Table of Contents
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xix
Part I Plunder and power 1
1 Any Public Matter 3
Bengal to Boston 5
Never Such Disgrace 11
Why Bolivia Is Landlocked 15
Taxing the Light of Heaven 17
Not Everything Is About Tax. But … 22
2 The Way We Were 24
A Quick Gallop through the Long History of Taxation 25
How Much? 34
Warfare and Welfare 38
Babbage's Nightmare 41
Debt, Default, and Princes 43
Making Money 47
3 By Another Name 55
Elizabeth I to Spectrum Auctions 56
Selling Sovereignty 62
Cheap Labor 63
Working for Nothing 63
A Rich Man's War and a Poor Man's Fight 65
Doing Your Bit 68
Paying Your (Feudal) Dues 71
Crossing the Line 73
And There's More 75
Jobs for the Boys 75
A Tax on Stupidity 77
Part II Winners and losers 81
4 Fair Enough 83
Heads on Pikes 84
Poll Taxes and the English 85
Noble Causes 91
Trying to Be Fair 93
Pay for What You Get? 94
Pay What You Can? 96
Show Me a Sign 97
Taxing by Class 98
Taxing by Community 99
Taxing the Finer Things in Life 102
Presumptions of Prosperity 105
5 This Colossal Engine of Finance 108
The Work of Giants: The Income Tax in Britain 109
The Dred Scott Decision of the Revenue 116
A Crime of Passion and the French Income Tax 123
Old Fears and New Directions 127
6 Some Are More Equal Than Others 131
Taxing Femininity 132
Peculiar Tax Institutions 136
Leaps of Faith 138
Outsiders 144
Strangers in a Strange Land 144
Taxes as Punishment 145
Hard Choices 146
7 Stick or Shift? 149
False Starts 150
Burgling Other People's Intellect 155
You Must Remember This 158
Buddy, Can You Spare 1/20th of a Dime? 160
Things Aren't Always What They Seem 162
Helping the Working Poor (or Their Employers) 162
Are Tax-Free Municipal Bonds a Giveaway to the Savvy Rich? 163
The Murky Incidence of the Corporate Tax 164
The Big Picture 167
Part III Changing our ways 171
8 Breaking Bad and Making Good 173
Do the Right Thing 174
Family Matters 174
Taxing Knowledge 177
Tax Bads, Not Goods 179
Saving the Planet 180
Wind-Breaking Cows, Scary Dogs, and Cute Cats 183
The Wages of Sin 184
The Vile Custome 184
The Curse of the Drinking Classes 189
Sex, … 190
… Drugs, … 192
… But Not Much Rock and Roll 193
Unhealthy Living 193
Just Say No? 195
9 Collateral Damage 199
Spurring Ingenuity 200
Stranger Things 200
Drawing a Line 207
Excess Burden 214
No Fire without Smoke 215
A Window on Excess Burden 222
10 How to Pluck a Goose 225
Searching for the Holy Grail 227
War Profiteers and the Corporate Tax Revisited 228
Give Me Land, Lots of Land 230
Conscripting Wealth 235
Limiting the Damage 237
The Cleverest Man in England 237
Broaden the Base, Lower the Rate (Maybe) 240
Shaping a Tax System 243
How Many Feathers? 247
11 Citizens of the World 251
Squeezing a Rice Pudding 254
Havens from the Tax Storm 257
The Rich Are Different from Us 261
They Don't Live Here Any More 262
Don't Tell 263
False Profits 265
If I Were You, I Wouldn't Start from Here 266
A Farewell to Arms (Length Pricing)? 270
Tumbling Taxes 276
Part IV Taxes don't collect themselves 281
12 Vlad the Impaler and the Gentle Art of Tax Collection 283
Mind the Gap 285
A Gallery of Tax Rascals 285
Known Unknowns 288
Many Sticks-and a Carrot or Two 289
Get to the Money First 290
Big Businesses Are the Tax Administrator's Friend … 296
… And Small Businesses Are Their Nightmare 298
Information Rules 300
Trust but Verify 306
Taxpayers Are People Too 308
Principled (and Singing) Evaders 308
Making Honesty the Easiest Policy 309
13 Someone Has to Do It 313
The Tax Collectors' Gallery 314
Who Collects? 318
The Rise and Demise of Tax Farming (and Tax Farmers) 319
Kickbacks-Legal and Otherwise 324
Tax Independence 328
Privatizing Tax Collection 329
How Big Should Tax Administrations Be? 331
Tax Tech 333
Part V Making taxes 339
14 Taxing and Pleasing 341
The Finance Minister's Dream 341
Starving the Beast 346
From Coventry to K Street 348
The Naked Truth about Lobbying 348
I Can't Believe It's Not (Taxed Like) Butter 351
The Taxes Chain Store Massacre 352
One Man's Exemption 354
You Just Don't Do That: Four Centuries of Not Taxing Food in Britain 355
Games Governments Play 358
Vanishing Acts 359
What's in a Name? 361
Oops 363
Some Triumphs of Pretty Good Tax Policy 363
Lessons from Gucci Gulch, and Elsewhere 365
The Rise (and Rise) of the VAT 368
15 The Shape of Things to Come 372
Taxes in Naboo and Utopia 372
Pillars of Tax Wisdom 375
Tax Revolts Are Rarely Just about Tax 375
Be Careful with Words 376
You May Be the One Paying for Lunch 377
Fair Taxation, Whatever That Is, Is Hard to Achieve 379
Taxation Is About Finding Good Proxies 380
Tax Avoiders and Evaders Are Wonderfully Creative 382
The Biggest Costs of Taxation May Be the Ones You Can't See 383
Taxes Are Not Just for Raising Money 385
People Pay Taxes Because They Are Scared 386
Tax Sovereignty Is Becoming a Thing of the Past 387
Beware of Mantras 388
The Future and Beyond 389
Hard Times 390
Brave New Worlds 393
What Will They Think of Us? 397
Notes 399
References 453
Illustration Credits 495
Index 497
