Have you been worrying over how much the rich have to pay in taxes? Did you experience a warm glow of relief on learning that the French actor Gerard Depardieu has escaped his tax liabilities as a French citizen by acquiring a shiny new Russian passport? No, I thought not.
Yet the debate about how much the rich should pay has dominated the proceedings of American policymakers in recent weeks and looms large in the political agenda of a number of countries.
In Britain there is uproar over how big multinational corporations, notably Starbucks and Amazon, managed to avoid paying British corporation taxes due to the structure of their billing and licensing agreements.
This row flared again when Sir Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of the global advertising conglomerate WPP, said the amount multinational companies need to pay in taxes was "a question of judgment".
Although statements of this kind are provocative, few issues excite the kind of passion aroused by taxation. On one side are those who see taxation as a means of redistributing wealth and the social responsibility of the better off to contribute more to society. In contrast are those who say taxes lead to big government and an erosion of personal freedom. Moreover, a high tax regime provides a disincentive to enterprise.
While this debate is under way it is hard to find uncontested evidence for the view that the rich pay proportionately less of their income in taxes than ordinary citizens.