science

Tax Avoiders

Tax Avoiders is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tax Avoiders rather than just read about it. In short: Tax Avoiders is a single-player video game for the Atari 2600 released in 1982. It was conceived by Darrell Wagner at Dunhill Electronics; he was billed on the packaging as a "Licensed Tax Consultant and former IRS Revenue Agent".

Key takeaways

Tax Avoiders belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tax Avoiders to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tax Avoiders from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Tax Avoiders is a single-player video game for the Atari 2600 released in 1982. It was conceived by Darrell Wagner at Dunhill Electronics; he was billed on the packaging as a "Licensed Tax Consultant and former IRS Revenue Agent". The game was developed by Todd Clark Holm, "an independant [sic] investment advisor, registered with the S.E.C." The game was designed by John Simonds and published by American Videogame.

Gameplay

The object of Tax Avoiders is to help "John Q" become a millionaire within one game year by collecting income and avoiding taxes. There are two alternating game phases. In one, the player moves around the screen, collecting dollar bills and avoiding red tape; this represents maximizing income for the quarter. At the end of the quarter, the other phase has the player move around to manage his investments while another sprite oscillates between an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agent, a certified public accountant (CPA), and an investment advisor. If the player is caught by the IRS agent, he is audited, and always loses the audit, which takes 50% of his income. If he encounters the CPA, he is charged a fee but gains new tax-sheltered investment options. If he encounters an investment advisor, he can maximize his tax-sheltered investment returns.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tax Avoiders

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tax Avoiders claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tax Avoiders before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tax Avoiders ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tax Avoiders

In research: Tax Avoiders appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tax Avoiders in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tax Avoiders is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1982 video games, Atari 2600-only games, Atari 2600 games, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tax Avoiders outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Tax Avoiders in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tax Avoiders means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tax Avoiders out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tax Avoiders in simple terms?

Why does Tax Avoiders matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tax Avoiders?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tax Avoiders.