COMMENT | “Nothing is certain, except death and taxes,” said Benjamin Franklin in 1789, keenly aware that throughout history, tax money has always flowed from the people to the government.

Later still, death and taxes were treated as bedfellows and the deceased were taxed through estate duties aka inheritance taxes. How clever was that to outwit Old Ben and tax us beyond death!

For centuries, tax collected in cash or in kind from farmers, traders, landowners, wealthy individuals, and the dead have funded the machinery of government and civil institutions, wars and national armies and navies, the building of public projects, roads, railways, canals, grand palaces, museums, and hospitals.

In short, “Taxation is the price we pay for civilisation.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, US Supreme Court judge, 1902-1932)

Then, in May 2008, to spur an economy showing dangerous signs of lethargy if not collapse, the Internal Revenue Service, the American relative of our Inland Revenue Board was directed to send tax rebate cheques of US$600 to most individuals and US$1,200 to couples, equivalent to one percent of the US GDP. The flow of tax money had been reversed!