The Cold War and the Income Tax legal fees. His troubles lead him to investigate the history of the income tax in the United States, and to write extensively on how the assumptions the IRS makes about how and when people earn income map poorly to the actual way a literary man like Wilson makes a living. He dives into the tax code and discovers that "[t]he question of what ought to be taxed and how much and which deductions ought to be allowed has reached a point of fine-spun complexity that — working in terms of a different set of values — recalls the far-fetched distinctions
Income tax in the United States made frequently to change tax laws, often with the backing of specific interest groups. Organizations making such proposals include Citizens for Tax Justice, Americans for Tax Reform, Americans for Tax Fairness, Citizens for an Alternative Tax System, Americans For Fair Taxation, and FreedomWorks. Various proposals have been put forth for tax simplification in Congress including the "Fair Tax Act" and various Flat tax plans. Proponents of a consumption tax argue that the income tax system creates perverse incentives by encouraging taxpayers to spend rather than save: a taxpayer is only taxed once on income spent immediately, while any interest earned