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I'll bet you that doesn't take into account add-on taxes.
When you rent a home, you're not writibg a check for the property taxes, but they are added into your rent.
When you but a tv, and you pay your 8% sales tax, you're also paying the taxes of the manufavturer, all the suppliers, the taxes the transport company paid.
The vast majority of Americans with jobs are paying a minimum of 25% in taxes.
If you're middle class, I'd bet it's approaching 40%.
Just because a tax is hidden from you, doesn't mean you aren't paying it. All business tax is passed on to the end consumer.
This is especially true of the value added tax, which is applied at each stage of production. Since there may be many such stages where the VAT is applied, it is utterly opaque, as opposed to a traditional sales tax, where the taxpayer can actually see how much tax he's paying. (Utter anathema to policymakers, to be certain.)
Due to the complete lack of transparency associated with the VAT, by the time a product or service arrives at the retail level, the consumer has no idea how much of the price of the product or service is tax, and how much is the actual cost of production. The VAT is a tax vehicle tailor-made for politicians who covet vast cash flows, but do not wish to subject themselves to the political repercussions of having gone on record as favoring ever-higher levels of taxation.
Politicians and the economically illiterate tend to favor the VAT precisely because nobody can tell how much tax they've paid in purchasing the item they just bought. Consumers who favor transparency in taxation, however, tend to dislike the VAT for the same reason.
This is especially true of the value added tax, which is applied at each stage of production. Since there may be many such stages where the VAT is applied, it is utterly opaque, as opposed to a traditional sales tax, where the taxpayer can actually see how much tax he's paying. (Utter anathema to policymakers, to be certain.)
Due to the complete lack of transparency associated with the VAT, by the time a product or service arrives at the retail level, the consumer has no idea how much of the price of the product or service is tax, and how much is the actual cost of production. The VAT is a tax vehicle tailor-made for politicians who covet vast cash flows, but do not wish to subject themselves to the political repercussions of having gone on record as favoring ever-higher levels of taxation.
Politicians and the economically illiterate tend to favor the VAT precisely because nobody can tell how much tax they've paid in purchasing the item they just bought. Consumers who favor transparency in taxation, however, tend to dislike the VAT for the same reason.
Sales tax sounds better it is a more upfront cost. Makes much more sense.
How is including payroll tax, corporate tax, sales tax, real estate tax, property tax, etc., misleading? It isn't. You just don't like the truth.
I posted data from the IRS. You don't like it because it proves that 45% of US 1040 filers pay no federal income tax whatsoever.
The data you posted was misleading.
1. Employers don't withhold sales taxes, corporate taxes, real estate taxes and property taxes from wages their employees earn from working.
2. You're the one who started the discussion about "average tax rates," and now you want to rail on about people who don't pay federal income taxes, which has absolutely no bearing on the average.
Surely you know all of this and are just being obtuse. But I could be giving you too much benefit of the doubt.
I've stated this before... The Fed Gov has a SPENDING problem. I support eliminating spending on every Fed Gov program that is not directly authorized by the US Constitution's Article I Section 8, which enumerates the Fed Gov's responsibilities. Everything not enumerated in Article I Section 8 is unconstitutional and therefore nothing but Fed Gov overreach.
There goes the FDA, the DEA, the FBI, EPA, Depart of Education, Bureau of Reclamation, no more power generation, no more highways, no more FAA. That is worse than the lowest third world country. If that is what you want, just move to say, El Salvador.
Said the thief.
If something is "necessary" people will willingly pay for it.
And you dont get to lecture me on civilty after threatening to lock me in a cage for not wanting to fund the killing of women,children and men defending their homes or the bombing of their hospitals, schools,sanitation systems, places of worship...
Is there a deflection of the month award? If there is you surely earned it with this little rant.
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