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Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else Hardcover – December 29, 2003
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPortfolio Hardcover
- Publication dateDecember 29, 2003
- Dimensions6.34 x 1.25 x 9.36 inches
- ISBN-101591840198
- ISBN-13978-1591840190
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
Mr. Johnston exposes some fundamental problems with the tax code that Campaign 2004 seems to be overlooking. -- Amity Shlaes, Financial Times
Reading Perfectly Legal is the first step to bringing American government back to its citizens. -- John C. Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group
Superb. -- Steve Weinberg, Cleveland Plain Dealer
This book is vital, an infuriating call to action. -- Jim Hightower, author of Thieves in High Places
Truly shocking. -- James K. Galbraith, The New York Times Book Review
Want to know how business execs get nearly free personal trips on their corporate jets? Johnston is your man. -- Business Week
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Portfolio Hardcover; First Edition (December 29, 2003)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1591840198
- ISBN-13 : 978-1591840190
- Item Weight : 1.35 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.34 x 1.25 x 9.36 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #836,197 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #226 in Personal Taxes (Books)
- #690 in Business Ethics (Books)
- #2,261 in Accounting (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times, has hunted down a killer the police failed to catch, exposed LAPD abuses, caused two television stations to lose their licenses over news manipulations, and revealed Donald Trump's true net worth. He has uncovered so many tax dodges that he has been called the "de facto chief tax enforcement officer of the United States." His last book, Perfectly Legal, was a New York Times bestseller and honored as Book of the Year by the journalism organization Investigative Reporters and Editors. Over his forty-year career he has won many other honors, including a George Polk Award.
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"Perfectly Legal" is a depressing, infuriating, eye-opening book that reveals how the super rich take advantage of the political system and the rest of us by rigging the tax code and other laws in their favor. Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Cay Johnston brings us this mind-boggling account of the America of the rich and powerful. This 352-page book is composed of the following twenty-one chapters: 1. Taxes - They're Not for Everyone, 2. A Nickel an Hour More, 3. The Rich Get Fabulously Richer, 4. Big Payday, 5. Plane Perks, 6. When the Old Man is Dead and Buried, 7. The Stealth Tax, 8. How Social Security Taxes Subsidize the Rich, 9. Preying on the Working Poor, 10. Handcuffing the Tax Police, 11. Mr. Rossotti's Customers, 12. For Want of a Keystroke, 13. Mr. Kellogg's Favorite Loophole, 14. Mass Market Tax Evasion, 15. Getting off the Hook, 16. Profiting off Taxes, 17. Profits Trump Patriotism, 18. Letters to Switzerland, 19. Gimme Shelter, 20. Only the Rich Deserve a Comfortable Retirement, and 21. Is Reform Possible?
Positives:
1. Well-written, well researched, and surprisingly even-handed book.
2. This is an infuriating book. I'm surprised at the lack of outrage...
3. This book focuses on the complex tax system in an accessible manner. Many terms well explained for the laymen.
4. The author does a wonderful job of laying the blame where it needs to be. His criticism is fair and even-handed.
5. Taxes in a whole new light. A historical look at how the tax code has evolved.
6. A true expose if there ever was one.
7. Example after example of how the rich abuse the tax system to their advantage.
8. The lack of comprehensive understanding of the tax laws by members of Congress and why that matters.
9. The various methods in which the super rich understate their true income and overstate their tax deductions.
10. Deferred compensation as a legal stealth tax cut.
11. How our tax system forces Americans to subsidize the lifestyles of the very rich.
12. Mind-blowing facts throughout this book. "The 13,400 top households had slightly more income than the 96 million poorest Americans."
13. The lowering of the tax rate on capital gains over the years.
14. Tax shelter specialists and how they benefit the rich.
15. Power means access, access buys influence, and influence buys favors.
16. A thorough look at the IRS.
17. How CEO compensations hurt us all.
18. Offshore shelters. The abuse in detail.
19. Abuses of corporate jets.
20. The truth about estate taxes.
21. The marketing of terms to deceive the public...death taxes as an example.
22. The alternative minimum tax and its implication.
23. Social security taxes in proper context.
24. Why the working poor get audited more.
25. Great quotes..."If we can't make sure that everyone pays their fair share, then honest taxpayers get stuck making up the difference".
26. Partnerships as vehicles for the rich and why that is so. Very interesting and of course upsetting.
27. The story behind Enron.
28. Tax-exempt insurance companies.
29. How the Cayman Islands has become a paradise for tax fraud.
30. How Visa gold cards were used for tax dodging purposes.
31. The unbelievable tax revenue losses due to tax fraud perpetuated by the rich.
32. Abusive tax shelters of all colors.
33. Foreign tax credit abuses...it never stops, now does it?
34. The manipulation of the media.
35. The interesting tale of Bermuda mailboxes, no tale however.
36. The fabrication of profits?
37. Creative uses of insurance to avoid paying taxes...
38. Tax avoidance techniques...for the super rich.
39. The most important measure of tax burden is how much money goes out to taxes.
40. Great recommendations on how to address the problems stated in the book.
Negatives:
1. No links to talk about on the Kindle.
2. It's a little dated but still a great book.
In summary, this is one of the best exposes of the super rich that I have ever read. It's informative, educational and yes infuriating. In a nutshell, this book is about how the super rich have rigged the tax system to their exclusive benefit at the expense of the rest of us. A great book that hurts. Highly recommended.
The conspiracy theory implicit in the title will put off some readers. Please forgive it -- Mr. Johnston really does believe that some dirty deals have been done (and says so) but most of the book simply tells the story, and the story is important:
Just about all the wealth created in the last three decades has gone to people who make more than a million dollars a year. At the same time, the total tax burden (including ALL kinds of taxes, not just the April 15 kind) has shifted to the middle class and lower -- those making less than $500,000 a year.
Part of the reason for this shift is a long, slow increase in tax dodging (legal and illegal) by the richest people and companies. Another part has been by design -- on any basis you choose to look at it, virtually all of the Bush tax cuts have gone to those above the $500k level.
The tax system in America is not fair and the principles that undergird it have become tattered. Hopefully this book will help equip and motivate some people with a mind to bring some fairness -- and enforcement -- to the system.
There is a class war going on in this country and it began when some of the rich decided that the fruits of their own efforts was not enough.



