Key Reading on Taxation

Brownlee, W. Elliot.  Federal taxation in America: a short history.  2nd ed.  Woodrow Wilson Center/Cambridge, 2004.  288p bibl index ISBN 0-521-83665-4, $55.00; ISBN 052154520x pbk, $20.00. Reviewed in 2004dec CHOICE.
42-2315  HJ2362  2003-63904 MARC

In this new edition, Brownlee (history, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara) complements his original authoritative survey of American tax history with a lengthy overview of tax policy during the last quarter century. The original 1996 survey (CH, Nov’96), updated but largely unchanged, remains one of the best introductions to this relatively neglected field. The main text follows the evolution of American tax policy, interpreting the democratic forces shaping institutional change within a “democratic-institutionalist” framework rooted in the progressive histories of the early 20th century. The central turning points in this history coincide with national emergencies–the Revolution, the Civil War, the Great Depression, and the two world wars–as existing institutions are subjected to fundamental reevaluation. The last 40 percent of the text, constituting most of the new material in this edition, chronicles recent history in journalistic detail with a celebratory account of the 1986 Tax Reform Act and a prescient description of post-Reagan conservative forces advancing revolutionary tax changes in the absence of a clear national crisis. Extensive footnotes and a closing bibliographic essay offer excellent opportunities for further study. A valuable work, despite the new edition’s awkward conjunction of history and recent events. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; upper-division undergraduate through professional audiences. — R. S. Hewett, Drake University

Brunori, David.  State tax policy: a political perspective.  2nd ed.  Urban Institute, 2006 (c2005).  148p bibl index afp ISBN 0877667268 pbk, $25.00. Reviewed in 2006oct CHOICE.
44-1036  HJ2385  2005-35536 CIP
 
This short volume provides an excellent survey of state taxation, updating the author’s 2001 edition (CH, Feb’02, 39-3491). Intended primarily as a practitioners’ guide, it keeps theoretical niceties and historical heritage to a minimum. Of principal interest are the five chapters outlining the taxes and other revenue sources currently employed by states. The sales tax, bulwark of state revenues since the Depression, has yielded primacy to the personal income tax with the rise of untaxed services and Internet sales. The corporate income tax, weakened by the proliferation of misguided economic development tax incentives and constantly challenged by corporate tax manipulation, has become a more expensive source of a diminishing share of state revenues. A wide variety of minor taxes are covered in a separate chapter, with a fifth chapter devoted to federal transfers and proceeds from gambling, licenses, and other state fees. Throughout, Brunori (George Washington Univ.) maintains a real economique posture on state tax policy: tax reform to broaden the tax base or alleviate increasing regressivity cannot realistically defy the political power of business interests and other affluent elites. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Public, academic, lower-division undergraduate and up, and professional library collections. — R. S. Hewett, Drake University

Burg, David F.  A world history of tax rebellions: an encyclopedia of tax rebels, revolts, and riots from antiquity to the present.  Routledge, 2004.  502p bibl index afp ISBN 0-415-92498-7, $95.00. Reviewed in 2004may CHOICE.
41-5030  HJ2250  2003-9676 CIP

Burg provides a detailed chronology of tax rebellions, 2350 BCE to 2002 CE. Offering over 390 chronologically arranged entries supplemented by a tax terminology list, appendix, bibliography, and index, Burg supplies a welcome addition to tax literature in a historical context. Each entry contains a bibliography, and illustrations are numerous. The entire gamut of taxation is treated–income taxes, fuel taxes, property taxes, taxes on bananas. A separate section supplies biographies of individuals involved in tax revolts. An overview of taxation history examines the evolution of taxation and serves as a context for the chronological entries. Summing Up: Recommended. Academic and professional readers. — E. Truax, University of North Texas

The Distributional effects of government spending and taxation, ed. by Dimitri B. Papadimitriou.  Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.  310p bibl indexes ISBN 1-4039-9625-3, $90.00; ISBN 9781403996251, $90.00. Reviewed in 2006dec CHOICE. 44-2217  HC110  2005-57768 CIP

Papadimitriou (economics, Bard College) has edited this collection of articles, which analyze the impact of governmental economic policy on the distribution of income in the US and several other countries. Chapter 2, on the net impact of US spending and taxation, reports the startling finding that the net benefit of government per person in the year 2000 was a negative $3,000, but that there are significant net benefits to the poor from redistribution. Other chapters examine the distributional effects of Social Security and tax-favored retirement plans; redistribution in Europe, Australia, and South Korea; the role of social trust in redistribution; and redistribution toward the elderly. This book covers the topic in a more compact way than the Handbook of Income Distribution, edited by Anthony Atkinson and François Bourguignon (2000), with more attention to the tax side but less breadth on the spending side. The treatment is too technical for most undergraduates or the general public. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate, research, and professional collections. — F. E. Foldvary, Santa Clara University

Graetz, Michael J.  Death by a thousand cuts: the fight over taxing inherited wealth, by Michael J. Graetz and Ian Shapiro.  Princeton, 2005.  372p index afp ISBN 0-691-12293-8, $29.95. Reviewed in 2006jul CHOICE.
43-6651  HJ5805  2004-24431 CIP

Yale professors Graetz (law) and Shapiro (political science) examine the attack on progressive taxation in the US through this fascinating analysis of the gradual repeal of the federal estate tax in 2001. Repeal proponents converted a tax on the extremely wealthy into a populist issue by converting the test into one on fairness and fundamental morality, as opposed to being a test on the distribution of tax burden according to economic affluence. Supporters of progressive taxation were left citing statistics and explaining their arguments, while supporters of estate tax repeal told stories. The authors point out that, in politics, stories trump science, and when you are explaining, you are losing. Repeal advocates even managed to build support from groups with nothing to gain from repeal by the way they framed the discussion. While those interested in public policy in general and tax policy in particular can learn much from the book, it is a dismal tale for anyone believing in the marketplace of ideas and the application of social science research to development of public policy. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, graduate students, researchers, and professionals. — J. L. Mikesell, Indiana University—Bloomington

Internal Revenue Service.  Internet Resource. Reviewed in 2006jul CHOICE.
http://www.irs.gov/
43-6652

[Visited Apr’06] Provided by the US Department of the Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service site is an important source of information on federal tax regulations and requirements for a broad audience, general citizens through professionals. It is clean and easy to navigate. A navigation banner lists major sections for individuals, businesses, charities and nonprofits, tax professionals, and other audiences. Each section provides detailed information specific to that group and includes topic and resource areas and links to helpful information. For example, topics for individuals include such items as tax shelters, earned income credit, taxpayer rights, and appeals; resources include information on compliance and enforcement, local office contacts, and e-filing. IRS forms are easily accessible from the main page and from links on secondary pages as well. Useful to researchers is the Tax Stats section, which contains numerous documents and articles providing statistics by topic or type of statistic, e.g., business tax statistics or statistics of income. Other sites, such as Uncle Fed’s Tax Board http://www.unclefed.com/index.html, Federation of Tax Administrators (FTA) http://www.taxadmin.org/, and Tax and Accounting Sites Directory http://www.taxsites.com/, provide some of the same information, forms, and documents. Also, most states have there own sites devoted to tax information. However, the IRS site has all pertinent information on a single authoritative site, which is a time-saver for the user. Researching topics on this site is made even easier by the reliability of the links, most of which are to internal pages. A search feature will assist users in finding exactly what they need. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All collections. — J. Poe, Jacksonville State University

Slemrod, Joel.  Taxing ourselves: a citizen’s guide to the great debate over tax reform, by Joel Slemrod and Jon Bakija.  2nd ed.  MIT, 2000.  348p bibl index afp ISBN 0-262-19429-5, $29.95. Reviewed in 2000nov CHOICE.38-1676  HJ4652  99-23909 CIP

This truly splendid book effectively outlines most issues related to a major topic of concern today. Tax policy and options for badly needed tax reform are thoroughly and engagingly dealt with by mixing serious debate with supporting anecdotes. The book is well written and carefully argued. Slemrod (Univ. of Michigan) and Bakija (Williams Col.) make a strong case for tax reform by analyzing many of the hidden costs of the US’s current tax structure. They then look at alternative tax structures, such as retail sales taxes, value-added taxes, and income minus savings taxes, and end with options for reforming the current personal income tax. For each alternative, they ask whether the tax structure is equitable, politically feasible, efficient in the sense of not influencing economic decisions, and conducive to the prosperity of the US. This reviewer has two criticisms of the book. First, many charts and data end with the year 1990, and thus do not capture some of the important economic events of the past decade. Second, comparisons of US government spending levels with other countries do not exclude health care expenditures of many of these countries’ governments, making these comparisons questionable since health costs are not funded entirely by the US government. Recommended for public and academic library collections. — E. D. Craig, University of Delaware

Steuerle, C. Eugene.  Contemporary U.S. tax policy.  Urban Institute, 2004.  322p bibl index afp ISBN 0-87766-720-9 pbk, $24.00.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2004nov CHOICE.
42-1687  HJ2381  2004-6717 CIP
In this valuable book, Steuerle, America’s most respected authority on federal tax policy, provides a balanced insider’s view of how US tax policy has developed in the past quarter century and why the tax code is so complex. He reviews personal and corporate tax changes since the 1950s but gives greatest emphasis to Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II policies. In essence, the system has become cumbersome, complex, and costly to operate because both parties use tax preferences for social, economic, and political agendas. The preferences are widely distributed, not just for the rich and powerful, and they are generally inefficient ways of supporting the preferred group. The system–no matter which party shapes it–emerges from a politically responsive democracy and an eagerness to use the tax code for purposes other than raising revenue. Only sober realization that the tax code is how government is financed can break the complexity spiral. The book avoids technical complexity and should be read by lawmakers, scholars, and anyone who wants to understand how the federal government decides how to raise revenue. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections. — J. L. Mikesell, Indiana University-Bloomington

Theory and practice of excise taxation: smoking, drinking, gambling, polluting, and driving, ed. by Sijbren Cnossen.  Oxford, 2005.  255p bibl index afp ISBN 0-19-927859-8, $65.00. Reviewed in 2005oct CHOICE.
43-1067  HJ5703  MARC

These eight essays, edited by Dutch economist Cnossen, examine the economics and, to a slightly lesser extent, the politics of major selective excise taxes around the world. Coverage includes tobacco (Cnossen and Michael Smart), alcoholic beverages (Stephen Smith), gambling (Charles Clotfelter), environmental levies (Jean-Philippe Barde and Nils Axel Braathen), city waste (Don Fullerton), and road user and congestion charges (David Michael Newberry). Essays are accompanied by Cnossen’s useful introduction and overview (which also summarizes discussant observations on each paper from a conference at which they were presented), and Bruno Frey’s fine concluding piece on the politics and psychology of excise taxation. As would be expected from the cast of authors, the papers are straightforward, insightful, lucid, and generally accessible to both scholars and policy makers. The collection provides an excellent starting point for any serious analysis of indirect taxation and even for optimizing environmental user charges. Unfortunately, there is little formal attention to taxes on petroleum products other than in relation to the two “big excises” (tobacco and alcohol), but this is a minor omission in a truly outstanding collection of essays. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate, research, and professional collections. — J. L. Mikesell, Indiana University–Bloomington

Walden, Michael L.  Smart economics: commonsense answers to 50 questions about government, taxes, business, and households.  Praeger, 2005.  205p bibl index afp ISBN 0-275-98750-7, $34.95. Reviewed in 2006jan CHOICE.
43-2912  HC106  2005-13509 CIP

Walden (agricultural and resource economics, North Carolina State Univ.) uses basic economic concepts and logic to examine the meaning, implications, and possible solutions to 50 current economic issues. Aimed squarely at the general reader, the book is organized as a series of questions with each two- to five-page chapter laying out the basic facts surrounding the issue and applying mainstream economic reasoning to explain those facts. Each chapter ends with a concise summary of the author’s views on the issue. The issues are organized into four sections, with questions about federal government actions, programs, and spending; taxes; business and trade; and household income and expenditures. Specific issues include budget deficits and the national debt, Social Security, outsourcing, the trade deficit, gasoline prices, sports franchises, immigration, poverty, and health care. Chapters, particularly those devoted simply to questions of fact, which often deflate popular wisdom, are generally of high quality in both writing and analysis. Glossary; notes for each chapter, some of which provide suggestions for additional reading. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers; all levels of undergraduates. — D. A. Latzko, Pennsylvania State University, York Campus

Weisman, Steven R.  The great tax wars.  Simon & Schuster, 2002.  419p bibl index ISBN 0-684-85068-0, $27.00. Reviewed in 2003jan CHOICE.
40-2916  HJ4652  2002-70486 CIP

A readable and informative political and economic history of the graduated income tax, Weisman’s work is spiced liberally with excellent sketches of important participants in the debate, notably Lincoln, Cleveland, William J. Bryan, Roosevelt, and Wilson. The first income tax bill of 1862 emerged primarily from the North’s need to finance the Civil War. Although the tax was repealed in 1872, the expanding economic functions of government intensified the need for tax revenue. Tariffs, the prime source of federal revenue since the founding of the Republic, proved inadequate. Always an occasion for contentious and divisive political debate, tariffs were also increasingly viewed as a “silent sales tax,” unfairly regressive in their effects on lower-income classes. Weisman recounts how the government’s need for revenue coupled with the growing maldistribution of wealth and income created support for the 1894 graduated tax. Although the Supreme Court declared the graduated tax unconstitutional in 1895, the case for a “progressive tax” based on the “ability to pay” principle continued to build, in part stimulated by the Populist and Progressive movements. Eventually, the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution permitted final passage of a federal graduated income tax in 1913. Recommended for public and academic library collections, lower-division undergraduate and up. — F. Petrella, College of the Holy Cross

© American Library Association. Contact [email protected] for permission to reproduce or redistribute.