One of the country's top investigative reporters reveals how the richest people within the top 1 percent of the country has rigged the tax code and other laws in its favor.

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter David Cay Johnston has been breaking pieces of this story on the front page of the New York Times for nine years, work for which one business school professor calls him "the de facto chief tax enforcement officer of the United States." With Perfectly Legal, he puts the whole shocking narrative together in a way that will stir up media attention and make readers angry about the state of our country. And he has sound advice on what to do.

Since the mid-1970s, there has been a dramatic shift in who benefits from the American economy and bears the burden of taxes. CEOs, big investors and business owners can delay paying their taxes for years and sometimes escape them almost entirely, while wage earners have theirs taken from each paycheck. Discreet lobbying by the political donor class has made tax policies and enforcement a disaster. Because of obligations to these donors Washington has been unable, or unwilling, to fix these problems. The news media have largely ignored official favors to those who are supposed to pay the corporate income tax, the estate tax, and the gift tax. Millions of families expecting tax cuts are losing some or all of them to a stealth tax that was originally enacted only to apply to the tax-avoiding rich, but that now stings single mothers making as little as $28,000. But the cumulative results are remarkable: the 400 richest Americans pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than someone making $100,000. The 400 richest pay less and less of their income in taxes while the middle class pays more and more. And while the incomes of the very rich skyrocketed over three decades, the average income for the bottom 90 percent fell.

Johnston exposes exactly how the middle class is being squeezed to create a widening income gap that threatens the stability of the country. By relating the compelling tales of real people across all areas of society, he reveals the truth behind:

• "middle class" tax cuts and exactly whom they benefit
• how workers are being cheated out of their retirement plans while disgraced CEOs walk away with hundreds of millions
• how some corporations avoid paying any federal income tax
• how CEOs fly on vacation in corporate jets for less than you pay for a middle seat in coach — and stick you with most of the cost
• why the working poor are seven times more likely to be audited by the IRS than everyone else
• how the IRS became so weak that even when it was handed complete banking records detailing massive cheating by 1,600 people, it prosecuted only 4 percent of them

"[Johnston's] journalistic legwork informs every page of this expose....[A] thoughtful overview for any citizens willing to educate themselves on the issue." Publishers Weekly

"[Y]ou can't put it down....Perfectly Legal is rich with details and examples, and it never bogs down, even though Johnston deals with very complex tax schemes." San Antonio Express-News

"David Cay Johnston believes 'the tax system in America is being rigged to benefit the super rich.' And David Cay Johnston's Perfectly Legal and the alternative minimum tax have made a believer out of me." The Oregonian (Portland, OR)

"At times, this book might seem overstuffed with facts and numbers, but they serve a noble purpose....[A] scrupulously reported, anecdotally rich wake-up call urging all of us to not only follow the money but also pay the piper." Boston Globe

"[C]overs more ground than most investigations....Johnston presents plans for reform that sound plausible. But he understands that his reform plans and plans offered by other commentators quite likely will stand no chance in Congress or the executive branch." Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Johnston takes us on a remarkable excursion....Perfectly Legal thus stands as one of the best, and certainly one of the most thorough, examinations of the perfidies of recent tax policy in the United States." San Diego Union-Tribune

"Want to know how business execs get nearly free personal trips on their corporate jets? Johnston is your man." Business Week

"Mr. Johnston exposes some fundamental problems with the tax code that Campaign 2004 seems to be overlooking." Amity Shlaes, Financial Times

"This book is vital, an infuriating call to action." Jim Hightower, author of Thieves in High Places

With a new Prologue and updated with new material, this six-week New York Times bestseller reveals how everyday Americans are being robbed to subsidize those who make millions.

David Cay Johnston won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001 and was a finalist three other times since 2000 for his investigative reporting in the New York Times, for which he has written since 1995. Prior to that he wrote for the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Los Angeles Times, the Detroit Free Press, and the San Jose Mercury News. Johnston is a frequent guest on NPR's Fresh Air.