Graver Norquist reveals burning ambition
International Tax Review is part of the Delinian Group, Delinian Limited, 4 Bouverie Street, London, EC4Y 8AX, Registered in England & Wales, Company number 00954730
Copyright © Delinian Limited and its affiliated companies 2024

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

Graver Norquist reveals burning ambition

norquist.jpg

Still playing the wild grover: Often seen on the Hill, Norquist’s festival visit shows he is not yet (Gr)over it
Photo by Gage Skidmore licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

The US anti-tax activist is more of a raver than a Grover, if revelations about his summer plans are anything to go by. He intends to take part in the Burning Man festival in Nevada. Norquist has already pointed out various similarities between the desert-festival and his Americans for Tax Reform group.

"Burning Man was founded in '86, the same year as the [Republican] Pledge [to oppose any tax increases], and the first Burning Man had 20 people at it, and our first centre-right meeting – the Wednesday Meeting – also had 20 people. So I think there's a real kinship there," says Norquist. "These are very similar operations, except we tend to wear more clothes perhaps at the Wednesday Meetings."

He had planned to attend the Nevada desert-based festival of debauchery and nakedness in 2012, only to be double-booked because of the Republican National Convention. This prompted Norquist to tweet: "Which idiot put the GOP convention the same time as 'Burning Man' in Nevada?"

"It wasn't doable with schedules and so on because the Republicans put their convention right on top of Burning Man, silly people," Norquist told National Journal last month. "That's why they probably lost the election."

Maybe Norquist is trying to take some lessons about overcoming political gridlock from the festival to Capitol Hill. He says the festival promotes spontaneous order, whereby a natural structure emerges from chaos without outside intervention.

"There's no government that organises this. That's what happens when nobody tells you what to do. You just figure it out," said Norquist, adding that Burning Man is a refutation of the argument that the state has a place in nature.

Cyndi Lauper might not be performing at Burning Man, but Norquist's attendance shows that tax reform advocates just wanna have fun.

more across site & bottom lb ros

More from across our site

Despite the relief, Brazil’s government has also presented a bill which seeks to re-impose a tax burden on companies’ payroll, one local tax specialist told ITR
Jeremy Brown arrives at the firm after a near 16-year career with Deloitte
PwC could elect a woman into the senior leadership position for the first time; in other news, KPMG Australia has extended its CEO’s term
The Senate report into PwC’s scandal is titled ‘The cover up worsens the crime’
Law firms that are conscious of their role in society are more likely to win work, according to a survey of over 23,000 in-house professionals
The firm’s tax business generated a quarter of HLB’s overall revenues in 2023
While successful pillar two implementation will require collaboration across all units, a combination of internal and external tax advice is at the centre of the effort
Binance has also been accused of manipulating foreign exchange rates via currency speculation and rate-fixing
Six individuals should have raised questions over information they received but did not breach professional standards, according to the firm
The partnership of KPMG UK has installed Holt for a second term as CEO and senior partner; in other news, a Baker McKenzie partner has sued the IRS
Gift this article