The IRS and Nuclear War

Factual Questions
1

In The New York Public Library’s Desk Reference, they have a factoid that “The manual for IRS employees includes provisions for collecting taxes after a nuclear war.” I tried to do a search on the internet but couldn’t find anything. What were these provisions? Is there a copy online that I could read?

2

  1. The New York Public Library Desk Reference isn’t really written by the staff of NYPL. They have contributed some information and they sponsor it.

  2. The IRS likely has provisions for collecting taxes in all sorts of emergencies. The New York Public Library has instructions on how to operate during an emergency like a nuclear war. Most likely these emergency operations aren’t available online for security purposes.

3

In the book The Day After World War III by Edward Zuckerman, it says that late-filing penalties will be waived. The IRS would probably go to a 30% national sales tax, as the stores already know how to administer that and it does not require as much paperwork. The tax would have no exceptions, to stifle any black markets. Personal war loss will not be tax-deductible.