IF EVERYONE HAD TO SIT DOWN AND WRITE A CHECK TO THE IRS AND THE COUNTY TREASURER EVERY YEAR, I GUARANTEE THAT PUBLIC ATTITUDES ABOUT TAXES WOULD CHANGE DRAMATICALLY

I have been saying this for a long time: if there were no withholding for income taxes, or no mortgage impound accounts for property taxes, so that everyone who pays those taxes had to write a check to the IRS or the county treasurer annually, or even quarterly, I guarantee that public attitudes toward those taxes would change.  There would be much more scrutiny given to how much government costs and how tax money is spent.  There might even be an open revolt against the way government finances currently work.  I have wondered why this subject is rarely mentioned in discussions about tax reform.
A paper was presented yesterday at UCLA on the history of tax withholding and how it came to be so accepted that, as the author of the paper recognizes, it is rarely even questioned anymore.   I’m glad someone else is at least asking that question.