100 Million Unnecessary Returns: A Simple, Fair, and Competitive Tax Plan for the United States [Hardcover]

Michael J. Graetz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 21, 2008

To most Americans, the United States tax code has become a vast and confounding puzzle. In 1940, the instructions to the form 1040 were about four pages long.  Today they have ballooned to more than a hundred pages, and the form itself contains more than ten schedules and twenty worksheets. The complete tax code totals about 2.8 million words—about four times the length of War and Peace. In this intriguing book, Michael Graetz maintains that our tax code has become a tangle of loopholes, paperwork, and inconsistencies—a massive social program that fails tests of simplicity and fairness. More important, our tax system has failed to keep pace with the changing economy, creating burdens and wastes of resources that weigh our nation down.

Graetz offers a solution. Imagine a world in which most Americans pay no income tax at all, and those who do enjoy a far simpler tax process—all this without decreasing government revenues or removing key incentives for employer-sponsored health care plans and pensions. As Graetz adeptly and clearly describes, this world is within our grasp.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Michael Graetz has done the near-impossible. He has come up with a sweeping tax reform plan that would simplify the system and retain the progressivity that is the linchpin of the American tax system. The book ought to appeal to liberals and conservatives and ought to be read by every presidential candidate out there.”—Norman Ornstein, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute and co-author of The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track

(Norman Ornstein )

“This is must reading for presidential candidates, members of the tax writing committees of Congress and all Americans who are interested in a growing economy. It should inspire us to summon the political will to scrap our broken tax system and replace it with one that is simpler, fair and better able to serve the economic needs of America.”—Jack Danforth, former United States Senator

(Jack Danforth )

“There are few people on earth who understand the economics, the law, and the politics of the tax system as well as Michael Graetz. When the nation finally gets serious about reforming the tax code, this important book will be one of the reasons.”—Alan S. Blinder, Professor of Economics, Princeton University, former member of President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers, and former Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve

(Alan S. Blinder )

"The most interesting [tax] plan I''ve seen."—David Ignatius, The Washington Post

(David Ignatius The Washington Post )

“Michael Graetz, one of the world’s leading tax policy experts, has put forth a plan that joins sensible economics with political possibility. His proposal should be essential reading for the next president.”—Glenn Hubbard, Dean, Columbia University Graduate School of Business, former chair of the Council of Economic Advisors under President George W. Bush

(Glenn Hubbard )

About the Author

Michael J. Graetz is Justus S. Hotchkiss Professor of Law, Yale University, and he publishes frequently on the subject of federal taxation. He has served as Assistant to the Secretary and Special Counsel at the Treasury Department, as Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, and as a member of the Commissioner's Advisory Group of the Internal Revenue Service.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (January 21, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300122748
• ISBN-13: 978-0300122749
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #490,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tax Policy Made Interesting, January 18, 2008

By 

Paul Van de Water (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 100 Million Unnecessary Returns: A Simple, Fair, and Competitive Tax Plan for the United States (Hardcover)

Michael Graetz makes tax policy almost enjoyable. Graetz never forgets that the tax system's primary purpose is to raise the money needed to finance the government services that the nation wants in the least harmful way. Or, as the French economist Colbert put it, "The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing." Graetz provides a realistic assessment of our current tax structure and deftly identifies the failings of faddish proposals, such as the "fair tax" and the "flat tax." His proposal to reduce the number of people required to pay income tax and to add a value-added tax to our nation's fiscal arsenal deserves serious consideration by conservatives and liberals alike.

Paul N. Van de Water

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A competetive tax plan, August 4, 2010

By 

K. Kaltenbach "reader forever" (Illinois) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 100 Million Unnecessary Returns: A Simple, Fair, and Competitive Tax Plan for the United States; With a New Introduction (Paperback)

Though the plan does present a comprehensive overview of his competetive tax plan, and it is written refreshingly different from the condescending "Fair Tax" book, this book is an academic tome to read. Slogging through the pages is akin to reading the IRS tax code.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Competitive Tax plan makes sense, March 11, 2008

By 

Alex Garlick (Middlebury, VT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 100 Million Unnecessary Returns: A Simple, Fair, and Competitive Tax Plan for the United States (Hardcover)

This book is a pleasure to get through and does an excellent job assessing the current state of tax reform. His competitive tax plan makes quite a bit of sense too. Shifting a good portion of federal revenue to a VAT takes over 150 million individuals off the IRS rolls and simplifies the entire system. I worry that the implementation process would be too complicated to reap the benefits of the simpler system, and that this plan lacks the proper advocates in Congress, but that does not mean you shouldn't read this book and understand his plan. The VAT is a tried and true system throughout the EU, and could help the US in numerous ways.