Litigation

The above haunting words of Eugene Steuerle, a former Treasury Department official in the Reagan administration underscore why taxes are bound to increase and not just on the rich.

An AP report states that  the recession is starving the government of tax revenue, concurrent with Obama and Congress en route to a major expansion of health care and other programs and struggling to find money to pay the tab.

1. "Tax receipts are on pace to drop 18 percent this year, the biggest single-year decline since the Great Depression, while the federal deficit balloons to a record $1.8 trillion".
2.  Individual income tax receipts are down 22 percent from a year ago.
3. Corporate income taxes are down 57 percent.
   
4. Social Security tax receipts could drop for only the second time since 1940
5. Medicare taxes are on pace to drop for only the third time ever.
6. The last time the government's revenues were this bleak, the year was 1932 in the midst of the Depression.

Higher taxes are inevitable. It's not all bad news for tort victims. The higher taxes will increase the intrinsic value of structured settlements to tort victims as the income to recipients is excluded pursuant to IRC Sections 104(a)(1) and 104(a)(2).