The Issue Of Tax Fairness

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

The American people are in the presence of the highest tax burden in American history; taxes represent a larger share of the U.S. economy than ever before (Armey 2). After World War II, the average family sent only about three percent of its income to Washington. The same family today gives 24 percent of its income to the federal tax collector (Mitchell 1, 9). Once state and local taxes are added to the federal take, taxes make up the biggest slice of the average family's budget. As Daniel Mitchell of the Heritage Foundation shows in Figure 1, the typical American family now pays more of its budget in taxes than it spends on food, clothing, transportation and shelter combined (Mitchell 1, 10).

A third writer, mentions how tax policy is unfair because there are people who pay more taxes and those are over taking advantage of their power. One of the reasons for our poor economic performance is the large distortion in our economy. It’s time for the wealthiest Americans and big corporations to pay their fair share of taxes. Instead of cutting education funding for our children, we should ask millionaires to pay a tax rate at least as high their secretary’s. Instead of cutting Social Security and Medicare, we should ask the wealthy to give up a few tax loopholes so that we can make sure everyone has a secure retirement. Billionaires aren

Taxes are a main contributor to the United States’ economy. One thing that I never understood with taxes is why the rich get a large tax break, where the middle class get a small refund. The rich can wind up making up the payment in taxes by working in a short amount of time. The amount of money you make should contribute to the amount of taxes you pay. Tax rates fell during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, however this also wound up benefiting the rich as well.

The United States tax system has an extensive history that has transformed from a modest system to a complex taxation system over the years. From the beginning, the tax system has undergone changes due to past wars, inclusion of social programs, changes to social programs, presidential views, and economic fluctuations. Every tax year, the tax laws continue to change from the methods of the past.

The United States is a nation that that was founded upon principles of liberty. The founders of this country have instilled this into our foundation and culture. It is no coincidence that taxation has been a top political issue since the formation of our government. The tax code has been continually adjusted and is currently up for new reform. Due to many variables, there is a discrepancy between the top nominal corporate tax rate and the effective rate that corporations actually pay. Aligning the nominal and effective rates would allow for easier accounting, reduce the marginal cost of paying taxes domestically, better alignment of incentives, and as the domestic and global economy is changing, so must the tax code to be adequately

In addition, some supporters say that a progressive tax “assumes that the rich should pay more of the government’s expenses than the poor", which doesn’t mean that it’s the role of the government to redistribute the wealth to reduce the wealth difference between the rich and the poor. (Debate: Progressive Tax vs Flat Tax, 2010) A major liberal supporter of a progressive tax is Bill Gates. He argues that a progressive tax is the best possible tax system that the economy can have. Gates essential reason for supporting a progressive tax is he believes in order for a tax system to be fair, it must require those with the greatest capacity to pay to pay more tax than those with a lesser capacity to pay (Worstall, 2014). Also, as income increases, households have more and more income that’s not spent on basic necessities and thus can afford to pay more taxes, unlike those with lower incomes. In other words, a progressive tax helps the government gain revenue to support its society. As a result of people with higher incomes paying more money to the government, access money can go to those people who can 't afford to help themselves. In addition, it helps create programs for medical services, fund public education, housing assistance and other welfare programs. This revenue enhances the opportunities for its lower and middle class citizens (History and Debate of Progressive Tax). Nonetheless, some

The history of the United States tax system is something that each and every person should understand. There are two main reasons that the history of the tax system is important. The first reason is that the knowledge of the how the tax system worked will help the people who are a part of the tax system process to make educated decisions upon future taxes and things which would affect the taxes. The second reason is that knowing about the history of the United States tax system will help the people making tax decision to avoid crucial mistakes that have occurred in the past. Not only will the decision makers be able to learn from previous mistakes, but they will also be able to know what a likely

Both the American people and members of the Federal Government have long griped about the current U.S. Personal Income Tax System. Bush’s Advisory Panel for Federal Tax Reform stated that, “the complexity of our tax code breeds a perception of unfairness and creates

In addition to economic issues, taxation is also a political issue. Political leaders formulate tax policies to bring reforms in the taxation system in order to promote their agendas. The major tax reforms include: increasing or decreasing the tax rate, imposing new taxes on certain products and changing the definition of taxable income. It is evident from the research studies that no one deliberately wants to pay taxes. U.S’ tax policy reflects expression of influence - i.e., those who have power are successful in paying low taxes and their burden is shifted to people who have no power. Therefore retired individuals, small business owners and farmers find ways efforts to reduce their tax burden. Since its existence, tax policy has been enormously used for promoting political and economic agendas.

The essence of Jennings and Zott’s argument is that the government brings in sufficient amounts of money in order to cover its expenses. The amount of money the government spends annually is roughly two trillion dollars, and they collect roughly the same amount. Individual income taxes are the government’s largest source of revenue; accounting for almost forty-two percent of its intake. Social insurance taxes account for almost forty percent. The money from just two sectors of the tax chart account for a little over eighty percent of the money that the government collects. The rest is received through corporate income taxes and other smaller taxes such as the gas tax, sales tax, and cigarette tax.

In certain cases within the six thousand paged, U.S. federal tax code, there are cases that regressive taxes occur. The function of each system has it’s own agenda and purpose that could be use to affect the economy or the political arena, therefore the importance of citizens understanding candidates position on these systems is imperative to their family’s finances (Mertens & Ravn, 2013).

Tax structures are complex and play a prevalent role in American society. Taxation is important to understand because the designed tax policies are intended to foster economic stimulation and behavior. Although economists differ on the appropriate American taxation structure, taxation promotes both incentives and disincentives in behavioral outcomes. These differing views are debated to whether the United States should adjust from its present progressive income tax structure, or an alternative taxation structure, such as a proportional, or flat rate tax. Whether a progressive income tax structure or a flat rate structure, it is essential to understand the advantages and disadvantages and its effects on economic stimulation and behavior.

To this day, our federal government imposes taxes on its citizens in order to properly run government programs, build public amenities, pay off the national debt, and support the overall well-being of the nation. Because of the benefits of taxation, one would believe that more people would

Tax systems should not discriminate between people within the same income range (they are similar with respect to their ability to pay) and their tax rate should be the same. For example, income taxes are proportional within particular income ranges. This means that citizens in the same income range will bear the same tax burden.