5 comments about If Americans Really Understood The Income Tax: Uncovering Our Most Expensive Ignorance.

1. This is an excellent book. It has been written in a comprehensive style that can enlighten taxpayers as well as tax professionals. Every one can benefit from the collected information and well-conceived opinions of Mr. Fox. This book can serve as a wellspring to initiate questions, debate, or perhaps a citizen's revolt against our present archaic, confusing, and unequal tax system. Mr. Fox has obviously been working on this book for several years, but his phenomenal foresight has placed this brilliant work in our hands at just the right moment when we consider the major tax law changes now being considered by the U.S. Executive and Legislative branches of our government. The proposed changes could have a profound negative effect on our children and us. In the 18th century American citizens had a tea party in Boston because of unfair taxes. What will our generation do? Whimper and complain or become informed and proactive?



2. Plain and simple, the Amercan people know nothing when it comes to Income Taxes.They know nothing about their Constitutional Rights with regards to the Income Tax and they do not know how to use the three Internal Revenue Code Sections in the Prvacy Act Notice in the 1040 instruction booklet. An old saying is quoted by judges; "Ignorance of the Law is no excuse". The very first IRC section in the Privacy Act Notice is 6001. Most people would not know where to search for the information of this code section. The very first sentence implies Liability. In looking in the Index of the IRC under Liability for Tax, you will find all of the subjects that are taxed. Income is NOT one of them. For tax purposes, Income is defined by the Supreme Court as a Gain or Profit earned by Privlege. Every citizen of the USA has a Right to work for compensation. I rated this book low and the little bit of expose offered is proof that the author does not know or implies he does not know the Truth about the Income Tax.



3. Plain and simple, the Amercan people know nothing when it comes to Income Taxes.They know nothing about their Constitutional Rights with regards to the Income Tax and they do not know how to use the three Internal Revenue Code Sections in the Prvacy Act Notice in the 1040 instruction booklet. An old saying is quoted by judges; "Ignorance of the Law is no excuse". The very first IRC section in the Privacy Act Notice is 6001. Most people would not know where to search for the information of this code section. The very first sentence implies Liability. In looking in the Index of the IRC under Liability for Tax, you will find all of the subjects that are taxed. Income is NOT one of them. For tax purposes, Income is defined by the Supreme Court as a Gain or Profit earned by Privlege. Every citizen of the USA has a Right to work for compensation. I rated this book low and the little bit of expose offered is proof that the author does not know or implies he does not know the Truth about the Income Tax.



4. John Fox's take on taxes is a must read for anyone who cares about tax equity and the well-being of the body politic. When I first studied taxes as an employee of the California Legislature -- now nearly four decades ago -- we learned that simple equity -- equal treatment of equals -- was the first principle of a fair and just tax system; absent equity the system would be manifestly unfair and eventually would lose its legitimacy, the greatest danger a democratic republic can face. As Fox points out,that's exactly what's happening with modern tax policy -- regressive, unfair, unjust are the attributes that leap out at you. But Fox does more than point the finger of blame; he offers constructive suggestions to get the system back where it belongs, to restore fairness and legitimacy.



5. John Fox says the values of our government are represented in the tax system and that Congress has pursued social and economic programs through the tax system by using deductions and credits that amount to 3 trillion dollars (in 2000) of un-taxed income.
   
   John Fox obviously loves the FairTax. The FairTax does all those things and more, repealing the income tax, employee taxes, corporate taxes and more while fully funding the US government. Everyone also gets a monthly rebate so noone pays any tax at all up to the poverty level.
   
   Fox says the U.S. would have a stronger economy without these provisions. He suggests doing away with all but the most essential special relief provisions, and implementing a simpler tax code that would reduce taxes for all brackets.
   
   If we get rid of the income tax and become the first nation on earth to NOT tax productivity, "outsourced" jobs return and foreign companies come to America to do business.
   
   Everything John Fox advocates is taken just a step farther with the FairTax.

No comments about Globalization and National Financial Systems (World Bank Publication).

No comments about A Retrospective on the Bretton Woods System: Lessons for International Monetary Reform (National Bureau of Economic Research Project Report).

No comments about Money, History, and International Finance: Essays in Honor of Anna J. Schwartz (National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report).

No comments about General Equilibrium Foundations of Finance: Structure of Incomplete Markets Models (Theory and Decision Library C).

No comments about Money: An Amazing Investigation.

No comments about Surviving Your Business Debt: A Financial Survival Guidebook for Business Owners, Financial Managers and CFOs.

1 comments about Financial Management (Barron's Business Library).

1. Barron's Financial Management is an EXCELLENT resource for business people, entrepreneurs or anyone seeking a better understanding of corporate finance. It is pithy in that it covers all the key concepts (from the time value of money to raising capital).
   
   The entire series of Barron's books should be on your bookshelf!

1 comments about The Currency of Socialism: Money and Political Culture in East Germany (Publications of the German Historical Institute).

1. The author is to be commended for his engaging description of the hypocritical, contradictory and self-defeating economic policies of the unlamented German Democratic Republic. His book does a better job than some others out there, such as "Dissolution," in minimizing the economic jargon but giving pithy, telling anecdotes about the average East German citizens' gripes about the glaring inequities of "real, existing socialism." The ironies are not lost, either. The author makes the excellent point that, had the Federal Republic not bailed the GDR out in the early 80s from impending collapse, Honecker probably would have been sacked. That outcome would probably have staved off the GDR's demise, since some kind of rational recognition of that country's economic liabilities and limitations would have been called for. Instead, Honecker's retention of his position as General secretary of the ruling SED virtually guaranteed the catastrophic continuation of his unrealistic policy of providing consumer goods and social services while paying off huge debts to the West. In the end, he failed at both, and for that, at least, we have to backhandedly thank the late Honecker for hastening communism's death.
   The book makes the case that the effort of the socialist state to make money a medium of social equality rather than an expression of heirarchy or social position was doomed from the start. Contempt for money as an instrument of capitalist exploitation was confused by the recognition that money had to be provided to workers for compensation. Caught between this scylla and charybdis the SED wound up minimizing the value of its currency while expecting its citizens to hbe loyal to it. Naturally, such a Janus-faced approach gave the GDR's money no chance at competing with the West German Mark, which became the de facto currency of meaningful exchange, both in the government run Intershops and the thriving black market. As thr author points out, having to compete with its wealthier German brother to the west put the GDR behind the eight ball from Day One. When the rhetoric of resisting fascism for a utopian future began to get stale with the younger East Germans, the only option was to borrow money from the West to import consumer goods. Thus began the cycle of spiralling indebtedness, an export driven industry at the expense of the local consumer and cannibalizing local capital stock to pay off more debt.
   This is an excellent addition to the library of any fan of GDR studies or the social economic dynamics of the Cold War.

No comments about Military Money: A Fiscal History of the U.S. Army Overseas in World War II.