Colella Reviews Rebellion, Rascals, And Revenue: Tax Follies And Wisdom Through The Ages

Frank G. Colella (Pace), A Look Back at the Global Certainty of Taxation Across the Centuries, N.Y.L.J., Vol. 265, No. 90, p. 6 (May 11, 2021) (reviewing Michael Keen (IMF) & Joel Slemrod (Michigan; Google Scholar), Rebellion, Rascals, and Revenue: Tax Follies and Wisdom through the Ages (Princeton University Press 2021)):

While modern medicine continues to push the boundaries of longevity, if death were ever miraculously vanquished, taxation would nevertheless survive (albeit sans estate and inheritance taxes) – leaving us with only one of the two former certainties.

If Michael Keen and Joel Slemrod’s eye-opening tour of the global history of taxation teaches one overarching lesson, it is that, whatever the society, its rulers will extract a “tax” from the citizenry. The tax stories they relate span from the earliest victors who took payment via the “plunder” of their victims to taxation in the digital age.

Other reviews of Rebellion, Rascals, and Revenue: Tax Follies and Wisdom through the Ages:

• Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan)
• Steven Bank (UCLA)