Wise old saying

[Kurly]

I remember parts of a saying, but cannot remember it all. Can someone help?

It is wise to pay all your legal taxes, but you are unwise to not use all the tax codes for your benefit. ????

It went something like that I believe. Or if you have others you would like to share, I would welcome them.

Thanks

Kurly

[ChEAr$]

Another wise saying

Question: What is the difference between tax evasion and tax avoidance?

Answer; Oh, about ten years.

[JohnH]

Maybe you're thinking of Judge Learned Hand, in Gregory v. Helvering:


"Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as,possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes. Over and over again the Courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands."

Although I think Jeane Baptiste Colbert had a more realistic view given current circumstances:

"The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing”
Jean Baptiste Colbert quotes (French Economist and Minister of Finance under King Louis XIV of France. 1619-1683)

[OtisMozzetti]

Plucking the goose

...
Although I think Jeane Baptiste Colbert had a more realistic view given current circumstances:

"The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing”
Jean Baptiste Colbert quotes (French Economist and Minister of Finance under King Louis XIV of France. 1619-1683)

Louis XIV would be Louis Quatorze or Louis the 14th, who had problems with Mme Defarge, the Bastille, and the guillotine at the time of the French revolution during the 18th century. I would wonder what they did with Jean Baptiste Colbert.

[ChEAr$]

Louis XIV would be Louis Quatorze or Louis the 14th, who had problems with Mme Defarge, the Bastille, and the guillotine at the time of the French revolution during the 18th century. I would wonder what they did with Jean Baptiste Colbert.

It as Louis XVI, the 16th, who had "troubles" with the french revolution.
Colbert served as finance honcho for Louis Quatorze a century earlier
if memory serves me right.