Some tabs that have slid through my browser in recent days:
- I recently noticed that The Sparrows’s Nest Library and Archive has made a lot of material from the poll tax rebellion in the U.K. — posters, pamphlets, newsletters, and such — available on-line. You can also find this collection at the Internet Archive if you prefer its interface.
- Some Boston homeowners are contemplating tax resistance — putting their property taxes in escrow — to protest the failure of the local government to address “safety and quality of life issues.”
- More traffic ticket robots have fallen to spraypaint and fire in France in recent weeks.
- As you may have heard, The New York Times finally got ahold of Donald Trump’s tax returns. They show that he didn’t pay income taxes most years, and when he did in recent years it was token amounts ($750). This seems to be largely because of grandiose business losses combined with sketchy deductions for business expenses (like $70,000 in annual hair care, or “consulting fees” to his family). The upshot of this to us here at The Picket Line is that this contributes to the public impression that the rich evade taxes with impunity and that taxpaying is for suckers, thus degrading “taxpayer morale” and the willingness of taxpayers to cough up their tribute voluntarily. See ♇ 25 November 2012 for more about attacks on the pillars of taxpayer compliance.
