The Second Estate Named by The New Yorker as one of the Best Books of 2025A revelatory book that lifts the curtain on America’s most consequential public deception: how the rich get richer using tools the government ga...

If you want to read more about how the rich avoid their taxes, I highly recommend Ray Madoff's The Second Estate.

press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax ProPublica has obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, ev...

Answer: The statistic is based on households' *reported taxable income.* People with high reported taxable incomes do indeed pay higher rates.

But the really rich often report low or no taxable income, so they pay little or nothing!

www.propublica.org/article/the-...

Washington Post: "There were 30,382 tax filers with incomes of $10 million or more in 2023, the latest year IRS data is available. That includes all sources of income. This tiny group of people, less than 0.02 percent of all tax filers and 10,000 fewer than fit into Nationals Park, made 5.9 percent of all income — and paid 10.9 percent of all income taxes."

Profoundly misleading tax statistic from the Washington Post editorial board today. Here's the stat they use to assert that the rich pay more than their share. Can you spot the issue? 🧐

Frank Bisignano is set to testify before the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday. He is simultaneously the “CEO” of IRS and Commissioner of Social Security.

During his tenure, some troubling patterns have emerged at SSA and IRS, which impact the millions of people who rely on their services. 🧵

, said Williamson, a elder chap

An AI slop-news site translated my job title "senior fellow" as... "elder chap"

"This isn’t just about clever accounting — it's about power and impunity. When millionaires and billionaires stash trillions of dollars in offshore tax havens, they place themselves above the obligations that bind the rest of society."
Christian Hallum, @oxfaminternational.bsky.social

They Pay $34 for Burgers. Should Their Child Care Be Free?

Tax invisibility is a scourge in our politics

> Public childcare isn't free, it's tax-funded.
> People buying $34 burgers pay taxes.
> Believe $34 burger eaters should pay more? wait until you hear about this idea "progressive taxation"

Wow, problem solved, thanks taxes! 😀

Veiled Power: How Rosenwald Teachers Quietly Shaped the Civil Rights Movement Omar Wasow∗ Jacob M. Grumbach∗ April 1, 2026 Abstract What precipitates the collapse of seemingly durable social orders like Jim Crow? During the 1920s, approximately 5,000 “Rosenwald Schools” were built across the rural South through a partnership between philanthropist Julius Rosenwald and Black communities who raised matching funds, donated land, and petitioned local governments. Local elites saw vocational training that would preserve the racial order. We argue Black educators used this accommodationist cover to build veiled capacity: organizational infrastructure for collective action behind a veil of compliance. Counties with more Rosenwald Schools show greater civil rights protest in the 1960s. Mediation analysis reveals that pre-existing social capital predicted protest through Rosenwald teacher placements, not enrollment. Instrumental variable models suggest the effect is not driven by community selection. Moving from no Rosenwald teachers to the 75th percentile predicts 45% more protest. The political effects of education may depend less on what elites intend than on what educators build where elites cannot see.

Excited to share new paper w/ @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social: "Veiled Power: How Rosenwald Teachers Quietly Shaped the Civil Rights Movement"

The puzzle: did ~5,000 segregated schools built in rural South emphasizing “manual labor” strengthen or weaken Jim Crow? 🧵 omarwasow.com/wasow_grumba...

American Conversations: Vanessa Williamson YouTube video by Heather Cox Richardson

Today with @hcrichardson.bsky.social & @vanessawilliamson.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/live/aBcPKrw...

This was really really fun.

What do the Declaration’s “self-evident truths” mean today? | Brookings In this episode of Democracy In Question, host Katie Dunn Tenpas discusses the history, legacy, and meaning of the "self-evident truths" from the Declaration of Independence with senior fellow Vanessa...

Season 3 of Democracy In Question is live! I sat down with @vanessawilliamson.bsky.social to dig into the phrase at the heart of American democracy.

🎙️Give it a listen: www.brookings.edu/articles/wha... #DemocracyInQuestion #Podcast

Give Me Liberty and Give Me Taxes Why democracies love taxation—and autocracies hate it.

“Free, democratic countries tend to be high-tax countries,” writes @vanessawilliamson.bsky.social. By “sabotaging the state’s capacity to raise revenue,” the Trump administration is putting the future of U.S. democracy in jeopardy.

In Focus: Autocratization in the USA > Under Trump’s presidency democracy in the USA has fallen back to the same level as in 1965. Yet the situation is fundamentally different than during the Civil Rights era. > President Trump’s second term can be summarized as a rapid and aggressive concentration of powers in the presidency. > The speed with which American democracy is currently dismantled is unprecedented in modern history. > Legislative Constraints – the worst affected aspect of democracy – is losing one-third of its value in 2025 and reaching its lowest point in over 100 years. > Civil Rights & Equality before the Law, and Freedom of Expression & Media are now at their lowest levels in 60 years. > Electoral components of democracy, however, remain stable – for now.

Substantially lower. Summary below and you can see the data on page 48 here: www.v-dem.net/documents/75...

Graph showing relationship between democratic strength and tax-to-GDP ratio.

New from me in Foreign Affairs: "Free, democratic countries tend to be high-tax countries, because taxation and democracy reinforce each other."

www.foreignaffairs.com/give-me-libe...

Right by Harpers Ferry, you say

BAH GAWD THAT'S @vanessawilliamson.bsky.social's MUSIC

Text of the poem Jason Statham asks nothing of me

Today I found in the NYROB this ode to Jason Statham

What do the rich owe the rest of us?: A conversation on taxation and democracy Panelists Brian Galle, Professor of Law, UC Berkeley Ray Madoff, Professor, Boston College Law School Emmanuel Saez, Professor of Economics, UC Berkeley Vanessa Williamson, Senior Fellow, Brookings In...

On March 10 at 4pm-5:30pm, I’ll be moderating a panel discussion at UC Berkeley on a question that’s been on many of our minds (and with increasing urgency) over the past year:

“What do the rich owe the rest of us?”

Details and registration:
besi.berkeley.edu/event/what-d...

The IRS is going into this tax season vastly unprepared. On ABC News Live, @vanessawilliamson.bsky.social warned that with fewer IRS staff focused on fraud prevention and complicated new tax provisions in place, taxpayers should file early to avoid delays and protect their refunds.

"That a representative body should constrain the executive’s fiscal power dates to Magna Carta in 1215... the framers gave Congress alone the power 'to lay and collect taxes' [because] untrammeled executive power over public money opens the door to tyranny."
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/o...

Opinion | Trump Is Raising Billions in Federal Funds. That’s Not a Good Thing.

"People tend to associate democratic erosion with election interference and violent police crackdowns. But there’s a quieter tell that a democracy is endangered: the dissolution of laws that protect public money."

New article from me and Aziz Huq: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/o...

Vanessa Williamson speaks in a classroom

So thrilled to share this overview of a timely new book from @vanessawilliamson.bsky.social, as she talks with APEX about "The Price of Democracy" and how battles over taxes define who belongs in 'We the People' bit.ly/4aXIBSj @jacobhacker.bsky.social

NYU Tax Law Center has an excellent explainer of taxpayer privacy laws:

taxlawcenter.org/taxpayer-dat...

In addition to the serious criminal penalties, taxpayers can sue for civil damages.

Essential new reporting from @jacobbogage.bsky.social : IRS erroneously shared info for "thousands" of taxpayers beyond the 47,000 individuals who we knew had their data shared under the IRS-ICE MOU (data sharing that has since been stayed by the courts).

www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

The Federal Tax System Explained Tax administrators and the courts play a critical and often overlooked role in the tax system. This project focuses on these institutions and the impact of their work.

This is a really excellent resource!
taxlawcenter.org/the-federal-...

JUST IN: A federal judge has barred ICE and DHS from using taxpayer information provided by the IRS.

Judge Talwani says that DHS' view that noncitizens lack 4th amendment rights — combined with ICE use of administrative warrants — is a recipe for abuse.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Non-tax-related PSA: If you, like me, got your measles vaccine in the 1980s, you might need an MMR booster. Your doctor can check your immunity levels (mine did, and I need a booster!)

www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and...

'Setting this agency up for failure': Amid staffing crunch, IRS taps employees with no relevant experience to assist during filing season The tax agency is taking unusual steps to prepare for its busy season after watchdog finds it is severely underprepared.

Remember, ruining the ability of our democracy to fund itself is the point, not a mistake

We Don’t Know How Many People File Their Taxes For Free. Congress Could Fix That Better data would give policymakers the tools they need to evaluate tradeoffs and design tax filing options that are fairer, cheaper, and easier for all taxpayers.

Really useful article from Margot Crandall-Hollick and Aravind Boddupalli on what we know and don't know about how much Americans pay to file their income taxes:

taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/we-do...

Vanessa Williamson next to a cover of her book: The Price of Democracy: The Revolutionary Power of Taxation in American History

Yale Community: Please join us for a lunch talk at noon next Tuesday (2/10) with @vanessawilliamson.bsky.social about her book “The Price of Democracy: The Revolutionary Power of Taxation in American History.” Register to attend: bit.ly/4r1X46r