Why Americans Don’t Cheat on Their Taxes
The weirdly hopeful story of how the U.S. came to be a leader in tax compliance
Ias American exceptionalism remains, maybe it can be found in this: Despite deep IRS budget cuts, an average audit rate that has plunged in recent years to just 0.6 percent, and a president who has bragged that dodging federal taxes is “smart,” most Americans still pay their income taxes every year. Even more remarkable, most of us feel to pay. To quote the findings of a 2017 IRS survey: “The
