4/84Percentage of Americans too young to remember the Bicentennial: 25
Life before television: 69
5/84Odds that a taxpayer’s return will be audited: 1 in 66
1/85Number of the top ten military contractors that have paid no federal income taxes since 1981: 6
4/85Amount Americans spend to have their federal income tax forms prepared each year: $11,700,000,000
7/85Federal tax revenues lost as a result of homeowner deductions in 1984: $43,600,000,000
9/85After-tax profit margin of the average publicly held Japanese company (expressed as a percentage of sales): 1.4
Of the average publicly held U.S. company: 5.6
12/86Amount of tax revenues Oklahoma loses every time the price of a barrel of oil drops by $1: $11,000,000
3/86Percentage of its income a family of four living at the poverty level paid in federal taxes in 1980: 1.9
4/86Amount the IRS claims John Walker Jr. owes in back taxes on income he earned from spying: $193,873
9/86Number of major corporations that contributed more to Senator Packwood in 1985 than they paid in taxes: 13
12/87Percentage of women in two-income families who say they “almost always” prepare the tax returns: 29
9/87Number of states that have paid more in taxes to finance SDI than they have received in SDI contracts: 43
11/88Number of special-interest tax breaks in the Republican party platform that would benefit the oil industry: 6
11/88Number of the 10 states with cuts in personal income taxes between 1986 and 1987 that had Democratic governors: 8
4/88Number of times this year that the IRS has telephoned its own tax help line to check its quality: 14,600
5/88Percentage increase, since 1986, in taxes paid by black South Africans: 500
4/89Average change, since 1977, in the annual federal taxes paid by the richest 1 percent of American families: -$44,440
4/89Number of U.S. corporations that were not required to pay federal taxes in 1987: 16
4/89Portion of U.S. government revenue in 1989 that will come from Social Security taxes: 1/4
Percentage increase in the 1989 U.S. budget deficit if Social Security funds are not counted as revenue: 35
6/89Back taxes owed by the estate of Samuel I. Newhouse, according to the IRS: $610,000,000
6/89Number of states in which a family of four earning less than $12,000 per year is required to pay income tax: 28
1/90Change, since 1980, in the percentage of their income the richest 1 percent of American families pay in federal taxes: -15
Change, since 1980, in the percentage of their income the poorest 20 percent pay in federal taxes: +19
4/90Percentage of the proposed capital-gains tax cut that will go to the richest 1 percent of American families: 66
Percentage of the cut that will go to American families earning less than $50,000 a year: 6
4/90Rank of Washington, D.C., among U.S. cities with the highest rate of tax delinquency: 1
9/90Maximum amount a Los Angeles taxi company can be fined if its drivers are found wearing anything plaid: $1,500
11/91Percentage change, since 1980, in the average amount of tax an American pays to the federal government: 0
Percentage change, since 1980, in the average amount of tax an American pays to state and local governments: +9
4/91Percentage of U.S. taxpayers who pay more in Social Security tax than in federal income tax: 38
4/91Change, since 1980, in the amount checked off on tax returns for the Presidential Campaign Fund: -$8,500,000
10/92Portion of all homeowner tax-deduction benefits that went to households earning more than $75,000 last year: 1/2
Portion that went to households earning less than $40,000: 1/10
4/92Chances that a tax return filed by a U.S. corporation in 1980 was audited: 1 in 15
Chances today: 1 in 39
4/92Average tax break President Bush’s proposed capital-gains tax cut would give Americans earning less than $50,000: $11
4/92New tax revenue that will be generated this year as a result of ending the deduction for cosmetic surgery: $60,000,000
1/93Ratio of the average tax levied on a gallon of gas sold in Europe to that on a gallon sold in the United States: 8:1
10/93Number of trips Bob Dole has made to New Hampshire and Iowa so far this year: 8
Number of the three tax increases supported by Ronald Reagan or George Bush that Dole voted for: 3
3/93Number of Ronald Reagan’s three major tax bills that Lloyd Bentsen voted for: 3
5/93Percentage of Americans who would accept a new 50¢ tax on a six-pack of beer to help finance health-care reform: 87
3/94Number of Clinton appointees found to be delinquent in paying social security taxes for domestic workers: 28
4/94Total tax deductions Bill Clinton has claimed since 1986 on charitable donations of used underwear: $22
9/94Average income tax levied by the city of Philadelphia this year on each visiting major league player, per game: $231
3/95Average amount of his Social Security and Medicare taxes a single 30-year-old man will never receive in benefits: $37,200
Average amount in excess of his Social Security and Medicare taxes a single 65-year-old man will receive: $35,200
8/95Estimated change in annual federal revenues if corporations were taxed at 1953 rates: +$53,000,000,000
11/96Change since 1980 in the number of people who check the presidential-campaign-donation box on their taxes: -10,000,000
5/96Number of years it took Bob Dole to agree to sign the “no new taxes” pledge he signed last April: 8
9/96Ratio of tax dollars spent each day on a U.S. public-school student to the amount spent on a prisoner: 2:7
9/96Percentage of the proceeds of last April’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis auction that went for taxes: 75
10/97Average change in the federal taxes an American earning less than $22,600 will pay under the new tax law: +$19
Average change in the federal taxes an American earning more than $246,000 will pay: -$16,157
10/97Number of America’s poorest children who will not benefit from the new $500 child-tax credit: 11,336,731
Number where the population’s poorest fifth pays the largest portion of income in sales, property, and income taxes: 40
4/97Net change in the capital-gains tax rate under Republican presidents since 1960, in percentage points: +7.5
Net change in the rate under Democratic presidents: -4.5
6/97Portion of California’s revenue between 1852 and 1870 that came from taxes paid by Chinese laborers: 1/2
10/98Estimated U.S. taxes that multinational corporations legally avoided this year by using foreign accounts: $10,100,000,000
4/98Ratio of the average amount a U.S. family spent on food, clothing, and shelter last year to what it spent on taxes: 3:4
4/98Percentage of Germans who believe that those who don’t cheat on their taxes “deserve only pity”: 46
10/99Percentage change in domestic discretionary spending required through 2002 to fund Congress’s proposed tax cuts: -18
Portion of these tax cuts that will go to corporations: 9/10
2/99Number of S&Ls or shareholder groups seeking damages from the government over its handling of the 1980s bailout: 120
Estimated amount by which the awards sought will exceed the bailout’s original $165 billion cost: $50,000,000,000
5/99Percentage by which Jasper County, Texas, raised property taxes this year to finance the murder trial of John William King: 4.5
4/00Chance that an American earning more than $100,000 in 1988 was audited: 1 in 18
6/00Portion of California’s revenue between 1852 and 1870 composed of taxes paid by Chinese laborers: 1/2
8/00Minimum amount President Clinton’s pension and staff will cost U.S. taxpayers if his life span is average: $6,072,000
8/00Percentage change in the gonorrhea rate among teens and young adults when the beer tax is raised by 20 cents: -9
10/01Amount the Treasury Department will borrow this year to pay for the tax refund: $51,000,000,000
Amount it had projected spending to service U.S. debt this year, before the tax bill passed: $57,000,000,000
12/01Total new tax cuts for U.S. businesses approved by the House of Representatives in October: $146,000,000,000
Estimated number of minutes after the cat was released on its first test run that it was killed by a taxi: 10
4/01Chances that the taxes of a low-income working American family will not be reduced by the Bush tax plan: 3 in 5
4/01Percentage change between 1999 and 2000 in the number of audits of U.S. corporations: -28
4/01Amount by which federal taxes paid in states carried by Al Gore in 2000 exceeded federal spending in them, per capita: $685
4/01Amount by which federal taxes paid in states carried by George W. Bush fell short of federal spending in them, per capita: $645
6/01Number of members of Congress or their staffers who failed to file a tax return or pay back taxes in 1999: 856
12/02Pounds of weapons-grade uranium reported to have been seized in September from a taxi in Turkey: 33
Ounces of black sand that the container-labeled “primarily youranuom”-actually contained: 0.2
3/02Total voting population of a Denton, Texas, tax district when a development plan was approved there in 1996: 1
Weeks before the vote that the resident was moved there by Dell Computer so that he could approve the plan: 5
8/02Extra amount Oregon charges per year to register a hybrid gas/electric car in compensation for lost gasoline taxes: $15
4/03Amount of import-tax revenue that Israel is withholding from the Palestinian Authority: $400,000,000
4/03Ratio of the U.S. median income in 2001 to what Dick Cheney would have saved that year with the new dividend-tax cut: 2:5
5/03Estimated percentage by which the average U.S. gasoline price would rise if costs of securing oil were recouped with a tax: 29
7/03Amount of the $106,185 price of a Hummer H1 that businesses may deduct under the proposed Bush tax plan: $88,722
10/04Maximum percentage income- and corporate-tax rate under laws made for Iraqis by the Coalition Provisional Authority: 15
4/04Number of the five tax-cut questions asked the president on Meet the Press last winter that concerned the cuts’ inequity: 0
4/04Average amount a Bush Cabinet member will save this year due to cuts in capital-gains and dividend taxes: $42,000
6/04Average price per gallon Americans would have paid for gasoline in March if U.S. gas taxes were as high as Europe’s: $2.31
7/04Estimated percentage of U.S. corporations that paid no federal taxes between 1996 and 2000: 61
4/05Back taxes on Mein Kampf sales owed by Adolf Hitler while chancellor in 1934: $11,500,000
7/05Portion of the German Catholic Church’s income that derives from a government tax on members: 1/2
10/06Portion of the IRS’s staff of estate-tax auditors that the government plans to eliminate this year: 2/5
3/06Chance that the family of an African-American child is too poor to qualify for the full U.S. child tax credit: 1 in 2
10/07Head of cattle that Fidelity Investments keeps on a portion of its corporate campus near Fort Worth: 25
4/07Average amount of unpaid tax the IRS discovers for each hour spent auditing a large or medium-sized company: $5,195
7/07Estimated amount in state taxes Wal-Mart avoided last year by renting stores from shell companies it created: $403,000,000
10/08Estimated number of U.S. lives saved per month by $4 gasoline, through reduced driving nationwide: 1,000
10/08Estimated total cost, over ten years, of the official tax policies laid out by McCain’s campaign: $4,200,000,000,000
Estimated total cost of the tax policies proposed by McCain in his public speeches: $7,000,000,000,000
7/08Amount that the IRS has spent since 2006 on an outsourced program to collect unpaid taxes: $87,000,000
Amount the contractors have collected during that time: $50,000,000
8/08Percentage change by 2012 in the after-tax income of the top 0.1 percent of U.S. earners, under Barack Obama’s tax plan: –5
Percentage change under John McCain’s tax plan: +12
9/08Estimated annual sales-tax revenue that California receives each year from medical-marijuana sales: $100,000,000