A collected perspective
Quotations about tax.
Observations from judges, statesmen, economists and writers on taxation, law and public policy. This collection is presented in English only.
“Every man is entitled if he can to order his affairs so that the tax attaching under the appropriate Acts is less than it otherwise would be. If he succeeds in ordering them so as to secure this result, then, however unappreciative the Commissioners of Inland Revenue or his fellow taxpayers may be of his ingenuity, he cannot be compelled to pay an increased tax.”
“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.”
“There is no judicial anti-avoidance doctrine which overrides the application of the statute.”
“The courts must be astute not to allow tax mitigation measures which fall outside the bounds of what Parliament intended, but at the same time, they must not penalise taxpayers for taking advantage of reliefs and allowances which Parliament has specifically made available.”
“No man in the country is under the smallest obligation, moral or other, so to arrange his legal relations to his business or property as to enable the Inland Revenue to put the largest possible shovel in his stores. The Inland Revenue is not slow, and quite rightly, to take every advantage which is open to it under the Taxing Statutes for the purposes of depleting the taxpayer’s pocket. And the taxpayer is in like manner entitled to be astute to prevent, so far as he honestly can, the depletion of his means by the Inland Revenue.”
“To think you can make a man richer by putting on a tax is like a man thinking that he can stand in a bucket and lift himself up by the handle.”
“The art of taxation is procuring feathers from a goose with the least amount of hissing.”
“The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.”
“Today, it takes more brains and effort to make out the income-tax form than it does to make the income.”
“What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin.”
“The taxpayer: that’s someone who works for the federal government, but doesn’t have to take a civil service examination.”
“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.”
“The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward.”
“A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.”
“No government can exist without taxation. The money must necessarily be levied on the people; and the grand art consists of levying so as not to oppress.”
“Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.”
“The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.”
Anglo-European Tax & Fiduciary