Digital Commons Network^™

The Internal Revenue Code: A Burden For Taxpayers Or An Instrument For Social Change?, Heather N. Murray

Honors Theses

Social engineering in the tax code has been evident from the beginning of the U.S. tax history. Today, it is as much as ever a part of the fabric of the tax codification, but there is very little research that investigates 1) how social engineering plays a role in the creation of new tax law, and 2) whether tax law is effective in altering taxpayer behavior. This paper streamlines the history of social engineering in the most popular revenue-reducing measures and analyzes how they've affected the U.S. taxpayer, with notes on future policy implications.