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Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich--and Cheat Everybody Else | 
 enlarge | Author: David Cay Johnston
Publisher: Portfolio Trade
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
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Rating:  115 reviews
Sales Rank: 354386
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 1591840694
Dewey Decimal Number: 336.200973
EAN: 9781591840695
ASIN: 1591840694
Publication Date: January 4, 2005
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Amazon.com Review
Most Americans would agree that they are duty bound as beneficiaries of our democracy to pay taxes, and the majority of us do pay-exorbitantly. But what about those who do not pay their fair share? David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the New York Times, here reveals how fairness and equity have eroded from the American tax system. Johnston describes in shocking detail the loopholes our government provides the "super rich"--from private individuals to profitable corporations-to hide their wealth, to defer or evade tax payments, and to pass the bill to law-abiding middle-class Americans. The loss in revenue "imposes a severe cost on honest taxpayers" through reduced services, increased federal debt, and a weight on the middle class that threatens to impede its ability to achieve upward social mobility. Admitting the extreme complexity of our economy and by extension our tax code, Johnston points out that the very wealthy do, of course, pay taxes. However, because of shelters that allow them to understate most of their income, they pay little more on average than most Americans on the dollar. This is regressive, and unquestionably favors the superrich. Johnston includes examples of outrageous corporate malfeasance (such as companies that establish off-shore tax addresses) and exposes the tax benefits of the particularly loathsome practice made famous by Jack Welch, in which thousands of wage earners are laid off while a handful of executives are granted hundreds of millions of dollars through deferred compensation, company stock options, and lucrative retirement packages, all at stock holders' xpense. In addition to these offenses, he describes the tax evasion methods of those who simply defy the law and are emboldened by a beleaguered IRS that is too underfunded to serve as an effective deterrent to tax cheats. Johnston calls for a complete overhaul of the system. But because those who most benefit from these laws comprise the "donor class" that supports the government power structure, our prospects for reform remain very bleak. --Silvana Tropea
Product Description
One of the country's top investigative reporters reveals how the richest 1 percent of the country has rigged the tax code and other laws in its favor.
Since the mid-1970s, there has been a dramatic shift in America's socioeconomic system, one that has gone virtually unnoticed by the general public. Tax policies and their enforcement have become a disaster, and thanks to discreet lobbying by a segment of the top 1 percent, Washington is reluctant or unable to fix them. The corporate income tax, the estate tax, and the gift tax have been largely ignored by the media. But the cumulative results are remarkable: today someone who earns a yearly salary of $60,000 pays a larger percentage of his income in taxes than the four hundred richest Americans.
Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter David Cay Johnston exposes exactly how the middle class is being squeezed to create a widening wealth gap that threatens the stability of the country. By relating the compelling tales of real people across all areas of society, he reveals the truth behind:
* "middle class" tax cuts and exactly whom they benefit
* how workers are being cheated out of their retirement plans while disgraced CEOs walk away with millions
* how some corporations avoid paying any federal income tax
* how a law meant to prevent cheating by the top 2 percent of Americans no longer affects most of them, but has morphed into a stealth tax on single mothers making just $28,000
* why the working poor are seven times more likely to be audited by the IRS than everyone else
* how the IRS became so weak that even when it was handed complete banking records detailing massive cheating by 1,600 people, it prosecuted only 4 percent of them
Johnston has been breaking pieces of this story on the front page of The New York Times for seven years. With Perfectly Legal, he puts the whole shocking narrative together in a way that will stir up media attention and make readers angry about the state of our country.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 110 more reviews...
 Excellent and disturbing May 25, 2008
I read this book when it came to paperback a couple of years after its published date. I was so disturbed by some of the stories of freeloaders and tax cheats that I had to stop and google the offenders and to my surprise many of them are now behind bars for tax fraud!
No one likes paying taxes, but as a self-employed person I pay more than my fair share four times a year, and I am in the most likely group to be audited! So trust me I hate taxes as much as anyone.
But this book is really about the entire tax system and how it is broken and slanted for those with the very most. Mr. Johnston explains in detailed analysis going decades back into our tax codes, laws and rates and how over time the burden has been shifted from corporations and the extremely wealthy to ordinary working Americans. Johnston is also quite fair in blaming both political parties, and political leaders for their lack of tax understanding, tax laws and basic economic theory. The problems are on both sides of the fence, and we need to fix our system before things like the punishing Alternative Minimum Tax hit more and more middle income people.
Some other topics that Mr. Johnston brings up. How misguided political slashing of the IRS budget and staff has lead to an increase of audits of the poorest and the least able to fight back. And if you file for the Earned Income Tax credit, a credit for poor working parents, you are extremely likely to be audited. Meanwhile the extremely wealthy get by with huge tax scams costing the system billions.
Also a very quick read, Johnston has a way of writing complicated economic data simply. I read this in about 4 days. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
Do you wanna know how little you matter to our government--enough to be audited because you aren't the super rich! May 9, 2008
Read this book yesterday! This is important stuff and will piss you off on every page--get to it!
Easy but difficult read March 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I cannot offer enough enthusiasm in the written word to tell all Americans to read this book. It is easy and clear reading; but, I also add difficult because I could read only a few pages before having to take a breather. The book, by its revelations, so incenses me that I feel as though the top of my head will blow off.
How can we, as adult citizens, allow the wealthy and their hirelings to get away with screwing the general public so much? Johnston's book tells so much that it is almost too much. His next book, Free Lunch, is just as devastating to the wealthy. This country is going down the tubes and Johnston tells us most of the reasons why.
I dont have much to add March 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
To some of the excellent reviews already published.
I just wanted to say READ THIS BOOK! The author does an enormous amount of personal research on the subject. Although it will outrage you, it will also enlighten you. I think this is one of the best books I have read in the last 10 years.
Excellent reporting March 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Johnston is an articulate writer who has a broad understanding of the US tax system, and has written on the topic for the NYT for some time.
This book, like his articles on the same topic, is well-written and a comprensive look at the problem of the manipulation of the tax code by special interest.
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