Oliver Wendell Holmes Tax

About Oliver Wendell Holmes Tax

Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr wrote in Compania General de Tabacos v Collector of Internal Revenue 1927, Taxes are what we pay for civilized society. The phrase is engraved on the IRS headquarters in Washington. Holmes was articulating the social contract view of taxation. The phrase has been cited by proponents of taxation to counter anti tax arguments. Holmes, a conservative, was not arguing for high taxes but for the legitimacy of taxation itself. The phrase has been controversial. Anti tax advocates argue that Holmes was wrong and that government spending, not taxes, is what civilization requires. The phrase remains one of the most famous statements about taxation in American jurisprudence and continues to frame the debate over tax policy.