Tax Break

Internal Revenue Service office near Times Square in New York.

Most Americans believe strongly that it’s a civic duty to pay their “fair share” in taxes, that cheating on taxes is wrong and that cheaters should be held accountable, said a survey from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service’s Oversight Board released on Monday.

Created by Congress in 1998 to keep an eye on the IRS, the oversight board does its survey annually. This year’s is consistent with past results showing strong support for the tax obligations of citizenship and low tolerance for those who shirk it.

Despite chatter on the political fringes about taxes being a form of theft, 96 percent of those surveyed said they completely or mostly agreed that  ”it is every American’s civic duty to pay their fair share of taxes.”

Only 8 percent gave the answer “as much as possible” to the question, “How much, if any, do you think is an acceptable amount to cheat on your income taxes?” That’s a contrast to attitudes in places like Italy and Greece where tax dodging is endemic.

 More than 60 percent said the IRS should get more funding to do a better job at enforcement.

President Barack Obama’s corporate “Jobs Council,” a who’s who of corporate titans including General Electric chairman Jeff Immelt and luminaries from American Express and Facebook said in a report on Tuesday they recommended  . . .  cutting corporate tax rates.

Perhaps unsurprising, given the vast majority of the panel are corporate officers — also on the committee are union umbrella AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, and Roger Ferguson, chief executive of TIAA-CREF, one of the biggest providers of U.S. pension funds — but also unlikely to  have much impact, despite the big names behind it.

The council called on lawmakers and the president to begin work “immediately” on corporate tax reform.