Taxing Culture constructs the foundations for a social and scientific study of tax collection law. Comparing UK and American systems, it addresses issues such as the introduction of self-assessment in the UK, the move towards simplicity in legislation in both countries and the interaction of feminist legal theory with tax collection structures. It will be of interest to those studying theories of compliance, cultural legal studies, and law and society.

Contents: Introduction; Ideology and Starting point, E.R.A. Seligman; Tax collection and enforcement in the modern US; Self-assessment and historical context; Self-assessment and incomprehensible tax laws; The Ramsay principle; Systems at work; Self-assessment: aftermath, and towards a theory of tax collection law; Bibliography; Index.