          
          
          
          Taxes - Tools of Government Policy:
          
          
               The United States Congress, and the legislatures
          of the several states, have a long history of employing
          taxation as a means to achieve certain perceived
          political, social and even religious objectives.  Our
          legislators may have learned this tactic from the
          British Crown, whose unjust taxes on colonial American
          tea and documentary stamps, among other things, spawned
          a highly successful revolution, the concentric effects
          of which are still reverberating in the modern world.
               Thus we Americans revel in "sin taxes" that boost
          the price of tobacco and alcohol products far beyond
          any intrinsic value a pack of cigarettes or a fifth of
          bourbon has in and of itself - even taking into account
          personal taste or addiction.
               Thus the most valuable real estate in America,
          worth a combined total of billions of dollars, often
          located in the heart of major cities, is totally tax-
          exempt because it is owned, not by the Japanese, but by
          a recognized established religion - Protestant,
          Catholic or Jewish or whatever.
               Before international free trade became a more
          acceptable political doctrine, almost all federal
          revenues came from heavy import taxes ("customs
          duties") on products and commodities, surely a revenue
          source but equally a means of protecting home-grown
          U.S. merchandise.
               At times legislators have gone too far in the
          realm of social policy by taxation.  In 1994 the U.S.
          Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional a Montana tax
          imposed on persons convicted of possessing, selling,
          distributing or manufacturing "controlled dangerous
          substances" - illicit drugs like marijuana or cocaine. 
          The Court said such acts could be made punishable
          crimes, but that to impose additional tax liability
          amounting to millions of dollars based on the amount of
          drugs involved, in effect constituted double jeopardy
          and cruel and unusual punishment.
               So revenue alone has never been the sole object of
          government tax laws.
               Unquestionably the single greatest political,
          economic and social impact ever imposed by taxation in
          America began on February 25, 1913, the date the
          requisite number of states ratified the Sixteenth
          Amendment to the United States Constitution - giving
          Congress "the power to lay and collect taxes on
          incomes, from whatever source derived . . ."  Many
          would argue it has been down hill ever since.
               Fortunately, in 1913 when the income tax was
          authorized, Americans still firmly believed in those
          voluntary non-governmental institutions which had an
          admirable record of serving the needs of less fortunate
          citizens - thousands of voluntary religious,
          charitable, and philanthropic organizations and groups. 
          In the days before the "welfare state" mentality took
          hold, these altruistic activities ranged from local
          soup kitchens to the vast eleemosynary exertions of men
          like Andrew J. Carnegie, a self-made Scottish-American
          steel baron who donated millions of dollars to build
          and support free public libraries, the International
          Endowment for World Peace and countless other causes.
               Also fortunately - for those seeking legal ways by
          which to escape the ultimate excesses of modern federal
          income taxes - from 1913 on, Congress took into account
          the need for private philanthropy, writing federal tax
          law so as to promote charitable giving by individuals
          as well as organized groups.  The original tax code
          contained then, as it does today, "tax breaks" for
          those willing to give of their personal substance to
          help their fellow man (and woman).  Born in tandem with
          the federal income tax was the charitable tax
          deduction.
               Under current law charitable deductions are
          available for donations to corporations organized or
          exclusively operated for religious, charitable,
          scientific, literary, or educational purposes, or for
          groups that foster the arts, sports competition,
          prevention of cruelty to children or animals, or to
          fraternal associations and veterans organizations.
          
          
          
