The Decline and Fall? of the Income Tax [Hardcover]

Michael J. Graetz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1997

How has it happened that ordinary Americans have come to regard the federal income tax as unfair, and tax protesters as heroes rather than deadbeats? This trenchant and timely book locates the answers in both the substance of the Internal Revenue Code and the political process that created and feeds this monstrous law. It shows plainly how the income tax has been a political football in the battle over every major social problem or government program; how government allowed its complexities - and its inflationary bite - to grow with no thought of their impact on taxpayers; and, most of all, how a Congress dependent on PAC funds has become incapable of fashioning a tax system that does not end tax breaks for special interests. The book also looks closely at the various flat-tax and consumption-tax proposals now being considered, and reveals that these taxes are neither as fair nor as simple as their advocates claim. Discussing the income-tax system in rich, anecdotal context, this book also points the way to tax reforms that are simple, sensible, and fair.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Angry taxpayers may be disappointed that Graetz (Law/Yale) does not jump on the anti-income-tax bandwagon, but they would do well to ponder his reservations about where taxation is headed. Discussions of tax policy have always attracted ideologues and the self-interested. In recent years, however, this tendency has become so strong that no idea is so unproven, no proposal so blatantly pandering to special interests that one cannot find economists and politicians willing to promote it as the certain route to an economic and social utopia. Against this background, Graetz's common sense (and the absence of hyperbole in his text) is a breath of fresh air. He eschews identification of a single answer for all tax ills, opting instead for a series of reasonable steps that would push tax policy toward widely held goals. His basic proposal for federal taxation involves adopting a value-added tax to accompany a refurbished income tax, with the VAT applicable only to incomes of $75,000 a year and up. This would achieve many of the goals of a consumption tax (such as encouraging saving), without embracing a wholesale shift of the tax burden from upper- to middle-income taxpayers. Readers with tax expertise will find little that is unfamiliar in this volume, but the anecdotes illustrating the sometimes ludicrous world of taxation in the US are wonderful; the climactic story about the regional planning commissioner and his Christmas hams is worth the price of the book. Not the sensationalistic diatribe you expect to see in April, and for that reason well worth reading. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

A must read for all who talk taxes and tax reform. -- Senator Pete V. Domenici

A superb overview of the federal income tax, by one of the nation's leading authorities, written with wit and a lively style. -- Boris I. Bittker, Yale University

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 323 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (April 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393040615
• ISBN-13: 978-0393040616
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,948,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, an easy and accurate tax policy book, June 30, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Decline and Fall? of the Income Tax (Hardcover)

Graetz actually manages to be both understandable and accurate as he describes the current problems with the income tax code. He also explains cogently why most of those problems would not go away with a "flat tax" or most of the other proposals in Washington. He concludes with his own proposal, which includes a sales tax and an elimination of income taxes on all but the wealthy. An excellent read, loaded with funny stories.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A nice, if opinionated, introduction, September 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Decline and Fall? of the Income Tax (Hardcover)

Graetz's book is an easy read, exposing the policy issues that underlie the structure of the federal income tax in a way that makes tax theory accessible to the lay reader. Be aware, however, that Graetz has strongly held beliefs on contested issues in tax theory, so the book can present open controversies as if they were closed.