Ceremonial cross of John Frum cargo cult, Tanna island, New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), 1967 (via Wikipedia)

Heresies of the Cargo Cult.  When some remote societies encountered the industrial world in World War II, they had trouble grasping what they were seeing.  Wikipedia explains:

Cargo cult activity in the Pacific region increased significantly during and immediately after World War II, when the residents of these regions observed the Japanese and American combatants bringing in large amounts of matériel.   When the war ended, the military bases closed and the flow of goods and materials ceased. In an attempt to attract further deliveries of goods, followers of the cults engaged in ritualistic practices such as building crude imitation landing strips, aircraft and faux radio equipment out of bamboo or whatever materials they had at hand, and mimicking the behavior that they had observed of the military personnel operating there.

While it’s easy to mock an islander for building a refrigerator-like box in hopes of conjuring up an icy six-pack, cargo cult behavior also occurs in modern societies.   Without describing it as such, tax historian Joseph Thorndike writes about the cargo cult of the 1950s, where modern policy wonks try to conjure up 1950s-style growth through a ritualistic process of duplicating tailfin-era totems.  For example, Timothy Noah thinks the crushing stated top marginal rates of that era might help generate those Happy Days results.  Mr. Thorndike sees problems with that approach:

We still don’t know if high statutory rates and (relatively) high average rates were a drag on growth. And we can’t know, because we also can’t know what growth might have been in a different tax climate.

Moreover, a range of nontax factors were probably more important in shaping growth patterns in the 1950s. In particular, the economic disruptions of World War II had left the United States in a uniquely dominant position; by one estimate, U.S. manufacturing output constituted 60 percent of the world’s total in 1950.

In other words, it takes more than a bamboo box to conjure up that beer.

After all, the tax system of the Eisenhower era was not a very good one: It paired notionally sky-high rates with a deeply flawed tax base and created distortions both coming and going.

I understand that progressives like Noah are fighting a different battle: They are trying to beat back the rate-cutting mania that often serves as a definition of tax reform these days. But I think we might take a lesson from the tax experts of the 1950s, who understood the problems bedeviling their own tax system. As economist Harold Groves said at the time, “The impression is widely shared that the Congress deliberately throws a high-rate scale to the public as a demagogic bone and then as deliberately allows escapes from taxes that makes these rates specious.”

Mr. Thorndike is more sympathetic to high rates than I ever will be.  Doing taxes for a living, I see first-hand how high rates affect behavior, and I have no patience for academics who say otherwise.  But he wisely notes that simply trying to recreate the totems of the 1950s, like high tax rates, misses all of the other things that put cold beer in the refrigerator.  Same thing goes for other 1950s fetishes like tail fins, industrial unionism and defined benefit pension plans.

To serve and protect.  Former Pittsburgh Police Chief Charged with Conspiracy, Failure to File Federal Tax Returns (FBI Press Release):

Former Pittsburgh Police Chief Nathan E. Harper has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh on charges of conspiracy and willful failure to file income tax returns, U.S. Attorney David J. Hickton announced today.

The five-count indictment named Harper, 60, of Pittsburgh.

According to the indictment, Harper was the chief of the city of Pittsburgh Police Department. From 2009 to 2012, he caused at least $70,628.92 in checks and cash received by the special events office of the department to be diverted to two accounts at the Greater Pittsburgh Police Federal Credit Union. Using Visa debit cards, Harper obtained more than $31,000 in ATM withdrawals and debit purchases, all for his personal benefit. Harper also failed to file federal tax returns for the years 2008 through 2011.

If he’s convicted, maybe the special events office can throw a little party for the occasion.

What could possibly go wrong?  James Timothy Turner was convicted last week of masterminding a cunning plan.  DothanEagle.com reports:

According to a U.S. Department of Justice press release, Turner was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the U.S., attempting to pay taxes with fictitious financial instruments, attempting to obstruct and impede the Internal Revenue Service, failing to file a 2009 federal income tax return and falsely testifying under oath in a bankruptcy proceeding.                           

The FBI began investigating Turner in 2010 after he and three other people sent packages to all 50 governors demanding they leave office.                           

Turner is the president of a group of what prosecutors called “sovereign citizens” known as the “Republic for the united States of America.”

Send “packages” to all of the governors telling them to resign?  Well, at least they weren’t trying to hide what they were doing.

Turner toured the country in 2008 and 2009 teaching seminars that instructed attendees how to submit bonds to pay off tax debt.                           

According to prosecutors, these bonds were completely fictitious and often written for amounts in excess of $1 billion.

Silly man.  Only the Federal Reserve can do that.  Unless we’re talking about the $1 trillion magic coin…

Every theater needs a dirctor, including economic development theater.  Economic development director accuses senator of engaging in “political theater” over Orascom deal (O. Kay Henderson, via TheBeanwalker)

William Perez,  Penalty Relief Available for Some 2012 Federal Tax Returns

Jack Townsend,  Ethicist Question About Tax Professionals Exploiting Loopholes:

So, for those tax professionals engaging in such transactions that they know violated a known legal duty, their conduct is illegal and unethical.  For those transactions engaging in such transactions where they don’t know (perhaps are willfully ignorant) that the conduct is illegal (ultimately most of the b—-t tax shelters are found to be
illegal), then at least the ethical issues arise.  These are smart professionals, paid (supposedly) to predict what a court will do with the b—–t tax shelter.  Yet, in the prominent civil cases that swat down b—–t tax shelters, they fail miserably in their predictions.

Kay Bell,  A tax lawyer has ethical problems with tax loopholes

Janet Novack,  How Much Tax Will You Owe On A $320 Million Powerball Jackpot? A Lot More Than In 2012 .  I knew I should have arranged to win that Powerball last year.

Jim Maule,  Tax Meets the Chicken and the Egg

Trish McIntire,  Extensions

Patrick Temple-West,  Athletes’ tough tax bills, and more

TaxGrrrl,  Senate Passes Budget, Calls For Nearly $1 Trillion In Tax Increases

You are required to go to the party.  The Affordable Care Act Turns 3 (Richard Morrison, TaxVox).

The Critical Question: Who Will Play Margaret Fuller When The Movie Comes Out ?  (Peter Reilly)

Tony Nitti, IRS Employees’ Star Trek Parody Is As Wonderfully Awful As It Sounds

Russ Fox,  To Boldly Go Where No IRS Employee Has Gone Before…

You mean it’s not a documentary?  IRS Releases Gilligan’s Island Parody Training Video (TaxProf).

Frankly, they don’t give a dam. Beavers defiant after convicted of tax evasion (Chicago Tribune)