The great revenue robbery
Richard Swift plays private detective to discover who killed off the tax consultant and snatched the public purse.

Taxophobia!
Neil Brooks diagnoses a disease deliberately spread to get the rich off the tax hook.

Death and taxes
A visual history of tax revolt.

The hidden economy
Richard Brown discovers the untaxed wealth that lies beneath the starvation and oppression of Sudan.

Wings of wealth
Lester Henry exposes the cycle of debt and capital flight that ensures perpetual poverty in the Third World.

The legacy lottery
Does the Duke of Westminster deserve to be the richest man in Britain? Melissa Benn thinks not.

TAXATION - THE FACTS

Tax haven heaven
Money-laundering is the meat-and-potatoes of the Panamanian economy. Stan Duncan probes this unchanging diet.

Simply A defence of common wealth

Ask Peter Portfolio
Advice to the tax-worn from the poor man s rich man.

Fair taxes
Murray Dobbin witnesses the birth of a new social movement.

TAX. The very word evokes a yawn from most people. But 'boring' can be a dangerous reaction. If we do not understand something about it a common response is to shrug and leave it up to the experts. The effect is a gradual accumulation of power in the hands of technocrats, nuclear scientists, medical specialists, strategic studies think-tanks, learned professors or most ominously, the police. The best thing you can say about these experts is that they seldom agree.

I have done this issue of NI as a detective story in order to try to make the dynamics of tax policy interesting. I have long been a consumer of this genre and have enjoyed trying to replicate it. As a matter of fact I hope to be discovered by some large publishing conglomerate who will offer me the chance to become a detective story writer.

Actually the work of a private investigator (a PI) is somewhat similar to the way an NI editor works in gathering fact and opinion about social phenomena. We too sift through the evidence to come up with a plausible thesis. But we also have to be careful that the categories and mindset of the expert (whom we must consult) don't creep into our presentation. A device such as a detective story can provide an alternative discipline. A good PI has always been a kind of philosopher of everyday life and a seeker of truth for the underdog. Whether it's Phil Marlowe prowling the streets of LA or Jim Chee patrolling Navajo country, they cut through the self-serving deceptions to finger the culprits. This is also a time-honoured NI ambition.

This detective story hinges around the murder of a conscience-stricken international tax consultant. The murder is never solved although a number of suspects are paraded before the reader. I would like to invite you to try and solve this tax murder. Simply send your solution of no more than four hundred words to the Toronto office of the NI - 1011 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6H lMl. The winner will be printed on the letters page and the prize is a two-year subscription to the NI. Don't forget the tax motive is crucial to your solution.

Hidden motives are, after all, the key in tax policy. Issues about the nature of democracy, society and what is fair are cloaked in technical verbiage that obscures the choices being made. Tax matters then become of interest only to a narrow circle - lawyers, accountants, bureaucrats and the odd academic economist. Yet taxes are about our bread and butter, about the very guts of the quality of life in our society. What appears as minor tinkering with tax legislation can result in the shift of billions of dollars. But only when significant shifts in the tax burden surface - the poll tax in the UK, the GST in Canada - does public anger erupt in a significant fashion. The slow incremental changes to the tax system that lead to these big jumps just don't catch the headlines. This means some hard digging for our intrepid PI. Hope you enjoy.

Letters
Letter from Tamil Nadu
Updates
Endpiece by Mary Durran
Reviews: including John Stuart Mill classic
Briefly
Country profile: Dominican Republic

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