We need tax police - and they should go after the likes of Donald Trump

David Cay Johnston

A staggering New York Times report on Trump family tax payments proved it: Congress must let the Internal Revenue Service do its job

When the New York Times exposed decades of tax cheating and “outright fraud” by the sitting president, it prompted people to ask important questions about the corrupt practices of the Trump family. The answers are central to the future of America.

Where was the Internal Revenue Service? How did the Trumps get away with decades of schemes the Times said allowed them to evade close to a half-billion dollars of income and gift taxes? Is Donald Trump continuing these practices? Is that why he refuses to make his own tax returns public? Can anything be done about it?

I’m in a unique position to answer those questions. I am the Times’ former tax reporter, the journalist who has covered Trump longer than anyone else, more than 30 years. And my next book will propose an entirely new tax system for the US and other advanced nations.

The answers to the first and second questions are as easy as they are awful.

Congress, which makes tax law, has never properly supported the IRS, which I like calling the Tax Police Department.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/13/new-york-times-donald-trump-tax

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Let’s hope it decides to work on equal enforcement of the tax laws. Every dollar of tax evaded adds to America’s debt. It means less money to invest in basic scientific research, education and modernizing crumbling infrastructure. Taxes are at the core of democracy. The power to tax is the specific reason the American constitution was adopted, replacing the government-by-bake-sale financing under the Articles of Confederation.