While the average American worker is subject to a progressive income tax system where tax rates increase as income rises, the wealthy often exploit a range of loopholes and deductions that significantly reduce their tax burden—sometimes to the point where the biggest corporations and one-percenters pay nothing at all. David Cay Johnston, a tax policy expert and former investigative journalist for the New York Times, joins us today to help unravel the complexity of the American tax system, which has functionally created two different tax systems: One for the wealthy and powerful and one for everyone else.

David Cay Johnston is an award-winning investigative journalist and author known for his expertise in tax policy and economic inequality. Johnston worked as a tax reporter for The New York Times for over a decade. At the Times, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting in 2001 for his coverage of tax loopholes and corporate tax evasion. Throughout his career, Johnston has authored several critically acclaimed books, including "Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich—and Cheat Everybody Else" and “Divided: The Perils of Our Growing Inequality.”

Twitter: @DavidCayJ

The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans--and How We Can Fix It by Dorothy Brownhttps://bookshop.org/a/101360/9780525577331 

More from David Cay Johnston: 

“Alvin Bragg’s roadmap to convict Donald Trump”https://www.nydailynews.com/2023/01/08/alvin-braggs-roadmap-to-convict-donald-trump/

Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich--and Cheat Everybody Elsehttps://bookshop.org/a/101360/9781591840695 

Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill)https://bookshop.org/a/101360/9781591842484 

Divided: The Perils of Our Growing Inequalityhttps://bookshop.org/a/101360/9781595589231 

Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.comTwitter: @PitchforkEconInstagram: @pitchforkeconomicsNick’s twitter: @NickHanauer