The first modern income tax was levied in Britain between 1799 and 1816 to fund the Napoleonic wars, but it did not become permanent until 1874. Similarly the United States adopted a like measure during the Civil War, but it was not institutionalized until the ratification of the 16th amendment to the Constitution in 1913. Related: tax protester Sixteenth Amendment arguments.
When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.
~ Frédéric Bastiat (wiki)
A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.
~ Frédéric Bastiat (wiki)
I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.
~ James Madison
The point to remember is that what the government gives it must first take away.
~ John S. Coleman
Here's the 1967 cartoon version of The Beatles "Taxman": lyrics below the video. George Harrison (who wrote the song) explains why (more here):
“I had discovered I was paying a huge amount of money to the taxman,” he once explained in interview. “You are so happy that you’ve finally started earning money – and then you find out about tax. In those days we paid nineteen shillings and sixpence out of every pound (there were twenty shillings in the pound), and with supertax and surtax and tax-tax it was ridiculous – a heavy penalty to pay for making money…It was, and still is, typical. Why should this be so? Are we being punished for something we have forgotten to do?...That was the big turn-off for Britain. Anybody who ever made any money moved to America or somewhere else.”
Let me tell you how it will be:
There's one for you, nineteen for me,
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman.
Should five percent appear too small,
Be thankful I don't take it all
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman.
If you drive a car, I'll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat.
If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat,
If you take a 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.
Now my advice for you who die:
Declare the pennies on your eyes,
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman,
And you're working for no one but me.
~ The Beatles (George Harrison) ("The Taxman")
And from 1943, here's Donald Duck telling you to pay your taxes:
And from 1943, here's Donald Duck telling you to pay your taxes:
~ Milton Friedman (wiki)
~ Benjamin Tucker
The difference between death and taxes is death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets.
We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
~ Winston Churchill
Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.
~ Calvin Coolidge
~ Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac
What at first was plunder assumed the softer name of revenue.
~ Thomas Paine
What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin.
To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men.
~ Edmund Burke
Civil servants and priests, soldiers and ballet dancers, schoolmasters and police constables, Greek museums and Gothic steeples, civil list and services list - the common seed within which all these fabulous beings slumber in embryo is taxation.
~ Karl Marx
Dave Barry's classic 1996 column on preparing your own taxes: Pray For an Asteroid.
Excellent analysis: Tax implications of the zombie apocalypse.
