Taxing Matters

September 2025, Opinion: "The Internal Revenue Service building in Washington, DC, has its raison d’être etched in stone across its facade: “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.” That quote is from Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., a Supreme Court justice in the early 1900s, but some prominent modern-day Americans, such as Steve Jobs, argue that it is innovation that truly allows societies to evolve: “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower,” Jobs said. So what happens when those two things work against each other...when taxes start to weigh on innovation? Stefanie Stantcheva wants to know how tax policy can make or break the innovative spirit, a subject she studies at Harvard University’s Social Economics Lab, which she founded. Her fascination with economics began when she...."