Taxes

When I find a man who is not willing to bear his share of the burdens of the government which protects him, I find a man who is unworthy to enjoy the blessings of a government like ours.
~ William Jennings Bryan, Speech at the National Democratic Convention, Chicago IL (1896).

I would like to electrocute everyone who uses the word "fair" in connection with income tax policies.
~ William F. Buckley, Jr., in National Review (12 July 1985). Better than nothing

The personal income tax has made the individual vastly more dependent on the State and more avid for State handouts. It has shifted the balance in America from an individual-centered to a State-centered economic and social system.
~ William Henry Chamberlin, The Evolution of a Conservative (1959).

Nothing is so well calculated to produce a death-like torpor in the country as an extended system of taxation and a great national debt.
~ William Cobbett, letter, (10 February 1804)

The tendency of taxation is, to create a class of persons who do not labor; to take from those who do labor, the produce of that labor, and to give it to those who do not labor.
~ William Cobbett, Paper Against Gold (1828).

[W]e are living in a sick society filled with people who would not directly steal from their neighbors but who are willing to demand that the government do it for them.
~ William L. Comer

Many inequities are inherent in the income tax. We multiply them needlessly by nice distinctions which have no place in the practical administration of the law.
~ William Orville Douglas (dissenting opinion), United States v. Lewis, 340 U.S. 590 (1951).

Tax statutes and tax regulations never have been static. Experience, changing needs, changing philosophies inevitably produce constant change in each.
~ William Orville Douglas (court opinion), Helvering v. Wilshire Oil Co., 308 U.S. 90 (1939).

[I]f Congress can determine what constitutes the general welfare, and can appropriate money for its advancement, where is the limitation to carrying into execution whatever can be effected by money?
~ William Drayton, from Register Of Debates In Congress, Volume IV (1828). Bill on Internal Improvements (26 February 1828)

The reward of energy, enterprise and thrift -- is taxes.
~ William Feather

[A]ll excess in the public expenditure beyond the legitimate wants of the country is not only a pecuniary waste -- for that, although an important, is yet a comparatively trifling matter -- but a great political, and, above all, a great moral evil.
~ William Ewart Gladstone, Speech Before the House of Commons, Financial Statement of 1861 (15 April 1861).

The idea of abolishing Income Tax is to me highly attractive, both on other grounds & because it tends to public economy.
~ William Ewart Gladstone, (1873).

The promises of yesterday are the taxes of today.
~ William Lyon Mackenzie King, in William Lyon Mackenzie King: A Political Biography, Volume II (1963).

Big governments demand big taxation. When part of the economy is informal, and untaxed, the burden falls heavily on legitimate businesses.
~ William W. Lewis, The Power of Productivity: Wealth, Poverty, and the Threat to Global Stability (2004). Prologue

The history of separation of church and state in Massachusetts from 1692 to the Great Awakening is a story of how the Quakers, Baptists, and Anglicans fought, each in their own way, to establish their right to exemption from paying compulsory religious taxes for the support of the Congregational churches.
~ William G. McLoughlin, Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England (1991). Soul Liberty: The Baptists' Struggle in New England, 1630-1833

Scofflaws who have doggedly refused to pay their taxes, especially those who owe in excess of $20,000, deserve to be in this Cyber Hall of Shame. More importantly, this tactic may make tax evaders think twice about their actions and increase compliance with our tax laws.
~ Bill Owens, Office of the Governor -- Press Office (19 May 2003). Owens Signs "Cyber Hall Of Shame" Bill: Names of Tax Evaders to be Posted on Internet

A Lottery ... is properly a Tax upon unfortunate self-conceited fools; men that have good opinion of their own luckiness, or that have believed some Fortune-teller or Astrologer.
~ Sir William Petty, A Treatise of Taxes, and Contributions (1662). Chapter 8: Of Lotteries

He knows the tax code as thoroughly as the pope knows the Lord's Prayer.
~ William Proxmire

I see a good deal of talk from Washington about lowering taxes. I hope they do get 'em lowered enough so people can afford to pay 'em.
~ Will Rogers

If you make any money, the government shoves you in the creek once a year with it in your pockets, and all that don't get wet you can keep.
~ Will Rogers

Comedians haven't improved. Nothing has improved but taxes.
~ Will Rogers

Noah must have taken into the Ark two taxes, one male and one female. And did they multiply bountifully! Next to guinea pigs, taxes must have been the most prolific animals.
~ Will Rogers

The difference between death and taxes is death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets.
~ Will Rogers

The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has. Even when you make a tax form out on on the level, you don't know when it's through if you are a crook or a martyr.
~ Will Rogers, The Illiterate Digest (1924). Helping the Girls with their Income Taxes

There should be a tax on every man that wanted to get a government appointment, or be elected to office. In two years that tax alone would pay our national debt.
~ Will Rogers

You should pay on things that you buy outside of bare necessities. I think this sales tax is the best tax we have had in years.
~ Will Rogers

Little Norway is a land of large taxes.
~ William Sansom, from Blue Skies, Brown Studies (1961).

The Nation should have a tax system that looks like someone designed it on purpose.
~ William E. Simon, in U.S. Department of Treasury Blueprints for Basic Tax Reform (January 1977).

The tax collector must love poor people, he's creating so many of them.
~ William E. "Bill" Vaughan

It's now easier than ever before to give your money to the district. ... DC is the first U.S. city to offer individual taxpayers and businesses access to full tax services, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
~ Anthony Williams, WJLA-TV (14 January 2002). Officials Introduce New DC Tax Collection System