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Thoughts on taxes

Published: Feb 20, 2016 07:22:45 AM IST
Updated: Feb 18, 2016 05:31:27 PM IST
Thoughts on taxes
Image: Chaitanya Dinesh Surpur

We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. —Winston Churchill

In other words, a democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it. —Alexis de Tocqueville

Be wary of a strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss. —Robert A Heinlein

Where is the politician who has not promised to fight to death for lower taxes and who has not proceeded to vote for the very spending projects that make tax cuts impossible? —Barry Goldwater

A tax cut to compensate for a tax increase is not a cut—it’s a con. —Tony Abbott

I’m spending a year dead for tax reasons. —Douglas Adams

It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low, and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the tax rates.
—John F Kennedy

Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today. —Herman Wouk

You don’t pay taxes—they take taxes. —Chris Rock

The devil appears in many forms, but the most nefarious of all are tax forms. —Jarod Kintz

An income tax form is like a laundry list—either way you lose your shirt. —Fred Allen

A tax loophole is something that benefits the other guy. If it benefits you, it is tax reform. —Russell B Long

We are all equal, but some pay higher tax rates than others. —Jeff Rich

Day in and day out, your tax accountant can make or lose you more money than any single person in your life, with the possible exception of your kids. —Harvey Mackay

For every tax problem, there is a solution which is straightforward, uncomplicated and wrong. —Anonymous

Why does a slight tax increase cost you two hundred dollars and a substantial tax cut save you thirty cents?
—Peg Bracken

“The nation should have a tax system that looks like someone designed it on purpose.”
—William E Simon



“The hardest thing to understand in the world is the income tax.”
—Albert Einstein

(This story appears in the 04 March, 2016 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)

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