Progressive Tax In America Essay

831 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Benefits of progressive taxation

Every day Americans spend hours each year paying off their taxes. The true definition of taxes is expenses made from people and businesses that support the government and its services. The United States tax code has always been developing, which means the percentage of income leans toward to increasing income. Even though people have a higher income to pay more in taxes, they also have to pay a higher value for taxes. Although the United States tax system is unfair to society, the issues of the tax system are the progressive tax and equity.
The constitution allows that congress “shall have the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises and to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the people”. In …show more content…

“For example, a person making $100,000 in a year might pay 25% of their income in taxes ($25,000 in taxes), while someone with an income of $30,000 might only pay a 10% tax rate ($3,000 in taxes)” (Roach, Brian). Mostly, taxpayers are put down into groups based on their taxable income such as: the more one earns and the more taxes they will have to pay once they cross the standard cut off points between the different tax bracket levels. The progressive tax is also a method that directs economic inequalities in a society. To evaluate a tax system’s influence on inequality, one must consider both the distribution of taxes paid and the distribution of the benefits derived from tax income. If the profits of programs funded by taxation mainly benefit poor families while high-income households pays for most of the taxes, then the tax system effectively functions as a transfer mechanism. Making the progressive system increase or changing the distribution of benefits allows better redistribution of economic wealth. A progressive tax system may yield a given level of public revenue with the least economic

Show More
Related

  • Poloni-Staudinger And Wolf Essay

    559 Words  | 2 Pages

    Instead, the Constitution grants Congress the power to pass legislation regulating all commerce bar intrastate trade (U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 3). Coupled with the subsequent clause enabling Congress to pass any legislation they deem necessary in order to carry out the laws passed by dint of the body’s Constitutionally-enumerated powers (U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 18), the enumerated power to regulate interstate and international commerce endows Congress with a significant capacity to control the nation’s

    Read More

  • Articles of Confederation Remedied by The Constitution

    1723 Words  | 4 Pages

    The power to tax is key to a successful government. If a government is to act it needs the means to do so. The Articles withheld the power of taxation from Congress and gave it to the local governments. Congress could only appeal to the states for money. Unsurprisingly, the states did not respond with any of the requested money. This was a serious problem because the U.S. was in an incredible amount of debt as a result of the Revolutionary War. If money cannot be collected, how are debts to be paid? Some in Congress believed the problem could be solved by printing more money. However, this strategy only led to inflation, which weakened the economy furthe...

    Read More

  • Enumerated Powers In The United States Constitution

    708 Words  | 2 Pages

    The United States government is based around our Constitution. One of the most important pieces to U.S. Constitution is what lies in Article. I. Section. 8. Here is a list of powers granted to congress through the Constitution, known as the Enumerated Powers or Granted Powers, stating what congress can enforce on the nation as a whole. Examples of these powers include, the ability to lay and collect taxes, to pay debts, provide common defense/ declare war, provide for the general welfare, and the power to regulate commerce. Valuable topics to understand when reviewing the Enumerated Powers that are granted to the United States Congress are how federalism and Federalists are tied into congress 's constitutional powers and the meaning and

    Read More

  • The Evolution of the Federal Budget Process

    997 Words  | 2 Pages

    Federal spending is necessary for the economy and is essential to the accomplishment of national goals and advancement. This is why a budget is needed, however, there is no actual process mentioned in the Constitution that explains how Congress should do this. The Constitution states:

    Read More

  • Tax Reformation Common Ground

    1090 Words  | 3 Pages

    The tax policy in the United States is very confusing. When the tax policy was originally written in 1913 it was four hundred pages. Now, over the past ninety one years, that tax policy has evolved to over 72,000 pages. Since the tax code has become so lengthy and nearly impossible to understand, the topic of tax reform has been in the minds of many. Although, most barely think about tax reform until tax season. It is a controversial subject due to the impact a change in tax code would have on the American people. The two most popular and widely known stakeholders in this debate are the two major political parties in the United States, the Democrats and the Republicans. The two parties share absolutely no common ground on the subject of tax reform, other than thinking the other parties solution is wrong. The Democrats, in general, want to raise taxes on the wealthy, while Republicans, generally, want to cut taxes for everyone (Democratic Party) (GOP). Unfortunately, with the United States economy currently doing so poorly, the parties can no longer afford to remain at a standstill, some sort of compromise is going to have to be made. The implementation of a flat tax, and discarding the current tax system would be a compromise that both parties can agree on and will simplify the tax code, overall benefiting all Americans.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Speech On Flat Tax

    1141 Words  | 3 Pages

    (TRANSITION: But before we get into all of that, the questions I asked you for my audience analysis revealed that not all of you are as riveted by tax policy as I am-shocking I know-, so I will clarify some of the jargon I will be using. First the progressive tax is a tax system where the tax rates increase with income earned. Let’s say the first tax bracket is set at 50,000 dollars, and the first tax rate is set at ten percent, and the rate above it is set at twenty percent. So, if you make 70,000 dollars, the first 50,000 will be taxed

    Read More

  • Socialism In The Progressive Era Essay

    2093 Words  | 5 Pages

    Socialism is a word that has obtained a bad connotation in American society. Politicians are loath to lay claim to it, and often using it to lambast their political opponents with it. Yes in many ways America has seemed to embrace the economic benefits of Capitalism so whole heartedly, thoughts of a tangled bureaucratic mess of welfare and wealth distribution that is so contrary to the American idea of individualism are conjured up at the mere thought of Socialism. In fact many still equate Socialism with Communism and are given to thoughts of the Cold War, and the battle of ideologies that it entailed. Many Americans would perhaps be quite surprised to learn that Socialism had found a place in American society at one time, and that it held a considerable amount of influence over the direction the country would take.

    Read More

  • Comparing Progressive and Regressive Taxes

    849 Words  | 2 Pages

    Progressive taxes increase as taxable base amounts increase. Progressive taxes have an effect on income and expenditures. The U.S. federal income is an example of progressive tax because the higher income a person has, the higher the tax bracket rate. This affects the rich. The higher their income the more they have to pay in taxes (Wikipedia)

    Read More

  • Inequality in America

    562 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the United States there are four social classes : the upper class, the middle class, the working class, and the lower class. Of these four classes the most inequality exists between the upper class and the lower class. This inequality can be seen in the incomes that the two classes earn. During the period 1979 through the present , the growth in income has disproportionately grown.The bottom sixty percent of the US population actually saw their real income decrease in 1990 dollars. The next 20% saw medium gains. The top twenty percent saw their income increase 18%. The wealthiest one percent saw their incomes rise drastically over 80%. As reported in the 1997 Center on Budget's analysis , the wealthiest one percent of Americans ( 2.6 million people) received as much after-tax income in 1994 as the bottom 35 percent of the population combined (88 million people). But in 1977 the bottom 35 percent had about twice as much after tax income as the top one percent. These statistics further show the disproportional income growth among the social classes. The gr...

    Read More

  • Progressive Era Essay

    520 Words  | 2 Pages

    After the civil war, America was rapidly growing socially and economically. Because of the rapid industrial growth, many businesses were abusing their workers and therefor gave them very low wages. Workers and many other people began to unite and fight for their rights and for the well-being in society. This time period, known as the Progressive era, brought very important social changes and reforms. The Progressive era was very successful because the majority of the changes were to improve the lives of all American workers and to make a beneficial change. The Progressive Era had four main goals; Protecting Social Welfare, Promoting Moral Improvement, Creating Economic Reform, and Fostering Efficiency. The changes took a long period of time to implement and it was not easy making people aware that there was need for change.

    Read More

  • The Cycle of Poverty

    1204 Words  | 3 Pages

    Inequality exist and is high in America because the amount of income and wealth that is distributed through power. In America the income distribution is very inequality and the value of a person wealth is based on their income with their debts subtracted. “As of 2007, the top 1% of households (the upper class) owned 34.6% of all privately held wealth, and the 19% (the managerial, professional, and small business stratum) had 50.5%, which means that just 20% of the people owned a remarkable 85%, leaving only 15% of the wealth for the bottom 80% (wage and salary workers)” (Domhoff, 2011). In contrary the poor do not get ahead and the rich get more. Americans are judged and placed in class categories through their home ownership which translates to wealth. Americans social class is often associated with their assets and wealth. “People seek to own property, to have high incomes, to have interesting and safe jobs, to enjoy the finest in travel and leisure, and to live long and healthy lives” (Domhoff, 2011). Power indicates how these “values” are not distributed equally in American society. Huge gains for the rich include cuts in capital gains and dividends and when tax rates decrease for the tiny percent of Americans income is redistributed. Taxes directly affect the wealth and income of Americans every year.

    Read More

  • Implied Powers of Congress

    938 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are several powers expressly given to Congress in Article 1 of the constitution. These expressed powers are basically a laundry list of Congressional duties. These include, but are not limited to, the power to lay and collect taxes, the power to borrow money on behalf of the United States credit, the power to coin money and regulate it's value, the power to declare war, the power to raise and support armies, the power to establish post offices and postal roads and the power to regulate commerce between the states, as well as with the Indian tribes and with foreign nations. These powers were given at this level of government by our forefather because they are important items that must be regulated at the national level. Imagine the chaos that would ensue if each state was able to coin it's own money and set the value themselves. While Congress may be responsible for things of great importance to our security and national economy “no one of the powers transferred to the federal government is unnecessary or improper”(Federalist No.45) and“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined.” (Federalist No.45). This helps to ensure that Congress' power is k...

    Read More

  • Essay On The French Welfare System

    1178 Words  | 3 Pages

    Everyone is France that is classified as “middle-class” pays the same tax, no matter what if their income is on the lower or higher end, promoting social equality within a certain tax bracket. However, the part of their system that is undemocratic is that the rich pay a much higher percent of their income, and people that have very low income do not pay income tax. The United States’ system is similar on the latter, but they have more broken down tax brackets that have the lower part of “middle class” citizens pay a lower percentage than the higher

    Read More

  • Demonstration Speech Outline

    713 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the Constitution, it is stated that Congress is in charge of the federal government’s funding (Article I, Section 8). This is shown multiple times throughout the article and in real life. This also covers the process of how a bill becomes a law, which is outlined in the Constitution (Article I, Section 7).

    Read More

  • Essay On Income Inequality

    1524 Words  | 4 Pages

    Income inequality continues to increase in today’s world, especially in the United States. Income inequality means the unequal distribution between individuals’ assets, wealth, or income. In the Twilight of the Elites, Christopher Hayes, a liberal journalist, states the inequality gap between the rich and the poor are increasing widening, and there need to have things done - tax the rich, provide better education - in order to shortening the inequality gap. America is a meritocratic country, which means that everybody has equal opportunity to be successful regardless of their class privileges or wealth. However, equality of opportunity does not equal equality of outcomes. People are having more opportunities to find a better job, but their incomes are a lot less compared to the top ten percent rich people. In this way, the poor people will never climb up the ladder to high status and become millionaires. Therefore, the government needs to increase all the tax rates on rich people in order to reduce income inequality.

    Read More

More about Progressive Tax In America Essay

Open Document