Abstract
Several Congresses have passed various forms of minimum tax, both at the individual and corporate level. They have even passed alternative minimum tax bills to squeeze out additional tax revenue that would not otherwise be forthcoming. The problem was caused by the philosophy of taxation they have adopted over the years.
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NOTES
Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Program (1875). The original wording was “Jeder nach seinen Fähigkeiten, jedem nach seinen Bedürfnissen.” Louis Blanc, the French socialist, said basically the same thing in 1848. George Seldes, The Great Thoughts 274 (1985).
I owe this example to Murray N. Rothbard but I can’t remember quite where I read it.
Walter J. Blum and Harry Kalven, Jr., The Uneasy Case for Progressive Taxation (1953); F.A. Hayek, The Case Against Progressive Income Taxes, Freeman 229-232 (1953).
Some would say that utilitarianism is a kind of moral philosophy. If it is, it is defective, for at least two reasons. its premise is based on the greatest good for the greatest number. It incorporates positive-game theory. One problem with the utilitarian approach is that it is not possible to measure gains and losses accurately enough to determine whether the gains exceed the losses. Another problem — one might call it a fatal flaw — is that utilitarianism completely ignores property rights. For more on this point, see Robert W. McGee, The Fatal Flaw in the Methodology of Law & Economics, Commentaries on Law & Economics 1: 209–223 (1997); Robert W. McGee, The Fatal Flaw in NAFTA, GATT and All Other Trade Agreements, Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business 14: 549-565 (1994).
United States v. Helmsley, 941 F.2d 71 (2d Cir. 1991). Interestingly enough, she actually received a refund because she paid too much tax. The reason she went to jail was because she submitted a fraudulent tax return.
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© 2004 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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McGee, R.W. (2004). The Case for a Maximum Tax. In: The Philosophy of Taxation and Public Finance. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9140-9_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9140-9_14
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