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The Great American Tax Dodge: How Spiraling Fraud and Avoidance Are Killing Fairness, Destroying the Income Tax, and Costing You

AUTHOR: Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele
ISBN: 0520236106
SHORT DESCRIPTION: In The Great American Tax Dodge, a book that should infuriate and galvanize citizens everywhere, the best-selling authors of America: What Went Wrong? expose the millions of Americans who are dodging their income taxes at every honest taxpayer's...

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Editorial Review

The Great American Tax Dodge: How Spiraling Fraud and Avoidance Are Killing Fairness, Destroying the Income Tax, and Costing You
- Book Review, by Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele

Amazon.com
It's often said there's nothing certain in life except death and taxes. According to two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalists Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, however, the latter part of that adage is now decidedly in dispute. The Great American Tax Dodge, the pair's latest examination of U.S. systems gone awry, spells out exactly how massive tax fraud is currently costing the nation enough to provide health care for its 44 million uninsured citizens--and precisely why the problem will continue to grow at virtually all economic levels unless remedial measures are immediately employed. In their fully detailed but always readable style, Barlett and Steele authoritatively discuss multimillionaires who never file tax returns, Internet sites that can link anyone to shady tax havens, the use of "phantom children" and "invisible employees" to illegitimately shelter income, and evasive techniques like offshore accounts and holding companies that illegally keep money from reaching the government agencies to which it is owed. But the problem cannot exclusively be blamed on those individuals who choose to shirk their civic responsibility, the authors note. Congress, which regularly looks the other way, and the IRS itself, which consistently fails to enforce its own rules, also share much of the blame. Packed with specific examples and unsettling particulars, the book will frustrate everyone who dutifully files a tax return each April and expects their fellow Americans to do the same. Fortunately, it also includes a simple yet plausible proposal for turning the situation around. --Howard Rothman

From Publishers Weekly
A hard-hitting expose of perceived gross inequities in the U.S. tax system and of the current epidemic of tax fraud, this often shocking report could prove to be a bestseller, as was the authors' America: What Went Wrong?, published in 1992. Every year, more than 10 million Americans (by the government's own conservative estimate) fail to file federal tax returns and, consequently, honest taxpayers shell out $300 billion to cover what the delinquents owed. The culprit, in the view of Time Inc. writers-at-large Barlett and Steele (two-time Pulitzer winners), is not the IRS per se, though they blast its selective prosecution tactics, archaic computer system and absence of internal oversight. Rather, the fault, they insist, lies with a series of Republican and Democratic presidents and Congresses who, they say, have rewritten the tax laws to favor the privileged; Barlett and Steele present abundant evidence that the IRS stalks small-time tax cases while ignoring or going light on upper-income dodgers. Equally disturbing is their account of how the Internet is rapidly becoming the lead instrument promoting tax avoidance, as countless peopleDnot just the richDset up secret offshore bank accounts, trusts or dummy corporations to hide their assets with the click of a mouse. Barlett and Steele deride current flat-tax proposals as ploys to give a big tax cut to the wealthy at the expense of the less well off. They likewise reject a proposed national sales tax as equally onerous. Their solution: a massive rewrite and simplification of the existing progressive tax structure, elimination of special-interest provisions, and vigorous enforcement. This important, incendiary book may spark a national debate. 5-city author tour. Agent, Andrew Wylie. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The title tells all in this expose by two Pulitzer Prize-winning writers from Time Magazine. The IRS has admitted that tax fraud by individuals may cost the treasury up to $195 billion a year, but the authors point out that the stated amount is based on 1980s data and estimate that the level of current fraud is closer to $300 billion. They repeatedly state that lower- and middle-income taxpayers make up for the loss by paying more than their fair share. They do not address corporate fraud here. The authors blame Congress, and both parties equally, for creating and overcomplicated tax code, passing a special tax breaks, and attempting to emasculate the IRS b not funding enough compliance staff. The IRS comes in for some accurate criticisms, too especially for auditing low- and middle-income earners more frequently than the wealthy. The authors are very much in favor of the progressive tax rate and decry what they see as a a movement to reduce if not eliminate it in favor of a tax system that will benefit the rich. Over 400 footnotes document their case. A responsible and well-argued effort on a topic of great civic importance; highly recommended for high school, public and academic libraries.--Patrick J. Brunet, Western Wisconsin Technical Coll., LaCrossCopyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
An altogether rare bird: a book meant for a popular audience that actually speaks kindly of the IRS.The cost of living in a democracy, muckrakers Barlett and Steele (Forevermore, 1984, etc.) observe, is to participate in the workings of government-and that includes paying your taxes. Millions of Americans, however, either fudge their returns, hide their assets in offshore accounts, or do not file at all, and the richer they are the more likely they are to avoid what is already a light burden, by comparison with other nations (for, as Barlett and Steele write, "over the last three decades, America's elected officials have turned a reasonably fair tax code into one crafted for the benefit of those who give the largest campaign contributions, enjoy the greatest access, hire the most influential lobbyists, or otherwise exercise a power beyond that enjoyed by average citizens"). The inevitable result is that average citizens wind up covering the bill for those best equipped to pay it, a fact that obviously enrages the authors. Given the collapse of common-good civics and the rise of a political culture in which the federal government is seen as evil and untrustworthy, Barlett and Steele observe, it's small wonder that many tax chiselers get away with not paying their due; and, the authors add, all this comes at a time when Congress (their real villain) continually hobbles tax-collection agencies. The authors carry on with sheer polemic for far too long, but they end with an entirely sensible call for closing loopholes, withholding income of all kinds rather than relying on voluntary compliance, and otherwise ending the massive giveaway to the rich that has accompanied a time of phenomenal economic growth.If such changes are not made, the authors insist, democratic society will collapse, as it always does when "taxes fall most onerously on those least able to pay." -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Book Review

The Great American Tax Dodge: How Spiraling Fraud and Avoidance Are Killing Fairness, Destroying the Income Tax, and Costing You
- Book Reviews, by Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele

The Great American Tax Dodge: How Spiraling Fraud and Avoidance Are Killing Fairness,Destroying the Income Tax,and Costing You

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Tax cheating has become so common, so widespread, running through all of society, from the very poor to the very rich, that the United States could not build enough prisons to hold everyone who's doing it. Think Prohibition magnified many times over. Call it the tax cheaters' lottery -- the world's only lottery in which the overwhelming majority of players are winners.

In this story, you will meet people who brag that they have not paid any income tax in years. You will meet multimillionaires who don't even bother to file tax returns. You will explore the money trails that course through the Internet and into the world's tax havens. You will discover how the federal government applies a double standard when it comes to enforcing the tax laws -- one for the rich and well connected, another for everyone else. You will see how the new economy enables the largest companies in America to hire workers who pay no income tax. You will see how members of Congress have undermined tax fairness. You will find out what lawmakers, and the powerful interests who support them, have in store for you. And you will learn how they plan to turn back the clock.

In The Great American Tax Dodge, a book that should infuriate and galvanize citizens everywhere, the bestselling authors of America: What Went Wrong? expose the millions of Americans who are dodging their income taxes at every honest taxpayer's expense. With the clarity, insight, and readability that earned them two Pulitzer Prizes, Barlett and Steele explain how Americans are cheating like never before, and why most are getting away with it.

Meet the Manhattan fun couple who spent $1 million a month to maintain their lifestyle yet never paid income tax, the California couple who provided sport utility vehicles for their children at your expense, the entrepreneur in Costa Rica who shows Americans how to hide their money in clandestine accounts offshore that the U.S. government knows nothing about, and the computer technicians at America's largest corporations who live tax free.

Learn how the Internet has democratized tax cheating as proliferating Web sites and their often mysterious operators offer every service imaginable to escape taxes: secret bank accounts, secret trusts, secret debit cards, and secret holding companies in tax havens around the world.

See how the IRS employs a double standard in tax audits -- one for the rich and well-connected and another for everyone else -- and how the Justice Department tries to jail powerless citizens accused of tax-law violations, while allowing the wealthy and influential to go free.

Learn how Congress is deliberately undermining the income tax in order to replace it with a system that will provide the largest windfall ever for the richest Americans -- and increase the burden on everyone else.

Finally, learn what chance we have to reestablish what was once the fairest tax system in the world.

The Great American Tax Dodge reads like a fast-paced mystery novel with details that no novelist could imagine -- but that are sadly and inescapably true.

FROM THE CRITICS

Baltimore Sun

Barlett and Steele . . . are masters at mining obscure documents to see the big picture where most investigators never even knew there was a frame . . . . Year after year, Congress continues to make tax laws more complex and more unfair, then refuses to give the IRS adequate resources to ferret out fraud. If the tax code isn't reformed soon, the authors warn, the consequences might be dire.

Publishers Weekly

A hard-hitting expos of perceived gross inequities in the U.S. tax system and of the current epidemic of tax fraud, this often shocking report could prove to be a bestseller, as was the authors' America: What Went Wrong?, published in 1992. Every year, more than 10 million Americans (by the government's own conservative estimate) fail to file federal tax returns and, consequently, honest taxpayers shell out $300 billion to cover what the delinquents owed. The culprit, in the view of Time Inc. writers-at-large Barlett and Steele (two-time Pulitzer winners), is not the IRS per se, though they blast its selective prosecution tactics, archaic computer system and absence of internal oversight. Rather, the fault, they insist, lies with a series of Republican and Democratic presidents and Congresses who, they say, have rewritten the tax laws to favor the privileged; Barlett and Steele present abundant evidence that the IRS stalks small-time tax cases while ignoring or going light on upper-income dodgers. Equally disturbing is their account of how the Internet is rapidly becoming the lead instrument promoting tax avoidance, as countless people--not just the rich--set up secret offshore bank accounts, trusts or dummy corporations to hide their assets with the click of a mouse. Barlett and Steele deride current flat-tax proposals as ploys to give a big tax cut to the wealthy at the expense of the less well off. They likewise reject a proposed national sales tax as equally onerous. Their solution: a massive rewrite and simplification of the existing progressive tax structure, elimination of special-interest provisions, and vigorous enforcement. This important, incendiary book may spark a national debate. 5-city author tour. Agent, Andrew Wylie. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

The title tells all in this expose by two Pulitzer Prize-winning writers from Time Magazine. The IRS has admitted that tax fraud by individuals may cost the treasury up to $195 billion a year, but the authors point out that the stated amount is based on 1980s data and estimate that the level of current fraud is closer to $300 billion. They repeatedly state that lower- and middle-income taxpayers make up for the loss by paying more than their fair share. They do not address corporate fraud here. The authors blame Congress, and both parties equally, for creating and overcomplicated tax code, passing a special tax breaks, and attempting to emasculate the IRS b not funding enough compliance staff. The IRS comes in for some accurate criticisms, too especially for auditing low- and middle-income earners more frequently than the wealthy. The authors are very much in favor of the progressive tax rate and decry what they see as a a movement to reduce if not eliminate it in favor of a tax system that will benefit the rich. Over 400 footnotes document their case. A responsible and well-argued effort on a topic of great civic importance; highly recommended for high school, public and academic libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/15/00.]-Patrick J. Brunet, Western Wisconsin Technical Coll., LaCross

Kirkus Reviews

An altogether rare bird: a book meant for a popular audience that actually speaks kindly of the IRS.

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