Friday's Tax Quote - August 31, 2012

“By this time fashion had condemned the beard in every other country in Europe, and with a voice more potent than popes or emperors, had banished it from civilized society.  But this only made the Russians cling more fondly to their ancient ornament, as a mark to distinguish them from foreigners, whom they hated.  Peter [the Great], however, resolved that they should be shaven…Wiser, too, than the popes and bishops of a former age, he did not threaten them with eternal damnation, but made them pay in hard cash the penalty of their disobedience.  For many years, a very considerable revenue was collected from this source….Those who were refractory, and refused to pay the tax, were thrown into prison.”

- Charles Mackay

Friday's Tax Quote - August 24, 2012

“The principle is this – that you ought not in a free country to lay a tax on the expression of political opinion – a tax on the diffusion of that information on public affairs which the spirit of our constitution makes the interest and concern of every subject in the State.  Still more, you should not, by means of that tax, create such an artificial necessity for capital that you secure the monopoly of thought upon the subjects that most interest the public at large to a handful of wealthy and irresponsible oligarchs.”

- Edward George Bulwer-Lytton

Friday's Tax Quote - August 17, 2012

“Taxation under every form presents but a choice of evils.”

- David Richardo

Friday's Tax Quote - August 10, 2012

“Was it Bonaparte who said that he found vices very good patriots? –‘he got five millions from the love of brandy, and he should be glad to know which of the virtues would pay him as much.’ Tobacco and opium have broad backs, and will cheerfully carry the load of armies.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Friday's Tax Quote - August 3, 2012

“A use tax is a tax on the enjoyment of that which was purchased.”

- Felix Frankfurter

Friday's Tax Quote - July 27, 2012

“A old tax is a good tax.”

- Old Folk Saying

Friday's Tax Quote - July 20, 2012

“Virtually all persons or objects in this country…may have tax problems.  Every day the economy generates thousands of sales, loans, gifts purchase, leases, wills and the like, which suggests the possibility of tax problems for somebody.  Our economy is tax relevant in almost every detail.”

- Potter Stewart

Friday's Tax Quote - July 13, 2012

“And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king.  And he said, this will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you…he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.  And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.  He will take the tenth of you sheep; and ye shall be his servants.  And ye shall cry out in that day because your king, which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day.”

- Old Testament

Friday's Tax Quote - July 6, 2012

“The payment of taxes gives a right to protection.”

- James M. Wayne

Friday's Tax Quote - June 29, 2012

“Visibility enables individuals and businesses to know the true cost of transactions.  It also enables them to see what their total tax liability is and to which level of government it is being paid.  When a tax is not visible, it can be easily retained or raised with little, if any, awareness among taxpayers about how the tax affects them.”

- Tax Division of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

Friday's Tax Quote - June 22, 2012

“There are those who seem to have nothing else to do but to suggest modes of taxation to men in office.”

- Robert Peel

Friday's Tax Quote - June 15, 2012

“Taxation must affect the distribution of income, whether we will it so or not.”

- Henry C. Simons

Friday's Tax Quote - June 8, 2012

“I like to pay taxes.  It makes me feel less guilty.”

- Anonymous Member of a Two-Income Couple

Friday's Tax Quote - June 1, 2012

“[I]n one sense the tax structure is art – a subsuming of the infinite muddle of human activity under a single rubric, as though it had a single purpose and could be ordered by a mind heaving the line of a single vision.”

- John Casey

Friday's Tax Quote - May 25, 2012

“We shall now embark on a voyage through the various sections of the Income Tax Regulations which are enough to boggle the mind of an English speaking U.S. citizen.”

- William A Goeffe

Friday's Tax Quote - May 18, 2012

“Don’t tax you, don’t tax me;
Tax the companies across the sea.”

- Dan Rostenkowski

Friday's Tax Quote - May 11, 2012

“When it comes to finances, remember that there are no withholding taxes on the wages of sin.”

- Mae West

Friday's Tax Quote - May 4, 2012

“[I]n most situations, the changes that taxes induce are symptoms of economic waste or, using economic jargon, inefficiency.  In the absence of taxes, people and businesses react to prices that approximately reflect the true social costs and benefits of what they buy and sell, and taxes can turn prices from being pretty good signals of social cost and benefit into very bad ones.”

- Joel Slemrod

Friday's Tax Quote - April 27, 2012

“The physical power to get the money does not seem to me a test of the right to tax.  Might does not make right even in taxation.”

Robert H. Jackson

Friday's Tax Quote - April 20, 2012

“Taxes are the lifeblood of government and no taxpayer should be permitted to escape the payment of his just share of the burden of contributing thereto.”

- Arthur T. Vanderbilt

Friday's Tax Quote - April 13, 2012

“Because of the income tax, a penny saved is more than a penny earned.”

- Jeffery L. Yablon

Friday's Tax Quote - April 6, 2012

“Inflation is taxation without legislation.”

- Milton Friedman

Friday's Tax Quote - March 30, 2012

“There is a school which holds that critics of taxation levels merely want to opt out of the social contract, that they don’t want o pay their ‘fair share’ to help the least well off.  No, what critics of taxation want is more accountability.”

- Daniel Henninger

Friday's Tax Quote - March 23, 2012

“Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed.”

- Robert A. Heinlein

Friday's Tax Quote - March 16, 2012

“The schoolboy whips his taxed top; the beardless youth manages his taxed horse with a taxed bridle…”

- Sydney Smith

Friday's Tax Quote - March 9, 2012

“A good new chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank is worth a $10 billion tax cut.”

- Paul H. Douglas

Friday's Tax Quote - March 2, 2012

“The government taxes you when you bring home a paycheck.  It taxes you when you make a phone call.  It taxes you when you turn on the light.  It taxes you when you sell a stock.  It taxes you when you fill your car with gas.  It taxes you when you ride a plane.  It taxes you when you get married.  Then it taxes you when you die.”

- J.C. Watts Jr.

Friday's Tax Quote - February 24, 2012

“Once – Just once – I’d like to be fixed up with a guy who earns in a year what I pay in taxes.”

- Anonymous Female Lawyer

Friday's Tax Quote - February 17, 2012

“The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.”

- Albert Einstein

Friday's Tax Quote - February 10, 2012

“Everyone who has anything to do with the tax code agrees it’s just an unbelievable mess.”

- Paul H. O’Neill

Friday's Tax Quote - February 3, 2012

“Tax reform is ultimately a decision about values.”

- Bill Bradley

Friday's Tax Quote - January 27, 2012

“Why is it inflationary if the people keep their own money, and spend it the way they want to, [but] not inflationary if the government takes it and spends it the way it wants to?”

- Ronald Reagan

Friday's Tax Quote - January 20, 2012

“I know everybody’s income and what everybody earns;
And I carefully compare it with the income-tax returns;
But to benefit humanity, however much I plan,
Yet everybody says I’m such a disagreeable man!
And I can’t think why!”

- William D. Gilbert and Arthur S. Sullivan (“Princess Ida”)

The Wisconsin Department of Revenue’s "My Tax Account."

The Wisconsin Department of Revenue is continuing its push to encourage business taxpayers to manage their tax obligations online by using the "My Tax Account" system.  The system is set up to be simple and easy to use.  In addition to filing and paying numerous types of taxes online, registered users can also use the system to appeal various Department of Revenue notices.

An existing or new business can register for and access "My Tax Account" by clicking here.  FAQs are answered by clicking here.  The Wisconsin Department of Revenue has also produced six simple, but useful, instructional videos that can be viewed in a continous stream by clicking here or watching below:

Video 1:

Video 2:

Video 3:

Video 4:

Video 5:

Video 6:

Obviously, online tax compliance will only become more and more commonplace.  It is my recommendation that those who have not yet begun using these services do so in the near future.