A Short Timeline of Tax Law of the US, Part 3
23rd December 2009 by Tax Man No CommentsW. Marc Gilfillan, CPA, NC, individual and business CPA and Tax expert, shares about the history of taxes…
So the question remains, what happened with taxes in the United States?
US tax makers have been collecting what they have been sowing for quite a while. Our honor system has been replaced by a monster in which every tax payer is under surveillance because of the heavy inclination of evasion. Basically, consent has been replaced with compulsion. Honor has been replaced with espionage. If you are feeling the pressure with today’s taxes, call a Cary NC CPA for all your tax-related needs!
In the 1950s, no bank told the IRS about the affairs of citizens who went to that bank, interest rates went unreported, withdrawals of cash weren’t reported, and nothing that went through accounts were photographed. In addition to this, real estate transactions were not reported, stock transactions were not reported, dividends were not reported, income from other sources (Form 1099) wasn’t reported, and US Customs did not require a declaration of the amount of money carried. Go here if you want help from a modern-day Tax Preparation in Cary, NC.
Before it was espionage, it was an honor system, and it functioned quite well. The erosion that occurred over the last 50 years to the present is that anything of any fiscal significance is now reported.
Adam Smith stated that people will evade taxes and tax laws shown little respect when there is a general suspicion of much unnecessary expense and a lot of misspending of tax revenue. For example, $500 toliet seats, huge grants to study the sex lives of ants, etc.
For the sake of catching a few tax resisters and evaders in the 1950s Congress created a tax monster of the US tax system that more and more taxpayers try to evade. As a general rule, mass tax evasion is a sure sign that a government’s tax system is bad. People will pay taxes, even income taxes, if the rates are reasonable.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more updates!
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