Your Tax Questions, Asked and Answered (by a U.S. Treasury Official)

I just stumbled across an interesting article. You may be familiar with the books Freakonomics and Super Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. The New York Times publishes their blog, also titled Freakonomics. A couple of weeks ago they published this article, Your Tax Questions, Asked and Answered (by a U.S. Treasury Official). Freakonomics submitted a series of questions asked by the blog’s readers to the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy, Michael Mundaca. Questions included “Is this really a good year to die – tax wise?” and “Does Warren Buffett really pay a lower tax rate than his secretary?” In case you are so committed to avoiding income tax that you are considering “offing” yourself before year’s end, take a minute to read Mr. Mundaca’s answer to the first question.