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Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich--and Cheat E verybody Else Paperback – January 4, 2005
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Since the mid-1970s, there has been a dramatic shift in America's socioeconomic system, one that has gone virtually unnoticed by the general public. Tax policies and their enforcement have become a disaster, and thanks to discreet lobbying by a segment of the top 1 percent, Washington is reluctant or unable to fix them. The corporate income tax, the estate tax, and the gift tax have been largely ignored by the media. But the cumulative results are remarkable: today someone who earns a yearly salary of $60,000 pays a larger percentage of his income in taxes than the four hundred richest Americans.
Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter David Cay Johnston exposes exactly how the middle class is being squeezed to create a widening wealth gap that threatens the stability of the country. By relating the compelling tales of real people across all areas of society, he reveals the truth behind:
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"Middle class" tax cuts and exactly whom they benefit.
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How workers are being cheated out of their retirement plans while disgraced CEOs walk away with millions.
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How some corporations avoid paying any federal income tax.
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How a law meant to prevent cheating by the top 2 percent of Americans no longer affects most of them, but has morphed into a stealth tax on single mothers making just $28,000.
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Why the working poor are seven times more likely to be audited by the IRS than everyone else.
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How the IRS became so weak that even when it was handed complete banking records detailing massive cheating by 1,600 people, it prosecuted only 4 percent of them.
Johnston has been breaking pieces of this story on the front page of The New York Times for seven years. With Perfectly Legal, he puts the whole shocking narrative together in a way that will stir up media attention and make readers angry about the state of our country.
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPenguin Publishing Group
- Publication dateJanuary 4, 2005
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.8 x 8.44 inches
- ISBN-101591840694
- ISBN-13978-1591840695
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Readers should take their blood pressure pills." —The Dallas Morning News
"Everyone who wants to understand what's happening with the tax system should read Perfectly Legal ... by David Cay Johnston, who shows how idealogues have made America safe for wealthy people who don't feel like paying taxes." —Paul Krugman, The New York Times
"Even if you suspected all along that the system favors the rich, you're going to be shocked to learn just how badly you're being screwed." —Greg Palast, author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy
"Want to know how business execs get nearly free peraonal trips on their corporate jets? Johnston is your man." —Business Week
"This is a book that will either shame us or prod us into taking back the system." —Ralph Nader
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Penguin Publishing Group; Reprint edition (January 4, 2005)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1591840694
- ISBN-13 : 978-1591840695
- Item Weight : 11.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.44 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #735,126 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #232 in Personal Taxes (Books)
- #511 in Economic Policy
- #687 in Economic Policy & Development (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.









