In Vancouver, if you have a property that someone else would love to tear down to build a high rise, the government has created a scheme to make you pay taxes as if you were a high-rise. Small businesses pay some amount of tax on the airspace above their businesses, which they have not developed. […]

Cities have begun using the term “climate emergency” to justify new taxation. This was the case in the Guelph City Council in Canada where they declared a climate emergency. They have admitted that they “already have an action plan. A very ambitious, robust and doable action plan. We don’t need to re-state that.” The spokesperson […]

QUESTION: Martin – Just read your latest on Lewrockwell.com, regarding taxation. I think the most basic, simplistic explanation you can put forward about income taxation, now in 2019, is that governments are taking directly out of our paychecks, while at the same time, printing money like deranged lunatics. Why tax my labor income if you […]

QUESTION: You do a lot of comparison to the Roman Empire. What was the size of the government relative to GDP? Can you estimate that? GY ANSWER: The Roman economy was more like the USA during the mid-19th century in that it was pre-industrial. About 80% of its inhabitants worked in agriculture, which was about […]

  While there is a grave danger many speak of with trade wars creating protectionism, that is merely a reaction to the economic decline in the West. It is not merely trade wars; it is appearing also in tax wars. Germany bribing Swiss bankers to get names of Germans with accounts in Germany illustrates that […]

QUESTION: Wasn’t there an income in Britain under Addington in 1803 to pay for the war against Napoleon predate the USA? Is the income tax voluntary? GH ANSWER: Yes that is true. However, it actually predates even that. Income tax was first implemented in Great Britain by William Pitt the Younger in his budget of December […]

QUESTION: Hello Martin, [Analyst} recently …. raise[d] the alarm that the US is headed towards a very bad debt crisis. During an interesting part of the segment, he was asked if the rich should pay higher taxes, and he said “of course”, but he clarifies that what really matters is whether the tax dollars are […]

We are beginning to witness the impact of state taxes on decision making. California’s high taxes led to the San Francisco Giants losing Bryce Harper to the Philadelphia Phillies. The 26-year-old professional baseball star agreed to a 13-year, $330 million deal with the Philadelphia Phillies because the bottom line net of what California would take was insane. I know […]

COMMENT: Marty…: My respected Australian broker in Sydney, to my horror today, has, for the first time, just asked me to supply the USA Internal Revenue Service with my Tax File Number because of a new requirement in the W8-ben form, otherwise he advises me that I will run the risk that they may withhold 30 […]

  The politicians have a golden rule. When the courts prevent them from raising a tax, they call it something else to impose it. Massachusetts, the bastion of political Marxism, attempted to put on the ballot a new millionaire tax. That was rejected on constitutional grounds by the Supreme Judicial Court. So what are they […]