As we commence the new year (2020), we prepare ourselves for
what awaits us: spring showers, flowers, and the hand of the tax
collector reaching into our pockets. For most persons, tax is an
"unpleasant subject" of complex and inexplicable rules,
administered with bureaucratic ferocity and, often, resulting in
expensive litigation over an extended period. It has always been
so. Tax law has a long history and has been reviled since its
inception. However, despite its unpleasant nature, tax law is the
root of some of our most cherished values of the rule of law in our
democracy.
The word "tax" is associated in history with
unpleasant events, such as wars, revolutions, expropriations, and
looting. The word derives from the Latin "taxare":
"to name; to describe; to heap up; to appraise; to tax".
Taxes are essentially compulsory expropriations levied on persons,
property, or businesses to support expenditures by government,
generally, but not always, for the public good.
