It's tax season.

You're standing at your mailbox, pulling out your W2's, your 1099's, and you sigh.

Because yes, taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.

You can credit US Supreme Court justice all over Wendell Holmes for that one.

It's also carved over the entrance to the IRS's HQ in Washington.

But is everyone who's enjoying the fruits of this civilization actually paying fairly

for it?

Democratic lawmakers don't think so.

No billionaire should be paying a lower tax rate in the school teacher or firefighter.

I mean, think about it.

Okay, so let me be clear.

We are talking rates here.

Not absolute dollars, okay?

So let's set that aside.

But have you ever wondered how that happens?

It's not like there's a paragraph on page 5473 of the United States tax code that says

to achieve the billionaire deduction, do this.

Nah, it's way more interesting than that.

You see, billionaire tax avoidance is in its own way a celebration of American ingenuity.

Ideas are brainstormed in that laboratory of fiscal experimentation.

The tax attorney's office.

And then they're unleashed into the wild.

...