Critical Reasoning

State tax officials, having had considerable success in persuading delinquent individuals to pay their back taxes through the incentive of reduced penalties, plan to adopt a similar approach in order to collect past due taxes from corporations.

The state tax plan outlined above assumes that

A) federal tax officials will not attempt to collect back taxes in the same manner
B) stiff fines are not the only way to collect past due corporate taxes
C) corporations tend to be delinquent in their taxes for the same length of time that individual taxpayers are
D) past due taxes cannot be collected without a reduction in penalties
E) penalties for delinquent corporations will have to be reduced by the same percentage as were penalties for delinquent individuals.

greenwich wrote:State tax officials, having had considerable success in persuading delinquent individuals to pay their back taxes through the incentive of reduced penalties, plan to adopt a similar approach in order to collect past due taxes from corporations.

The state tax plan outlined above assumes that

A) federal tax officials will not attempt to collect back taxes in the same manner
B) stiff fines are not the only way to collect past due corporate taxes
C) corporations tend to be delinquent in their taxes for the same length of time that individual taxpayers are
D) past due taxes cannot be collected without a reduction in penalties
E) penalties for delinquent corporations will have to be reduced by the same percentage as were penalties for delinquent individuals.

Plan: To reduce penalties for corporations.
Goal: To collect back taxes from these corporations.

In a planning CR, the assumption is that nothing will prevent the plan, if implemented, from achieving its goal.
Apply the NEGATION TEST.
The negation of the correct answer = a PROBLEM that will prevent the plan from achieving its goal.

Answer choice B, negated:
STIFF FINES ARE THE ONLY WAY to collect past due corporate taxes.
If stiff fines are THE ONLY WAY to collect past due corporate taxes, then the plan to REDUCE these fines clearly WILL NOT WORK.

The correct answer is B.