This survey just proves that survey results cannot be trusted. First the IRS tells you that income tax is “voluntary” and then they commission a survey which they purport proves that 90% of Americans feel cheating on your taxes is wrong. Utter bullshit.
An IRS survey finds that nearly nine in 10 Americans think it is “not at all” acceptable to cheat on your taxes.
The annual survey released Monday by the Internal Revenue Service Oversight Board found that only 9 percent of respondents thought it was ever OK to cheat on their taxes. Eighty-nine percent said it was never OK.
Although the survey was conducted in late August, its release comes as Tom Daschle, President Barack Obama‘s nominee to be Health and Human Services secretary, has acknowledged failing to pay more than $120,000 in taxes. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had similar problems on a smaller scale.
The truth of the matter is that many of these people lied when responding to the survey. People naturally protect themselves when it comes to being locked up in a cage. What person is going to openly admit on a phone survey that it is morally acceptable to them to be dishonest or misleading when it comes to taxes? Very few. I absolutely do not believe the results of this survey to be accurate. If I had to guess, I would think the results are closer to 50/50 in favor of keeping as much money as possible out of the hands of government. I for one don’t support the use of taxpayer dollars to commission surveys about taxpayer attitudes towards paying taxes. That’s a matter for the voting booth.
We are almost never as dumb as our overlords think we on an individual basis. Collective intelligence is another matter entirely.