Everyone gets frustrated with income taxes and everyone complains that they are paying more than enough, but who really pays more in federal income taxes? Having a progressive tax system; meaning that the more money you earn, the more you will have to pay in taxes; would lead to the rich paying for most of the taxes and not the poor. Unfortunately, many people do not realize some of the problems with the tax system itself that offsets the balance as well as the results when it comes to taxes. There are many unseen things when looking at no more than just the statistics of who pays the most in taxes. Anything from the tax rates, the difference between federal and individual income taxes as well as state taxes can create a problem when getting to the bottom of who really pays the most taxes. Government Aided benefits and even untaxed amounts take their part in income taxes because they do make a difference on someone 's income which can alter the amount they will then owe in taxes. Although there are many ups and downs when it comes to income taxes, one of the biggest issues is that the rich are not paying nearly enough. In the United States, our tax system, has been designed to be progressive, sadly due to the facts that are usually looked at, causing unnecessary “top-heavy tax cuts,” (12) other taxes like state and local taxes are ignored. Obviously there will be a problem trying to get an exact definition as to who pays the most in taxes, the wealthy or the poor. So
One example of the progressive tax system is the federal estate tax. This tax only effects the wealthiest of families, those with assets in excess of ten million dollars, families with less than ten million dollars are exempt from this tax. Income taxes are also progressive; as an individual’s income increases there tax burden also increases. But there are provisions that unequally favor the most well to do. These include provisions for stock dividends and profits from real estate sales to be taxed at much lower rates
If the government starts doing that it would be fairer because everyone is getting the right amount of tax based on their income. But right now the rich and poor have to pay the same amount of money and it doesn’t matter about their income. Right now the rich should not really care about the taxes because they are rich and it doesn’t matter to them. But the taxes do matter to the poor people because they have really less amount of income and a large amount of taxes will affect them. The government has all records of people’s incomes and other information, so if the government makes a rule that the people with more income pay more taxes and the people with less income pay fewer taxes, it would be much better. But the taxes go to the government and the government makes the America better by making newer roads, better environment, and
The tax system in the United States has changed throughout the years, with many attempts to make it "fair" or "equal" while at the same time generating enough income for the United States government to thrive. It is a complex issue, and a controversial one at that. While it may not be possible for our tax system to ever be fair, it is important to make sure it doesn 't put more financial stress and pressure on one group than on another.
The United States Federal Government currently functions on a “progressive tax system”. A progressive tax system is based on ability to pay and therefor requires members of higher socioeconomic standing to pay higher federal income tax rates. The idea is that wealthy people, whether they are wealthy as a product of their own intelligence and labor or wealthy by inheritance, can afford to pay higher tax rates and still maintain a quality of life well beyond what is considered livable or even standard. This procedure understandably creates a lot of upset in the upper-class community. According to the IRS, in 2007, more that 44% of income tax revenues came from the top 5% of earners and more than 50% came from the top 10%. In the same year, the 400 wealthiest Americans, bringing in an average adjusted gross income of $345 million paid an average federal income tax rate of 17%, whereas the average tax payer during the same time period paid only 9.3% of their gross income to the federal taxes. In 2010, about 45% of all
A progressive income tax system is what most countries have adopted for taxation purposes. It appears as if this is the most suitable method as rates increase more to those who can afford to pay them. As taxes continue to increase, more and more people start talking about viable options that would benefit bottom line taxpayers. An option that has been proposed by some is the idea of having a flat rate that in theory would eliminate the concept of inequality by taxing everyone and everything at the same rate.
Supposedly our system is “progressive”, which means that it is taxing higher incomes at higher rates, but with all of the loopholes and tax breaks that those at the top can work around, a lot of the lower classes actually end up paying more of a percentage of their income in taxes. Sales taxes and payroll taxes also hit those income levels harder because, again, those end up being a larger amount of their total income. For example, Kansas now has one of the nation’s highest sales tax rates, at 6.5%, in the nation. Many localities have additional local taxes on top of that, making the total tax rate upwards of 10% in some places. (Kansas Department of Revenue, 2015). A 10% sales tax is going to make life a lot harder for someone who only brings home $600 a month than it is on someone who brings home $4000 a month. Regressive taxes like this tend to hit the lower and middle class harder so, if we want to improve income inequality we can move to reduce those. At the federal level, congress can move to implement policies like I mentioned, along with others that would make the system fairer and distribute wealth a little more
It’s not hard for any American to see that our tax system is a bit biased. "One of the issues that I have been preaching about around the world is collecting taxes in an equitable manner, especially from the elites in every country… There are rich people everywhere. And yet they do not contribute to the growth of their own countries. They don’t invest in public schools, public hospitals, in other kinds of development internally,” said Hillary at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in 2012. Hillary Clinton suspects that American’s need an economy that function’s for everybody, rather than just those at the top believing the wealthy are not paying their fair share. Clinton demanded for a deadline to the tax reductions on the wealthiest Americans
First, to understand the effects of a flat tax and how it compares with our current system, it is important to know what it is. “A flat tax is a tax system, which refers to a tax on household income, taxes at a uniform rate, regardless of income level” (Meehan, 2016). This means that every individual in the nation would pay the same rate regardless of what they earn. A progressive tax, on the other hand, is based on an individual’s income and when their income increases, so do their taxes (The Economic Times, 2016). Under this system, the rich pay more and the low-income earners pay less. At present, this has caused some very big issues including a widening gap in our social ladder and an uproar over where the majority of the country’s wealth resides. These problems are the reason that government officials are seeking out new options. However, the flat tax alternative is less progressive and for many reasons.
In a Progressive Tax system, a larger percentage of income is taken from those who are wealthy or have a large annual income, in taxes. Those who have low incomes do not have as high tax percentage to pay because progressive tax is based on
Taxes are one of the many ways that American politicians display their greed. Many politicians believe that the greatest way to fix the country’s economy is by taxing the rich less and the middle class more. This does make sense in some way considering that
One of the significant reasons to tax the rich more is because of how much they pay in taxes. Even though the rich are the ones that have the most, they should as well be the ones that give the most.This would easily be assumed but that is not the case. Specifically, information from “Do the Rich Pay Lower Taxes than the Middle Class?” by Robert Frank shows this. As well it gives many examples of how much the rich pay in taxes compared to low-income people. “The poorest 20 percent of Americans paid an average of 10.9 percent of their income in state and local taxes and the middle 20 percent of Americans paid 9.4 percent. The top 1 percent, meanwhile, pay only 5.4 percent of their income in state and local taxes.” Overall that is a big difference
Some argue that it is morally right that those who can afford to pay more in taxes should do so. Those that have very little income should be helped out by those who can afford to help. A progressive tax allows governments to collect money from those who can afford to pay, and uses it to help create a society that is more happy as a result. Those taxes are used to fund education, medical services, housing assistance, and other welfare programs for those people who really need help. Because so many people need help with these things, society is better off as a whole. This type of tax may be interpreted as discriminatory. (8 Progressive Tax System Pros and Cons) The efforts of the highly skilled, hard working individuals gets cut out of their pay role because they have the height of wealth.
is a progressive tax system. A progressive tax system takes a bigger share of income from high-income citizens than from low-income citizens. On the cover, this sounds like a good system but, it actually hurts the saver. If a family earns $40,000 a year, for example, they get taxed once on their wages and salaries before they even receive the paycheck. If that family decides to save the paycheck, whatever is left over is taxed again on the dividends and interest they earned on the savings. This double taxation discourages investment and saving, in the end, it makes it harder for families to save for certain milestones in their life, such as retiring or saving for their child’s education. The current double taxation of income and savings makes it more expensive for a business to attain the financial resources needed for new technologies and equipment which, increases capital in the long
The rich should have to pay more taxes. They make more money so they should have to give more, the poor makes less so they should have to give less. Everybody should have to pay taxes, even the poor people who don’t make that much money. Each taxpayer should have to give a certain percentage of their yearly income. For example, if a taxpayer makes $60k or below they should have to give five percent and if they make $61k-$99k then they should give ten percent. For each income range, the percentage should increase five percent. All of the classes work hard for their money. It’s just that the poor weren’t given the same opportunities as the rich. The rich have a right to be mad that they are paying more in taxes than the lower class, but America
When it comes to income taxes, the focus is usually on jobs, personal investments, and savings. The debate on who should bear the greater burden when it comes to income taxes is timeless. If all types of tax are aimed at developing the economy, it should be everyone’s equal responsibility to engage in taxation regardless of one’s economic class. Both parties involved proclaim the legitimacy of their arguments. The articles under discussion are representative of this debate. On one side of the debate, there are those who feel that the rich should pay more taxes. Then there are those who feel that the rich should not be punished by shouldering the burden of taxation (Benson and White 1). From an economic theorist’s point of view, both articles articulate valid arguments. However, this does not nullify the significance of the prevailing economic situation. The above debate can be based on various economic contexts.