While reading about corporate income tax I learned something terrifying:
As recently as 2006, the gap between taxes owed and taxes paid was about 17%, in the US. In total, $385 billion in owed taxes were not paid. At first I thought liberals were responsible, but
And, as we know, liberals don't run businesses, preferring government handouts to buy their books about evolution.Sole proprietors, a major class of small businesses, report less than half of their income to the IRS.
In fact, under-reported business income is the single largest source of the tax gap, amounting to fully $122 billion in 2006 alone.
But, is dodging your taxes that much better than getting handouts from a broke government being witheld 17% of its income?
Is this tax gap due to people dodging their taxes, and, if so, should they be stopped from doing so?
What are the consequences of this tax-gap, and how may the negative consequences best be addressed?