Taxes, power, and personal autonomy

A review of the current federal tax system reveals that the system grants many choices, but that it generally grants those choices to people who possess material wealth. Although empowerment cannot be measured in dollars, its grant to the wealthy reinforces certain values and has important political, social, and psychological effects. A paper shows that traditional tax policy analysis has hitherto proceeded on the assumption that tax systems impose burdens and introduces 2 concepts that can lead to a more complete analysis of tax system design: avoidance power and burden power. The federal income tax system and the federal employment tax (social security) system are used to bring both concepts together and to illustrate how an examination of the ways in which specific tax systems empower and an identification of who the systems empower can permit an analysis of the values that inhere in tax system design. The relationship between values and empowerment is examined.