fred Allen

There is untold wealth in America -- especially at income tax time.

--Anonymous

Income tax, if I may be pardoned for saying so, is a tax on income.

--Lord Macnaghten

It is the part of the good shepherd to shear his flock, not flay it.

--Tiberius Caesar

Internal Revenue Service: The world's most successful mail order business.

--Bob Goddard

We must get rid of the IRS. It's a bureaucracy fraught with totalitarianism.

--Sonny Bono

Nothing makes a man and wife feel closer, these days, than a joint tax return.

--Gil Stern

Gross inequalities may not be ignored for the sake of ease of collection.

--Owen J. Roberts

Every child born in America can hope to grow up to enjoy tax loopholes.

--TRB (Richard Stout)

I wouldn't mind paying taxes -- if I knew they were going to a friendly country.

--Dick Gregory

[W]e do not have, and never had, and could not have a "voluntary" tax system.

--Donald C. Alexander

Most voters would rather have their purse or wallet stolen than be audited by the IRS.

--Frank Luntz

[Suggested simplified tax form:] How much money did you make last year? Mail it in.

-- Stanton Delaplane

It would be nice if we could all pay our taxes with a smile, but normally cash is required.

--Anonymous

Next to being shot at and missed, nothing is quite as satisfying as an income tax refund.

--F.J. Raymond

In levying taxes and in shearing sheep it is well to stop when you get down to the skin.

--Austin O'Malley

Nuclear physics is much easier than tax law. It's rational and always works the same way.

--Jerold Rochwald

Few of us ever test our powers of deduction, except when filling out an income tax form.

--Laurence J. Peter

We [Internal Revenue Service employees] are not the bosses of taxpayers; they are ours.

--T. Coleman Andrews

The payment of taxes is an obvious and insistent duty, and its sanction is usually punitive.

--Joseph McKenna

The tight net which the Treasury Regulations fashion is for the protection of the revenue.

--Felix Frankfurter

"I pay my taxes," says somebody, as if that were an act of virtue instead of one of compulsion.

--Robert G. Menzies

It is impossible to escape nice distinctions in the application of complicated tax legislation.

--Felix Frankfurter

What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin.

--Mark Twain

This [i.e., preparing my tax return] is too difficult for a mathematician. It takes a philosopher.

--Albert Einstein

Love will find you when you least expect it. Which makes it more like the IRS than we think.

--Jeff MacNelly ("Shoe")

If the Lord had meant us to pay income taxes, he'd have made us smart enough to prepare the return.

--Kirk Kirkpatrick

There is one difference between a tax collector and a taxidermist -- the taxidermist leaves the hide.

--Mortimer Caplin

Governments likely to confiscate wealth are unlikely to find much wealth to confiscate in the long run.

--Thomas Sowell

All money nowadays seems to be produced with a natural homing instinct for the Treasury.

--Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

[The IRS] may take some solace in the fact that Matthew was a tax collector before he became a saint.

--Donald C. Alexander

There is a limit to the taxing power of the state beyond which increased rates produce decreased revenues.

--Calvin Coolidge

My company [i.e., AT&T] fills out 39,000 tax forms a year; that's one every three and a half minutes.

--Michael Armstrong

The United States may become the first great power to falter because it lost its ability to collect taxes.

--American Bar Association

Intaxication: euphoria at getting a refund from the IRS, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

--Greg Oetjen

High taxes . . . frequently afford a smaller revenue to the government than what might be drawn from more moderate taxes.

--Adam Smith

A distinction between bonds and stocks for the essentially practical purposes of taxation is more fanciful than real.

--George Sutherland

The Constitution does not require uniformity in the manner of collection. Uniformity in the assessment is all it demands.

--Morrison Waite

On my income tax [Form] 1040 it says "Check this box if you are blind." I wanted to put a check mark about three inches away.

--Tom Lehrer

I'm sick and tired of politicians beating up on the IRS. We have the best and fairest tax-collection system in the world.

--Charles B. Rangel

America 's tax system depends upon our voluntary declaration of taxes owed and a patriotic willingness to pay our fair share.

--J. Robert Kerrey

Two years ago it was impossible to get through on the phone to the IRS. Now it's just hard to get through. That's progress.

--Charles O. Rossotti

The IRS has a new way to get ordinary decent folks to comply with the tax code: Throw other ordinary, decent folks in jail.

--Forbes Magazine

Judicial efforts to mold tax policy by isolated decisions make a national tax system difficult to develop, administer or observe.

--Robert H. Jackson

They [i.e., the enemies of Bill Clinton] got him on sex for the same reason the Feds got Al Capone on tax evasion: Because they could.

--Richard Cohen

The question where an income is earned is always a matter of doubt when the business is begun in one country and ended in another.

--William Howard Taft

If [a United States Supreme Court Justice is] in the doghouse with the Chief [Justice], he gets the crud. He gets the tax cases . . . .

--Harry Blackmun

The Opera reminds me of my tax audit. It was in a language I didn't understand. And it ended in tragedy.

--Chris Cassatt and Gary Brookins ("Jeff MacNelly's Shoe")

[N]othing can be more ruinous to a state or oppressive to individuals than a partial and dilatory collection of taxes.

--Anonymous Citizen of Colonial Philadelphia

Excise: A hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid.

--Samuel Johnson

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

The reality, as you must know, is that about half the IRS work force is of little use to management, either because of a lack of motivation or ability.

--Paul Streckfus

We can trace the personal history of a man, and his successes and failures, just by looking at his tax returns from his first job to his retirement.

--Charles A. Church

Tax statutes and tax regulations never have been static. Experience, changing needs, changing philosophies inevitably produce constant change in each.

--William O. Douglas

Elaborate machinery, designed to bring about a perfect equilibrium between benefit and burden, may at times defeat its aim through its own elaboration.

--Benjamin N. Cardozo

The IRS fully recognizes its potential for instilling fear, and quite deliberately uses intimidation tactics to make us more docile and unquestioning taxpayers.

-- Vernon K. Jacobs

Suggesting that the IRS outsource its enforcement activities is like suggesting that the FBI outsource its manhunts and the Pentagon outsource its wars.

--Tax Executives Institute

Many inequities are inherent in the income tax. We multiply them needlessly by nice distinctions which have no place in the practical administration of the law.

--William O. Douglas

When a revenue agent confronts the taxpayer with an apparent deficiency, the latter may be more concerned with a quick settlement than an honest search for the truth.

--Tom C. Clark

As I sit in my poverty-stricken home, looking at the place where the piano used to be before I had to sell it to pay my income tax, I find myself in a thoughtful mood.

--P.G. Wodehouse

At the beginning of the dynasty, taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments. At the end of the dynasty taxation yields a small revenue from large assessments.

--Ibn Khaldun

[E]very stick crafted to beat on the head of a taxpayer will metamorphose sooner or later into a large green snake and bite the [IRS] commissioner on the hind part.

--Martin D. Ginsburg

One of the major characteristics of our tax system, and one in which we can take a great deal of pride, is that it operates primarily through individual self-assessment.

--John F. Kennedy

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, "God, I thank thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector."

--New Testament

No other branch of the law [i.e., tax law] touches human activities at so many points. It can never be made simple, but we can try to avoid making it needlessly complex.

--Robert H. Jackson

Our tax system depends on each person who is voluntarily meeting his or her tax obligations having confidence that his or her neighbor or competitor is also complying.

--Charles O. Rossotti

You can have a Lord, you can have a King, but the man to fear is the tax collector.

--Anonymous Citizen of Lagash , a city-state that existed approximately 6,000 years ago in what is now Iraq

It is a paradoxical truth, that tax rates are too high today, and tax revenues are too low, and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the tax rates.

--John F. Kennedy

[As the Roman Empire declined] the resources of the farmers were exhausted by outrageous burdens of all taxes, the fields were abandoned, and the cultivated land reverted to waste.

--Lactantius

It is of course idle to expect that the complexities of our economic life permit revenue measures to be drawn with such simplicity and particularity as to avoid much litigation.

--Felix Frankfurter

Every time the government changes things, [my tax return preparation] business does increase. Every year a few more people throw up their hands and say "I can't prepare my return any more."

--Henry Bloch

The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has. Even when you make a tax form out on the level, you don't know when it's through if you are a crook or a martyr.

--Will Rogers

No government could exist, that permitted the collection of its revenue to be delayed by every litigious man or every embarrassed man, to whom delay was more important than the payment of costs.

--Ward Hunt

The relative stability of profits after taxes is evidence that the corporation profits tax is in effect almost entirely shifted; the government simply uses the corporation as a tax collector.

--K.E. Boulding

The IRS has had substantial success in Chicago . Al Capone was convicted on tax evasion charges here, and that was probably the last time a majority of Americans applauded the IRS on anything.

-- Sheldon I. Banoff

The Internal Revenue Service shall review and restate its mission to place a greater emphasis on serving the public and meeting taxpayers' needs.

--The Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998

It would be an extreme if not an extravagant application of the Fifth Amendment to say that it authorized a man to refuse to state the amount of his income because it had been made in crime.

--Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Last year I had difficulty with my income tax. I tried to take my analyst off as a business deduction. The Government said it was entertainment. We compromised finally and made it a religious contribution.

--Woody Allen

The smuggling of tobacco undoubtedly began when it first become profitable, when James I, out of his hatred of the weed, placed an imposition of six shillings and eightpence upon each pound of it imported.

--Alfred Rive

To think that the IRS can become a modern financial services institution while administering the current income tax is to believe that you can turn a Winnebago around without taking it out of the garage.

--Michael J. Graetz

I have something my tax doctor calls "narcotaxis." Within 20 seconds of hearing someone launch into an explanation of tax laws, my eyes become glassy, my body loses all feeling, and I go into a shallow coma.

--Russell Baker

All that happens is, you take your financial records to the IRS office and they put you into a tank filled with giant, stinging leeches. Many taxpayers are pleasantly surprised to find that they die within hours.

--Dave Barry

There was wisdom as well as wit in the cynical wag's remark that the lawyers had transformed the ancient principle of "no taxation without representation" into a doctrine of "no taxation without litigation."

--Robert H. Jackson

Sophisticated tax practitioners do not, in fact, benefit when tax practitioner incompetence and tax avoidance succeed. Quite the reverse, as the profession discovered in the tax shelter era.

--Burgess J.W. Raby and William L. Raby

No other nation in the world has ever equaled this record [of voluntary tax compliance]. It is a tribute to our people, their tradition of honesty, and their high sense of responsibility in supporting our government.

--Mortimer Caplin

[I]f 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.

--George Guttman

Convenience of payment is important in helping to ensure compliance with the tax system. The more difficult a tax is to pay the more likely that it will not be paid.

--Tax Division of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

I don't suppose we will ever get to the point where people are pleased to pay taxes, but we owe it to them to see that the collection is done as efficiently as possible, as courteously as possible, and always honestly.

--Lyndon B. Johnson

The American compliance record stems from a combination of civic obligation, fear of audit, and confidence that everyone else on the block is chipping in. Remove any one of those, and you could quickly undermine the whole system.

--Fred Hiatt

If any person shall complain in court that payment has been unduly exacted of him or that he has sustained any arrogance and if he should be able to prove this fact, a severe sentence shall be pronounced against such tax collector.

-- Constantine

It is reasonable that a man who denies the legality of a tax should have a clear and certain remedy. . . . Courts sometimes, perhaps, have been a little too slow to recognize the implied duress under which payment is made.

--Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

No fact speaks so well for the loyalty of the American people, and in support of their determination to pay their debts as the readiness with which they submit [in late 1865] to the payment of war taxes in times of peace.

--The Nation Magazine

As a cop, the IRS has to balance customer service and law enforcement. Stated another way, the agency's motto could be: "We're your friend. But if you push that friendship too far, we'll ruin your life and then throw you in jail."

--Christopher Bergin

[New Mission Statement:] The IRS mission is to provide America 's taxpayers top quality service by helping them understand and meet their tax responsibilities and by applying the tax law with integrity and fairness to all.

--The Internal Revenue Service

A perfect revenue law, if improperly administered or resisted by a hostile public, will soon become a practical monstrosity; but an imperfect law, if wisely administered with a reasonable public, will produce very satisfactory results.

--Aubrey R. Marrs

Students of federal taxation agree that the tax system suffers from delay in getting the final word in judicial review, from retroactivity of the decision when it is obtained, and from the lack of a roundly tax-informed viewpoint of judges.

--Robert H. Jackson

Certain states are out-and-out aggressive. But in most, you can drive a Mack truck through the revenue department and no one will notice. They're often clueless about how to question our tax planning strategies and techniques.

--Anonymous Oil Company Tax Director

Unofficial Motto of the Internal Revenue Service: "We have what it takes to take what you have."

--Anonymous

Simplicity in modern taxation is a problem of basic architectural design. Present legislation is insufferably complicated and nearly unintelligible. If it is not simplified, half of the population may have to become tax lawyers and tax accountants.

--Henry C. Simons

Conflicts are multiplied by treating as questions of law what really are disputes over proper accounting. The mere number of such questions and the mass of decisions they call forth becomes a menace to the certainty and good administration of the law.

--Robert H. Jackson

An accountant once told me that the definition of fair market value for tax purposes is the value arrived at in negotiations between a willing tax lawyer and a willing revenue agent, neither of whom has ever bought or sold anything of consequence in his life.

--Paul H. Asofsky

The taxpayer-rights provisions of the Internal Revenue Code are like the civil-rights provisions of the former Soviet Union 's constitution. On paper, they tell a wonderful story. In practice, for many taxpayers there is no effective protection against government abuse.

--Bob Kamman

Every good citizen . . . should be willing to devote a brief time during some one day in the year, when necessary, to the making up of a listing of his income for taxes . . . to contribute to his Government, not the scriptural tithe, but a small percentage of his net profits.

--Cordell Hull

The tax farmer would advance money to the monarch -- the equivalent of planting his seeds -- and then go about collecting it from the citizenry -- the equivalent of gathering in a harvest whose ultimate value, as with all farmers, he hoped would exceed the cost of the seeds.

--Peter L. Bernstein

Dear Mr. President, Internal Revenue regulations will turn us into a nation of bookkeepers. The life of every citizen is becoming a business. This, it seems to me, is one of the worst interpretations of the meaning of human life history has ever seen. Man's life is not a business.

--Saul Bellow ("Herzog")

Never has it come to my attention or been part of my experience that a revenue agent, a tax collector, has put humanity above regulation. They are, again in my experience, the most abjectly humorless, dehumanized, order taking, weak-charactered, easily vicious, almost casually amoral people I have met.

--Karl Hess

The tax which each individual is bound to pay ought to be certain, and not arbitrary. The time of payment, the manner of payment, the quantity to be paid, ought all to be clear and plain to the contributor, and to every other person, so that the tax payer is not put in the power of the tax gatherer.

--Adam Smith

If Congress may tax one citizen to the point of discouragement for making an honest living, it is hard to say that it may not do the same to another just because he makes a sinister living. If the law-abiding must tell all to the tax collector, it is difficult to excuse one because his business is lawbreaking.

--Robert H. Jackson

I recently heard a CPA remark that the only accounting principle which the Internal Revenue Service regards as "generally accepted" is "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." Although my friend overstates his case a bit -- quite a bit -- I cannot dismiss the thrust of his comment without some soul searching.

--Sheldon S. Cohen

A tax . . . may obstruct the industry of the people, and discourage them from applying to certain branches of business which might give maintenance and employment to great multitudes. While it obliges the people to pay, it may thus diminish, or perhaps destroy, some of the funds which might enable them more easily to do so.

--Adam Smith

. . . I'm continually amazed at the attitude people have toward their tax refund. There seems to be in most people's minds -- and I'm talking about intelligent, educated people who understand the tax system -- a disconnect between the refund they get and the amount of taxes they pay. It's like a lottery. People want that check!

--Verenda Smith

If the IRS used only the maximization of yield approach, it would meet its goals of using its resources most effectively to yield the most revenue. The purpose, however, of the audit program, is not to produce the greatest revenue but to produce the greatest level of voluntary compliance . . . .

--IRS Commissioner's Advisory Group Study (1978)

In connection with the payment of taxes due, no person shall fear that he will suffer, at the hand of perverse and enraged judges, imprisonment, lashes of leaded whips, weights, or any other tortures devised by the arrogance of judges. Prisons are for criminals. . . . In accordance with this law, taxpayers shall proceed with security.

-- Constantine

It is the small owner who offers the only really profitable and reliable material for taxation. . . . He is made for taxation. . . . He swarms; he is far more tied to his place and his calling than the big owner; he has less skill, and ingenuity as regards escape; and he still has a large supply of "ignorant patience of taxation."

--Auberon Herbert

[Old Mission Statement:] The purpose of the Internal Revenue Service is to collect the proper amount of tax revenue at the least cost; serve the public by continually improving the quality of our products and services; and perform in a manner warranting the highest degree of public confidence in our integrity, efficiency and fairness.

--The Internal Revenue Service

One of the underlying problems is that too many of us think that tax policy is made at the National Office in Washington . The real tax policy is made by that auditing agent who is sitting in your client's office. He can miss issues that are screaming, or he can dig in on absurd issues, but it can be very expensive to get him back on the right track.

--Terence Floyd Cuff

We [Judges of the U.S. Tax Court] have from time-to-time complained about the complexity of our revenue laws and the almost impossible challenge they present to taxpayers or their representatives who have not been initiated into the mysteries of the convoluted, complex provisions affecting the particular corner of the law involved. . . . Our complaints have obviously fallen upon deaf ears.

-- Arnold Raum

You first have to decide whether to use the short or the long form. The short form is what the Internal Revenue Service calls "simplified," which means it is designed for people who need the help of a Sears tax preparation expert to distinguish between their first and last names. . . . The IRS wants you to use the short form because it gets to keep most of your money. So unless you have pond silt for brains, you want the long form.

--Dave Barry

If, as the rate of a particular duty is increased, the revenue yielded increases, the duty is predominantly a tax. But when the rate is increased above the point at which the yield in revenue is a maximum, it is clear that some element of penalty is present, and we finally reach a duty of prohibitive amount, whose yield is very small or non-existent. This is closely akin to a simple prohibition of production or importation, with a penalty for infraction.

--Hugh Dalton

The United States has a system of taxation by confession. That a people so numerous, scattered and individualistic annually assesses itself with a tax liability, often in highly burdensome amounts, is a reassuring sign of the stability and vitality of our system of self- government. What surprised me in once trying to help administer these laws was not to discover examples of recalcitrance, fraud or self- serving mistakes in reporting, but to discover that such derelictions were so few.

--Robert H. Jackson

The [Tax Court] is independent, and its neutrality is not clouded by prosecuting duties. Its procedures assure fair hearings. Its deliberations are evidenced by careful opinions. All guides to judgment available to judges are habitually consulted and respected. It has established a tradition of freedom from bias and pressures. It deals with a subject that is highly specialized and so complex as to be the despair of judges. It is relatively better staffed for its task than is the judiciary.

--Robert H. Jackson

This year, it is important for you to know that the Internal Revenue Service now has a positive, taxpayer-friendly image. What does this mean to you, the individual taxpayer? According to [the Head of the IRS] it means you are now expected to tip: "If you're a married taxpayer filing jointly, tucking a $50 bill inside your tax return will definitely cause the IRS employee serving you to feel appreciated and be less likely to select you for the auditing procedure we call 'The Closet Full of Snakes.'"

--Dave Barry

The high duties which have been imposed upon the importation of many different sorts of foreign goods, in order to discourage their consumption in Great Britain, have in many cases served only to encourage smuggling; and in all cases have reduced the revenue of the customs below what more moderate duties would have afforded. The saying of Dr. Swift, that in the arithmetic of the customs two and two, instead of making four, make sometimes only one, holds perfectly true with regard to such heavy duties.

--Adam Smith

I will tell you a secret, which I learned many years ago from the commissioners of the customs in London: They said, when any commodity appeared to be taxed above a moderate rate, the consequence was to lessen that branch of the revenue by one half; and one of those gentlemen pleasantly told me, that the mistake of Parliaments, on such occasions, was owing to an error in computing two and two to make four; whereas in the business of laying heavy impositions, two and two never make more than one; which happens by lessening the import, and the strong temptation of running such goods as paid high duties.

--Jonathan Swift

[The Head of the Internal Revenue Service] points out that when we sign our tax returns, we are in effect taking a legal oath. "This means," he sternly reminds us, "that the information you provide must meet the same standard of truth and accuracy that President Clinton met when he testified under oath about alleged acts of internship with Monica Lewinsky." For example, if you have three dependents, when you fill in the box that says "Number of Dependents," the following answers would meet the Clinton Accuracy Standard:

"Three."

"Four."

"Around twenty-seven."

"I don't recall."

"It depends what you mean by 'dependent.'"

--Dave Barry

In the time of Emperor Vespasian, the government provided urinals in the streets of Rome and charged a fee for their use. The emperor, seeking to reduce his budget deficit, decided to raise the fee. His son, a finicky fellow, asked the emperor whether the additional receipts should be considered a tax increase or a reduction of government expenditure for the provision of the facilities. To this the emperor made his famous reply (in Latin, the only language he spoke): "Non Olet!" The literal translation is, "It doesn't smell." But the meaning is, "It's all money, and it doesn't matter which side of the ledger you put it on."

--Herbert Stein

I want to begin by saying we have had good experience with the Internal Revenue Service; it's the Internal Revenue Code that doesn't work.

--Brian Gloe

When I was young, I was taught the story of Jesus and the taxman. The point was that Jesus was good to everyone; so much so that he would even eat with the taxman. The story tells a lot about being good, but it also tells a lot about historical perceptions of the tax collector.

--Christopher Bergin

To collect all the taxes owed -- that is, to close the tax gap - - is an impossible task.

--Berdji Kenadjian

A healthy tax base allows the government to collect the same tax at lower rates. A loophole-ridden tax base is the worst of all worlds because it realizes no revenue, but causes economic damage as taxpayers plan around the tax.

--Calvin H. Johnson

It is fair that each man shall pay taxes in exact proportion to the value of his property; but if we should wait before collecting a tax to adjust the taxes upon each man in exact proportion with every other man, we should never collect any tax at all.

--Abraham Lincoln

Estate Taxes

The idea that some people would pay half of their estate, after some substantial exemptions, to the federal government seems to me entirely appropriate.

--Bill Gates Sr.

[The estate tax is] an act of economic waste which is damaging to all.

--Joseph Schumpeter

Exemption

Old MacDonald had an agricultural real estate tax abatement.

--Anonymous

The exemption of property from taxation is a question of policy and not of power.

--John McLean

Strong considerations of fiscal and social policy view tax exemptions with a hostile eye.

--Frank Murphy

Tax exemption is a privilege derived from legislative grace, not a constitutional right.

--Lapsley W. Hamblen Jr.

I don't know of a single foreign product that enters this country untaxed, except the answer to prayer.

--Mark Twain

You have no authority to impose taxes, tribute, or duty on any of the priests . . . at this house of God.

--Old Testament

The tax-exempt privilege is a feature always reflected in the market price of bonds. The investor pays for it.

--Louis D. Brandeis

I didn't see why the schoolmaster should be taxed to support the priest, and not the priest the schoolmaster.

--Henry David Thoreau

Most philanthropy is tax-motivated. The notion that charity wouldn't be hurt if you eliminated the death tax is absurd.

--William Zabel

Looking backward it is easy to see that the line between the taxable and the immune has been drawn by an unsteady hand.

--Robert H. Jackson

Donors who are only interested in the tax benefits of their gifts may give philanthropy a bad name, but their money still helps.

--Mark Litzler

The real motive behind most private foundations is keeping control of wealth (even while the wealth itself is given away).

--Business Week

Unless . . . savings are exempted from income tax, the contributors are twice taxed on what they save, and only once on what they spend.

--John Stuart Mill

[B]usiness people on charity boards frequently approve decisions that ignore the very sense and insights they use in their own businesses.

--Randy Richardson

Trying to understand the various exempt organization provisions of the Internal Revenue Code is as difficult as capturing a drop of mercury under your thumb.

--Stephen J. Swift

Exemptions from the operation of a tax always create inequalities. Those not exempted must, in the end, bear an additional burden or pay more than their share.

--Stephen J. Field

Just what instrumentalities of either a state or the Federal government are exempt from taxation by the other cannot be stated in terms of universal application.

--Harlan F. Stone

Many nonprofit groups strive for a just and humane life for the people they serve, yet at the same time have people on staff who are eligible for food stamps.

--John Pratt and Sondra Reis

Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part; except the land of priests only, which became not Pharaoh's. . . .

--Old Testament

I would suggest the taxation of all property equally whether church or corporation, exempting only the last resting place of the dead and possibly, with proper restrictions, church edifices.

--Ulysses S. Grant

[G]overnment relieves from the tax burden religious, educational, and charitable activities because it wishes to encourage them as representing the highest and noblest achievements of mankind.

--Chauncey Belknap

[T]ax exemption for public charities should be restricted to those areas where the quality or quantity of goods and services that would be produced strictly through market forces is inadequate.

--O. Donaldson Chapoton

Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise.

--Thomas Jefferson