April 15, 2010 2:56PM # The Joy of Tax Serfdom By [Daniel J. Mitchell](https://www.cato.org/people/daniel-mitchell) --- SHARE Like a good peasant, I have already filed an extension, so I am at least temporarily compliant with the friendly people at the IRS. But since it is tax day, perhaps a slight bit of criticism of the tax code is warranted. I have already posted my [video on the flat tax](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhUOpNve1bY) and warned about the [risks of adding a value-added tax on top of the income tax in another video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6JDpw8a2Hk). I also posted a very successful video narrated by a [former Cato intern about the harsh compliance costs of the internal revenue code](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX8EswfGKQw). So it is time to reach into the archives and post this classic video produced by Caleb Brown and Austin Bragg of the Cato Institute. P.S. Not that I would ever want to put my thumb on the scale of any contest, but I am defending the flat tax in an [online debate for *U.S. News & World Report*](http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/2010/04/12/should-the-united-states-adopt-a-flat-tax.html) with someone who favors the current system. You can cast a vote if you have an opinion on the matter. P.P.S. Caleb has independently produced a [video on the meaning of free enterprise](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvUhjsXWAlk). With politicians acting as if the business community is an ATM machine to finance a bigger welfare state, Caleb’s video puts a human face on what it means to be a risk-taking entrepreneur. ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).