There were many reasons I left New York a quarter century ago, and taxes were just one of them. But along with less restrictive laws and improved landscapes, my move to Arizona rewarded me with a substantial reduction in banditry by state and local authorities. However, I would like even lower taxation, and the same goes for most people. As Tax Day approaches, Americans consistently say they are paying too much for a government that isn’t worth the money.
The rattle is a weekly newsletter from JD Tuccille. If you care about government excesses and tangible threats to everyday freedom, this is for you.
Too big a hold
“About two-thirds of people believe the federal income tax (67%), state sales tax (62%) and local property tax (69%) are too high,” the AP Center reported -NORC for public affairs research. January.
My old neighbors in the Empire State have more to complain about, with state and local taxes gobbling up an average of 15.9% of income above and beyond what they pay to the federal government, according to the Tax Foundation. By comparison, in Arizona, where I live now, residents pay an average of 9.5% of their income to the state and localities. Alaskans shell out the least at 4.6% on top of the federal share.
The government’s reach into our pockets can increase rapidly. At the federal level, according to the latest data, the average income tax rate in 2021 was 14.9%, compared to 13.6% in 2020 and 13.29% in 2019. Add this to the state levy and local and it is a large sum of money. out of the family budget. That said, the average rates cover wide disparities in the amounts people are being ripped off by tax collectors.
“The top 1 percent of taxpayers paid an average tax rate of 25.9 percent, nearly eight times higher than the 3.3 percent average rate paid by the bottom half of taxpayers,” according to the Tax Foundation, referring to the federal income tax.
Why can’t Americans bear the tax burden? Well, there’s the fact that taxes are mandatory payments for amounts over which they have little say. This is a big deal bound to arouse resentment. Adding insult to injury is that many people are unhappy with what they get in exchange for those forced expenses.
“About a third of adults say they receive little value from the taxes they pay, while less than a quarter believe they receive good value from paying these taxes,” AP-NORC adds. “Most people have no confidence in how taxes are spent by the federal government (66%) or state governments (58%). People are more likely to express at least some confidence in local governments (49%). ) or local school districts (53%) to spend taxpayer money wisely.”
Last year, Gallup found similar results, with 60% of respondents saying federal income taxes are too high — “a level last seen in 2001.” 34% of adults believe that the federal income tax is the least fair tax, followed by the local property tax at 29%, while the state income tax, state sales tax, and social security tax social issues are cited by 10 to 14% of interviewees.
Partisan division over taxes
As with everything about America in 2024, there is a partisan component to opinions on taxes.
“Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say their taxes are fair, and Republicans are more likely to say their taxes are too high,” AP-NORC notes.
“Republicans (71%) are now significantly more likely to believe their taxes are too high,” Gallup agrees, compared to 41% of Democrats and 62% of independents.
Much of this difference in opinion is undoubtedly the natural ideological clash between parties that traditionally differ on the role of government, as AP-NORC points out.
“Democrats generally trust the government to spend tax money to benefit people like them and are open to higher taxes for more services. In contrast, Republicans are more skeptical of government spending, expressing a preference for higher taxes low with fewer services”.
But Gallup notes that only 46% of Republicans said the federal income tax was too high in 2020, when Donald Trump was president, compared to 71% for Joe Biden. This may indicate greater tolerance for being milked by their side than the opposition (the belief that the federal income tax is too high rose by one point among Democrats over that period and by 14 points among independents).
Of course, not all government activities are created equal. Money spent on fighter jets is not interchangeable with subsidies for green industries. Not surprisingly, people resent being forced to pay for programs and policies they oppose rather than those they favor. When people say they get “poor value” for their taxes, they may not just mean inefficiency and bureaucracy, but things they consider wrong.
Borrow to provide little value
What’s worse, the federal government actually gives us much more than we pay for. That’s because much of federal spending is financed by deficits and debt – loans – that will have to be paid in the future by taxpayers who are unlikely to be happy with the burden of paying overdue bills.
“The United States borrowed $1.1 trillion in the first six months of fiscal 2024, including $236 billion in March,” the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget warned this week.
The total national debt exceeds $34 trillion, with debt held by the public (excluding money the government owes itself) more than $27 trillion. The second figure, the more worrying of the two, is close to 100% of GDP. The Congressional Budget Office believes that government debt will continue to increase in the years ahead, resulting in “significant risks to the fiscal and economic outlook.”
Costa A amount provide “low value” government. One wonders whether people might be happier holding onto their money so they can purchase services of their own choosing rather than spending it to be spent by officials in whom they “lack trust.” If taxpayers don’t trust those who forcefully extort their hard-earned money and still can’t make ends meet, it makes sense to try something different.
One example is the greater satisfaction I find in Arizona, where my state and local taxes amount to about two-thirds of what my old neighbors in New York pay. I don’t miss any of the services my former home state provided, to the contrary, I opposed many of the policies my money paid for and the laws they were used to enforce.
I still think my taxes are too high and I can’t stand some of the uses that are made of them. The poll suggests that they are in good company in believing that the government takes too much and is not worth the expense.