Book review of The Cheating of America by Charles Lewis and Bill Allison
What is the purpose of the Tax Code and the Internal Revenue Service? Is it to maintain "equilibrium between the wealthiest and the poorest segments of society" as the authors imply, or to "lay and collect Taxes...to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States" as stated in the U.S. Constitution? Charles Lewis and Bill Allison in their book The Cheating of America attempt to address this very issue.
While the authors repeatedly claim to recognize the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion, the book's examples nevertheless take great liberties, sprinkling terms like "scheme", "sham" and "improper" through numerous descriptions of completely legal and commonplace corporate structurings.
Aside from stunningly slanted conclusions, in more than one instance deriding a company or individual for their "unfair" tax planning, notwithstanding that the U.S. Tax Court found the taxpayer wholly innocent of what can only be characterized as trumped-up charges brought by the IRS, the authors' assertion that "upper-income taxpayers do not pay their fair share" depends upon how one defines "fair share." In their book, Lewis and Allison cite several carefully selected examples of wealthy Americans and corporations finding ways to avoid paying their fair share in federal income taxes, some legally and some illegally. Clearly, these extreme cases do depict specific situations that should anger and frustrate most taxpayers.
However, when one examines the bigger picture instead of looking at only an extremely small sampling of the very worst, the view is much different. For instance, while the authors tell the reader "The IRS recently reported that 2,680 filers with incomes of $200,000 or more claimed they owed no taxes, up from 612 in the mid-eighties, and 85 in 1977," they fail to mention that as our economy grows and incomes rise...
Reviews of: "Book review of The Cheating of America by Charles Lewis and Bill Allison"
:
More Political Science
essays:
Description of the book Terror in the Mind of God
... in international politics and economic control. Muslims also dislike U.S. support for Israel, Israeli policies in Palestine, U.S. support ...
Analyze the critique of the Catholic Church presented by Machiavelli in "The Prince" and show how Machiavelli reveals the true nature of the Church and devises ways to counter them.
... church and the pope as dysfunctional and irrelevant but these conclusions can be drawn out by his examples. Could there possibly ... a greater desire for revenge; the memory of their ancient liberty does not and cannot let them rest.." This could possibly ...
This essay is a summary and analysis of Juliet Gainsborough's book "Fenced Off: The Suburbanization of American Politics." It looks at politics in the suburbs. IT IS ONLY A SUMMARY OF CHAPTERS 1-4.
... the suburbanites' political orientation is influenced both by their individual internal views and their suburban environments. Gainsborough's ultimate goal is to determine the relationship between suburbia and ...
Policy statement of the Norweigan point of view of the security council and possible reforms to it
... very different types of irregular national border transgressions, for example international crime and various forms of pollution. The Cold War's dominating concept, security by means of deterrence, is complemented by ...
A Student's Reading of The Politics of Rich and Poor
... were living 'the good life' four years ago were now stuck with paying seventy-three percent of the entire population's taxes. The stock market was on the down side, to say the least, the real estate and technological markets were ...
This essay is a summary and analysis of Juliet Gainsborough's book "Fenced Off: The Suburbanization of American Politics." It looks at politics in the suburbs. IT IS ONLY A SUMMARY OF CHAPTERS 5-9.
... important. Both parties had to shift their platforms more towards a common central view that suburbanites could identify with. Democrats and Republicans ... . While her arguments were well supported, I found some of Gainsborough's explanations confusing and very redundant. In the section where she talks ...
In what ways and why are the Committees of the US Congress so much more Powerful than the Committees of the House of Commons?
... involved if a bill is considered to be of constitutional importance as these sorts of bills are debated on the floor of the commons. The most a ... of british standing committees is shown by the figures for the 1970's whereby only 171 out of 3510 amendments proposed were agreed to. Membership is also ...
Explain the meaning and significance of the realist concept of the balance of power
... The U.S and her allies no longer had the power to dictate international law. MNC's could ...
Cheating of America
I have never seen the tax system as fair. There are so many different laws, some that sadly exempt businesses and very wealthy people from certain taxes that could cost them a lot of money, some that have even been created in the past four years. I tried researching some of the laws... they are complicated with so many different ways you can lower your taxes or end up finding you have to pay more. And who said communisim wasn't any good?
lol, good essay though. May try and find this book and read it for myself.
3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.