Prof G Markets · Friday, August 14, 2026
Gabriel Zucman emphasizes that tax avoidance and evasion are not inevitable but rather a result of policy choices. He contrasts periods where governments promoted tax compliance, like under FDR, with more recent times where policymakers have implicitly or explicitly encouraged tax avoidance. This shift has fueled a large tax planning industry and the proliferation of tax havens.
“And what you have to understand is that tax avoidance, tax evasion, they are not laws of nature. They're largely policy choices.”
“And that's what happened again in the US in the middle of the 20th century when you had people like FDR who said that how important it was for people to pay their taxes, that taxes were the price to pay for a civilized society.”
“Or you can also have policymakers encouraging tax avoidance by saying that, yeah, you know, if you can avoid taxes, that's that's great.”