Rating: 
Summary: Perfectly Legal
Review: Written by David Cay Johnston I do not attack the Bush family in my book.
In my book I explicitly state that it is perfectly proper for rich families to seek to tilt the tax system in their favor, that the problem is that the middle class has largely withdrawn from politics and the members of Congress -- many of whom, I have interviewed -- have their minds focused on the concerns of their donors, who are a narrow and rich group of Americans. That Congress behaves as it does fits perfectly with classic economic theory (I went to the Chicago graduate school of economics on a fellowship 31 years ago).
I certainly say that the rich overall -- and they are not monolithic -- have changed our tax system and that the results we see today re not the result of normal capitalism, but a rigged market.
But frankly I am just skimming here what commentators who have read the book, left and right and in the middle, have all been describing as -- and these are not my words, but theirs -- with terms like "extraordinary achievement," "One of the most important documents in the history of the Republic," "even handed," "the most extraordinary work of journalism I have ever read"..... Yesterday on the radio a leading lobbyist for the rich on taxes, who opened up on a radio interview with an attack, soon found himself saying again and again that he agreed with what I was saying.......
So I hope you take the time to read the book, which is not an attack on the Bush family (and, indeed, makes no mention of any Bush other than the two presidents in their official role as President except for my examination of George W. Bush's income tax return to make a particular point about the tax system and the IRS).
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Summary: Great Read...And Great Knowledge W/I It
Review: This is a great book, I never read the NYT before but from now on
I will be daily reader. What this book does well is show specific examples...thats what i liked the most. I also suggest other books about tax's such as 'The Great American Tax Dodge'.
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Summary: There's a reason Geo. Soros is against Bush...
Review: and he's super rich! Because he has a conscious and the vision to see where America is heading if the present political and economic course is followed, feudalism. But most of the rich in this country can rationalize and support Bush for good reason, it affects them directly in the pocket with seam-splitting tax savings and windfalls. This book and Molly Ivin's "Bushwhacked" should give voters all the true, fair, and impartial information necessary to cast an informed vote come election day. Too bad most Americans don't read. If you think Enron was bad, just wait. Once re-elected, Bush and the neocons won't care if you're Republican, Democrat, or Independant. If you're not in the top 10% wealth bracket, you, your children and grandchildren are in for a royal screwing.
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Summary: The inside scoop
Review: As one who has been following David Cay Johnston's work for years in the newspaper, I am delighted that he has found a venue for laying out--in all its gruesome detail--how certain politicians, lobbyists and business leaders (enjoying great favor under the Bush Administation) have siphoned off America's middle class wealth to make the rich richer. This is a shocking story. Instead of wasting their time on talk shows and conspiracy theories, people should read the facts--just the facts--and make their reaction known through the political system. Are the Democratic candidates listening?
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Summary: Perfectly Legal by David Cay Johnston
Review: Perfectly Legal by NYTimes Pulitzer Prize writer, David Cay Johnston, is the one book that all of us struggling to make ends meet cannot live without. In clear, indignant prose, Johnston writes about the political manipulations of our tax system so the superrich get richer and the poor get children--or jobs as checkers at Wal-Mart. Johnston shows how our tax system cheats most Americans out of their ability to save--or spend--while low taxes on investment incomes fill the pockets and swell the bankbooks of the super-rich to overflowing. Indicting both Republicans and Democrats, presidents and members of Congress, Johnston recommends tax reforms that will benefit the majority of Americans--not just the Super-Rich. Johnston's call to arms to the Everyday American is must reading. As Johnston writes, "It is by our actions, or inactions, that we create our own future. We can go on with what we have and pay a heavy price in lost opportunity. Or we can speak up one by one until we are heard. Ultimately, we can create a tax system actually promotes long-term prosperity." Placing the responsibility squarely on our shoulders, Johnston urges us, "Reform begins with you." Book Clubs owe it to themselves to adopt and discuss Perfectly Legal. And those of us who are lonely readers trying to figure out why we work so hard and have so little will find Perfectly Legal an investment in bettering our futures.
Rating: 
Summary: perfectly readable
Review: Mr. Johnston has written a very easy-to-understand and factual book that mainly documents specific historical events rather than many possible events. This slim book will probably confirm the reader's hunch that all is not well in terms of taxation in the United States. He gives examples of how the elite have managed to shift the load of paying for government onto an over-taxed middle class, and how the middle class shoots itself in the foot at election time by buying into slogans and wishful thinking. This book is not more than a good start for anyone wanting to get into the issues, and I therefore give it four stars; had the book been more extensive, it might deserve five stars, in my opinion.
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Summary: America at Risk
Review: David Cay Johnston's exposition of recent developments in the economic structure of America falls somewhere between "highly disturbing" and "terrifying." In 317 pages, this Pulitzer winning author sets forth a fact-laden indictment of the increasing inequity of the tax system. His wide-ranging anecdotes are well-supported by much broader statistics. And while his tone is never shrill, his message is one of alarm. The system is simply not working; the range and depth of the problems he cites are astounding. It is a book I highly recommend. It is no particular news to learn that the rich are getting richer and that the poor are lagging behind, but it may be news for many that the middle class and the upper middle class are increasingly being tasked with carrying a burden that the rich and the super rich find ways to avoid. The chapter that explains how the Alternative Minimum Tax will eliminate most any benefit that taxpayers with incomes below $500,000 might ever see from the 2003 Bush tax cuts is particularly enlightening. As Johnston lucidly argues, the issue is not about "cutting taxes" but more fundamentally questioning who should bear the burden of the cost of a civilized society and to what extent. His indictment runs against Republicans and Democrats (the two wings of the "party of money") alike and heavily censures those whom he calls the "political donor class." As he suggests, facile slogans such as "It's your money, not the government's money" only obscures the sober realities that there are jobs that only the government can do and that someone must pay for them. Yet, as Johnston explains, rather than considering the issues of what the functions of government should be and how they should be underwritten, the country's current situation is ont that is rank with greed and in which the common understanding is "let someone else pay for it, only fools pay taxes." Ultimately, Johnston's message is a call to action: "Democracy is about each of us pursuing our self-interest in the belief that our society can achieve a common goal. Yet those who wash their hands of politics, do not vote, do not make the effort to be informed and do not talk about public issues with our families, friends and neighbors cede to others the shaping of society and the conditions of our lives. It is this apathy that has allowed certain individuals to contort, or even to remake, rules that work for their benefit at the expense of the average American taxpayer." (p. 3). In reading "Perfectly Legal," I was reminded that, during the Middle Ages, only the pesants paid taxes. Such a system will eventually break down in instability and insurrection. Accordingly, a decent companion volume to "Perfectly Legal" might well be "The Oxford History of the French Revolution" (William Doyle, Oxford Press 1989).
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Summary: dismaying account of a corrupt tax system
Review: While I found much to dismay and horrify me within this book, I suspect I also often did not interpret things in the way the author intended. The author seems to hold a viewpoint in which if you avoid paying a tax--even legally--you have gained income, rather than merely avoided an expense. The author seems to hold the view there is a fixed amount of tax that is the right amount to collected, and if one person or entity reduces its tax burden, it thereby increases the burden on everyone else, cheating them. This is a judgment without any regard to the other side of the coin, government spending. While I agree that at the extremes (many of which are portrayed in this book), there is clear-cut cheating and not paying a fair share by any reasonable standard, I would not agree that all or even most legal tax avoidance falls into that category. Those who favor limited government and balanced budgets are likely to have a similar reaction to much of what the author writes.
That said, however, he makes a very strong case that the U.S. tax system is unfair and corrupt, that the IRS is limited in its ability to go after tax cheats who are breaking the law, and that the net effect is to give tremendous benefits to the richest of the rich, while the burden on everyone else (regardless of whether those taxes are being collected for legitimate or frivolous purposes) has increased.
He has chapters on how the alternative minimum tax (AMT) is completely broken and is now impacting a growing number of the middle class, how tax-exempt insurance companies are being exploited as a mechanism for storing hundreds of millions of dollars in investments and avoiding taxes on the gains, on those who simply refuse to file or pay income taxes at all, on
the effects of Reagan-era payroll tax increases, on tax-evading partnership schemes and the IRS's complete inability to devote any resources to detecting them, on American companies moving their headquarters to Bermuda to avoid taxes, and on the destruction of pensions at many large companies. All are fascinating reading.
I agree with the author that something should be done, and that something should include a complete overhaul and simplification of the U.S. tax code, to make it fair and enforceable. But I am not optimistic that anything will be done--I think the level of corruption in the federal government is so high, and that because the behavior of bureaucrats and legislators is more accurately described by public choice theory than by political science, that it is unlikely we'll see radical change in a positive direction.
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Summary: Class Warfare, Anyone?
Review: Man, this book is infuriating! We often hear just how unequal the distribution of wealth has become in America. We hear it so often, in fact, that we begin to think that inequality is just inherent in capitalism itself, the price we must pay for creative and entrepreneurial freedom. But Johnston explodes this impression, outlining the exact mechanism of moving wealth upwards: the tax system. And this is not a typical leftie book, bashing the Republicans for screwing over the little guy. Johnston makes it perfectly clear that most of the systemic tax inequities and loopholes were put in place by Democrats.
How, for example, could of group of tax avoiders take out a full page ad in USA Today, an ad that claims that the US government has no right to legally tax anyone, and not even get audited? But that's just what happened. And we're not talking conspiracies here. Johnston interviews dozens of current and former IRS employees, many of whom have entered the private sphere to sell their tax-dodging skills on the open market. And the picture is clear: the political donor class, who give to both Democrats and Republicans, have convinced their congressional lackeys to strip down the IRS so that it has no enforcement teeth anymore. The result is dwindling tax receipts, and a surge in the easy auditing of the poor, who have no legal resources to tie up the IRS in the courts. It's as simple as that. Since the 1970s, the proportion of taxes paid by corporations and the wealthy have plummeted, with poor and middle class wage earners picking up the slack.
This book is crucial to understanding the class war that is being waged by the rich on everyone else.
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Summary: An Amazing Book - The USA Tax System Is Primarily Regressive
Review: This book provides facts and knowledge that we should have been aware of, but most of us were not aware of. That is that the USA tax system is primarily regressive and not progressive as it is "advertised" to be. The USA tax system is very complex and there are many points that can be made. The book only covered some of them.
The FICA tax is little more than an income tax because the money goes into the general fund. It is highly regressive and for many Americans more burdensome than the regular income tax. The FICA tax does not have deductions and is charged to the first dollar that one makes. Even if one has a low income with just enough money for necessities, he/she is fully taxed by the FICA & Medicare tax.
The complexities of the tax system also make it very regressive since only the wealthy have the ability, knowledge, means, resources and access to expert advice to arrange their affairs in the many ways that minimize taxes. The reality is that many of the wealthy pay an overall tax rate that is the same as or even less than persons with modest and low incomes.
The bottom line is that we should have known this, if we did not, because the tax system and the political process is run by the most powerful persons in our society and thay have constructed a regressive tax system to benefit the wealthy.
(Hamden)
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