Global Tax Revolution

Introduction -- Capital explosion -- Tax cut revolution -- Flat tax club -- Mobile brains and mobile wealth -- Taxing businesses in the global economy -- The economics of tax competition -- The battle for freedom and competition -- The moral case for tax competition -- Options for U.S. policy.

Tax evasion is not a victimless crime. Throughout the world, a thriving underground economy threatens to crush compliant and captive taxpayers. It is much bigger than just a few "off-tile-books" transactions and the occasional charging of a personal expense against your business. It touches every corner of our economy and it is growing at a rate at least three times faster than the formal economy. The moral and social implications of activities such as illicit drug trade, money laundering, people smuggling, and tax havens are more than just government issues; they affect every "good" citizen who ends up paying more taxes because others are finding ways to evade their "fail" shine. In everyday language, with liberal use of humor, this book will give you a clear understanding of the problems of the UgEcon, along with an exploration into some of the possible answers to this great economic plague that affects each and every one of us.

This book addresses sixteen different reform proposals that are urgently needed to correct the fault lines in the international tax system as it exists today, and which deprive both developing and developed countries of critical tax resources. It offers clear and concrete ideas on how the reforms can be achieved and why they are important for a more just and equitable global system to prevail. The key to reducing the tax gap and consequent human rights deficit in poor countries is global financial transparency. Such transparency is essential to curbing illicit financial flows that drain less developed countries of capital and tax revenues, and are an impediment to sustainable development. A major break-through for financial transparency is now within reach. The policy reforms outlined in this book not only advance tax justice but also protect human rights by curtailing illegal activity and making available more resources for development. While the reforms are realistic they require both political and an informed and engaged civil society that can put pressure on governments and policy makers to act.

This observation, largely true but nevertheless unsettling, cost billionaire New York real-estate tycoon Leona Helmsley a 4-year jail term, 90 days of public service, and a $7-million fine for tax fraud. So if the rich don't pay their share of taxes -- and the poor certainly can't pay their share -- who is left? The middle-class taxpayers who are trapped in the system by withholding taxes. Systematic tax avoidance and evasion is flourishing in all business sectors in the world. It is creating an Underground Economy that defies detection and, in most cases, goes unpunished. The reality is that virtually everyone participates in the Underground Economy -- the only difference is to what extent. Hiding income or burying non-business expenses in your business used to be silent sins -- things that you simply did not talk about. Now people chat about these schemes as casually as they do the weather. Tax evaders have come out of their closets and aggressive withholding of taxes is a warning signal to government that they are withdrawing the consent to be governed. Whether you are scrimping to make ends meet, trying to save for retirement, wondering how to shield an upcoming inheritance, or just sick and tired of government waste, this book is an invitation to you to join this New Tax Revolt. Together, we can force governments to be smaller, more efficient and, above all, truly accountable to taxpayers. This book is about understanding why we must starve the beast.

The president of Forbes, Inc. presents his argument for a flat tax, suggesting that the new tax would be fair and efficient, with the new tax form being no bigger than a postcard and without any of the loopholes that currently exist.

High-profile scandals and increasing public debt after the financial crisis have put international taxation high on the political agenda. This book offers a rare combination of empirical analysis with normative and institutional proposals for global tax governance.

Tax cuts are such a pervasive feature of the American political landscape that the political establishment rarely questions them. Since 2001, Congress has abolished the tax on inherited wealth and passed a major income tax cut every year, including two of the three largest income tax cuts in American history despite a long drawn-out war and massive budget deficits. The Permanent Tax Revolt traces the origins of this anti-tax campaign to the 1970s, in particular, to the influence of grassroots tax rebellions as homeowners across the United States rallied to protest their local property taxes. Isaac William Martin advances the provocative new argument that the property tax revolt was not a conservative backlash against big government, but instead a defensive movement for government protection from the market. The tax privilege that the tax rebels were defending was in fact one of the largest government social programs in the postwar era. While the movement to defend homeowners' tax breaks drew much of its inspiration—and many of its early leaders—from the progressive movement for welfare rights, politicians on both sides of the aisle quickly learned that supporting big tax cuts was good politics. In time, American political institutions and the strategic choices made by the protesters ultimately channeled the movement toward the kind of tax relief favored by the political right, with dramatic consequences for American politics today.

Taxes connect us to one another, to the common good, and to the future. This is a book about taxes: who pays what and who gets what. More than that, it’s about the role of government, about citizenship and our collective well-being, about the Canada we want. The contributors, leading Canadian practitioners and scholars, explore how taxes have become a political “no-go zone” and how changes in taxation are changing Canada. They challenge the view that any tax is a bad tax and provide broad directions for fairer and smarter approaches. This is a book that will be of interest to anyone concerned with public policy and public affairs, economics, and political science and to anyone interested in challenging the conventional wisdom that lower taxes and smaller government are the cures to what ails us.