Taxation in the United States/Talk

..."The income tax forms the bulk of taxes."...

There are two possible interpretations of that; one is true for most people and one is false. It could mean that the largest portion of the average taxpayer's burden is the income tax (true for most people, but not all), or it could mean that the largest source of revenue for the US government is the income tax (which is false). Please calrify. --LDC

This needs to be put on a different page. I'm not sure what, though. Perhaps [United States/Taxation]? (!!) or perhaps Taxation in the United States or perhaps [United States--Taxation]?. KQ should know the answer. :-) --LMS

"Taxation in the United States" sounds like a good article title to me, and of course it needs to have sections (or subpages) of its own for different historical periods). --LDC

The best available information about U.S. total revenues is probably: http://www.fms.treas.gov/mts/mts0601.pdf Which does indicate that income taxes are the bulk of Treasury revenue. It's fine with me if it moves... Ray Van De Walker

Sure enough (though Social Security is pretty close); I guess my impression was out-of-date (I know that in the past, individual income tax wasn't the biggest source of revenue--I'll have to look that up). --LDC

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Well, please do move it then. (See naming conventions.)

According to that document, p. 5, the estimate for the next year is about half. Perhaps we can be more specific, anyway. I think the subject of this article is payroll taxes. It ignores all the "hidden" taxes and tariffs that are also paid by various entities (and passed on to the consumer), such as business taxes and taxes on alcohol.

Also, it needs to be clarified if the subject of the article is U.S. federal government taxation, or any taxation that occurs within the borders of the U.S.

Finally, the percentages here need to be dated (was that all last year, or what?) --LMS

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Haha, no, "of course" I don't know the answer. "Taxation in the United States" sounds good. It could also go into more on sales tax, also the "non"tax on gasoline which is part of the final price and helps to offset the cost of new road construction. --KQ

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Are the percentages and ceilings quoted in this article current? I thought the Social security tax was raised to over 7% more than a decade ago. some please confirm and correct.

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They were the last month when I paid them... At one point Social Security was 7.6%, I seem to recall, but it was deducted up to a smaller maximum salary. Don't forget the hidden part of the tax: The same amount of tax is -also- paid by the employer, so you're losing a net of 12.4%. You're being silently screwed by that, because the employer could use that for your salary/wages- it's part of the same human-resources budget item. R.G. Van De Walker