Jean Baptiste Colbert, financial minister to Louis XIV, is credited with saying, “The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least amount of hissing.”

A tax is defined as a compulsory contribution to state revenue, levied by the government on workers’ income and business profits or added to the cost of some goods, services and transactions. Taxes have been levied for thousands of years. The Bible refers to tax collectors. The United States Constitution gives Congress the power to “lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises.”

The first federal income tax  in the U.S. was enacted in 1861 during the Civil War as a mechanism to finance the war effort. Federal income tax became permanent in February 1913, when the 16th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, granting Congress the power to tax personal income. 

But income tax is just one component of the federal tax system. Many of the taxes imposed today were created in the 1920s and 1930s, including Social Security tax, estate tax and gift tax. Sin taxes are popular with government leaders to tax behaviors not deemed admirable, such as taxes on alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana. A tax on gasoline was implemented in 1932 when President Herbert Hoover declared a need for more revenue to run the government. 

The federal government also taxes investment income. This tax is particularly counterproductive because investment is necessary for economic growth. It’s not a challenging intellectual exercise to realize economic growth results in more tax revenue, but investment income is taxed anyway. Dividends don’t escape the tax bite, either. They’ve been taxed continually since 1954.

The main objective of taxation is to fund government expenditures at the city, county, state and federal levels. Governments have no way to raise money without first taking money from their citizens. City, county and state level governments are equally able to enact clever methods for raising more revenue through taxation. A state income tax was first enacted by Wisconsin in 1911. Today, there are only eight states without state income taxes: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. A sales tax was first enacted in West Virginia in 1921. Today, Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon are the only states without sales taxes. Some cities across the nation will begin taxing disposable plastic shopping bags at convenience, grocery and drug stores. For governments desiring to control citizen behavior, taxing unfavorable activities seems a win-win.

Taxes are often taken from paychecks before people ever see their earnings. They don’t realize how much of their hard-earned money is seized by the government. Once enacted, taxes seldom go away. More often, rates are raised. And each year, the total tax burden becomes more onerous. 

President Ronald Reagan said, “We don’t have a trillion dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough. We have a trillion dollar debt because we spend too much.” Now, the national debt is nearly $30 trillion and growing each minute. That debt translates to each taxpayer owing almost $240,000.

As in the analogy of the goose, unless there’s hissing from citizens coupled with action, governments will continue to tax beyond the ability of people to pay. It’s past time to get involved. Call your congressional representatives. Vote for lawmakers who will work to help individuals keep more of their money.