“Few of us ever test our powers of deduction, except when filling out an income tax form”

“Few of us ever test our powers of deduction, except when filling out an income tax form” is a popular tax saying that has been printed on many images. The quotation was included in the book Quotations for Our Time (1977) by Laurence J. Peter (1919-1990). Canadian educator Peter is usually given as the quote’s author, but it’s likely that he collected it from a now-unknown source.
           
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Quotations for Our Time.
Author: Laurence J Peter
Publisher: USA William Morrow & Co. 1977
Edition/Format:   Print book : English
 
13 February 1983, Newsday (Long Island, NY), Tax Book sec., pg. 2, col. 1:
Few of us ever test our powers of deduction, except when filling out a tax form.
—Laurence J. Peter, “The Peter Principle”
     
16 April 1995, New York (NY) Times, “Word for Word-Tax Talk: Render Unto Caesar, Pay the Piper Or Just Get That Check in the Mail” by David E. Rosenbaum, pg. E7, col. 3:
Few of us ever test our powers of deduction, except when filling out an income tax form.
—Laurence J. Peter, author of “The Peter Principle”
 
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“Few of us ever test our powers of deduction, except when filling out an income tax form”—Laurence J. Peter #.. http://tinyurl.com/dhcf67
12:54 AM · Mar 24, 2009·Twitter Web Client
 
Accounting Today 
Comic tax relief
By Robert McKenzie
Published March 23 2018, 7:19am EDT
(...)
“Few of us ever test our powers of deduction, except when filling out an income tax form.’’
— Laurence J. Peter, author
 
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“Few of us ever test our powers of deduction, except when filling out an income tax form.” #mosyantax
6:36 PM · Aug 13, 2019·twittbot.net