An investigation of the tangled U.S. tax system, which attributes its complexities and inconsistencies to the conflicting aims of its many creators. The federal courts, the IRS, the private tax bar, and individual taxpayers all struggle just to keep up with increasingly complex tax statutes and regulations. The Failure of U.S. Tax Policy surveys federal tax policy in the post-World War II era, with special attention to the last two decades, when it gained much of its complexity. Tax attorney and business law professor Sheldon Pollack shows how the tax policy agenda has been and continues to be influenced by a wide assortment of players, from tax lawyers, the media, and private interest groups and their lobbies to presidential contenders and congressional 'policy entrepreneurs,' thereby shaping the development of the tax laws.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
Pollack looks at tax policy in practice, especially the recent history of tax legislation. He emphasizes the inherent political character of any debate over taxes and observes that external events, such as wars, have far more effect on how we are taxed than academic theories. Scholars take note. --The Wall Street Journal
The Failure of U.S. Tax Policy is excellent reference material for policymakers, analysts, economists, educators, and students of national fiscal policy. Business, economics, and political science professors would do well to place it on their required reading list. --Perspectives on Political Science
This book has enormous intellectual and scholarly breadth. It makes significant contributions to our understanding of tax policy, political theory, and political economy. --John F. Witte, author of The Politics and Development of the Federal Income Tax
The Failure of U.S. Tax Policy is excellent reference material for policymakers, analysts, economists, educators, and students of national fiscal policy. Business, economics, and political science professors would do well to place it on their required reading list. --Perspectives on Political Science
This book has enormous intellectual and scholarly breadth. It makes significant contributions to our understanding of tax policy, political theory, and political economy. --John F. Witte, author of The Politics and Development of the Federal Income Tax
About the Author
A practicing tax attorney. Sheldon D. Pollack is also Assistant Professor of Business Law in the College of Business and Economics, with a joint appointment in the Department of Political Science, at the UNiversity of Delaware. His article on flat-tax proposals, which was a featured story in The New Republic in September 1995, appears in revised form as an appendix in this book. Similar proposals are being made again during the current political campaigns.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
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Useful addition to tax literature,
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This review is from: The Failure of U.S. Tax Policy: Revenue and Politics (Hardcover)
Mr. Pollack's book is an historical and critical review of the politics of the federal income tax. Because he focuses on tax complexity as a political phenomenom, the book is a highly useful addition to the tax literature, and is somewhat unique in its focus. Chapter 7, on the causes of tax complexity, is especially interesting reading. While the causes of tax complexity are well-known, Mr. Pollack does an excellent job of discussing the various causes and why these factors are so intractible. Also useful is his discussion of the tax reform criteria 'fairness' and 'vertical equity'. Pollack points out that these terms cannot be objectively defined- fairness and vertical equity are subjective concepts that continually add to the complexity of the tax code. By and large, the book maintains a dispassionate, impartial attitude toward the tax reform debate. The author adds a 'postscript' on the 'flat tax' that is, however, somewhat partisan, and, for that reason, disappointing. He rails against the 'fairness' of the flat tax, after the bulk of the book is devoted to emphasizing that 'fairness' is a subjective matter. He questions whether the flat tax would really be any simpler than the current income tax. The flat tax is a wage tax; how could it not be simpler? Finally, he notes that there would be significant transition issues to deal with in switching to a different system of collecting revenue. That's certainly correct, but hardly a compelling reason to stick with the current mess
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