Understanding Personal Taxation
Government requires fund to take care of its citizens and provide development measures within its jurisdiction. So one of the sources is levy of taxes in direct and indirect form. Irrespective of Tom, Dick and Harry , one cannot avoid the taxes. Before getting into know about how you directly pay taxes, lets look how indirect tax goes from your pocket.
Lets assume , you plan for movie night and a dinner thereafter on a sunday. You fill your tank and reach the theatre and managed to get tickets. After enjoying your movie, you head out to a restaurant and after finishing your favourite dish, you get shock when you look the bill. But you have forgotten that the tax portion in the bill is the last thing which you
In the United States, the top one percent received about 20 percent of the overall income for 2016. This creates an uneven distribution of income causing Americans to argue about whether or not the wealthy should pay more in federal income taxes. One side of the argument is that the wealthy make a huge portion of the nation’s income; therefore, they should have higher tax rates. The other side argues that wealthy Americans already pay their fair share of taxes by paying nearly 40 percent and should not be forced to pay more. These arguments both use compelling evidence to make their claims; however, a solution could be reached by increasing the tax rate of the top one percent by only 10 to 20 percent.
The worst thing I think America ever did is putting way too many taxes on the poor. One of my reasons is that the poor can’t afford a lot of things with taxes and if the poor buy something they also have to pay taxes, which will make everything more Expensive. My Second reason is that the government should make a rule for taxes based on the person's income. My Third reason is that because of the taxes the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer. Those are my three reasons for why taxes on the poor is the worst thing America did.
In my opinion as to whether or not the current federal income tax structure is fair for most Americans is that it is not fair. The following information will provide support for my decision. The main federal tax brackets are for single individuals, married individuals filing separately, married individuals filing as a couple and individuals filing as a head of household. In the financial year 2014, the lowest tax bracket paid a rate of 10% on income up to $9,075 while the highest bracket paid an average rate of 36.4% ($406,751 and above). Most individuals pay taxes across several tax brackets, and as a result, they end up with the progressive tax structure. In the current progressive federal income structure, individuals with a lower
In January of 2005, President George W. Bush appointed a bipartisan committee to propose new income tax policies; they were referred to as the “President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform”. The goal of the panel was to advise new options in an attempt to make filing of the United States personal income tax simpler. The made a statement about the difficulty that normal citizens have when filing their tax returns, “For millions of Americans, the annual rite of filing taxes has become a headache of burdensome record-keeping, lengthy instructions, and complicated schedules, worksheets, and forms – often requiring multiple
25. The cost of legal advice associated with the preparation of an individual’s Federal income tax return is not deductible because it is a personal expense.
With the ever-increasing complexity of the United States tax code, it has become more important than ever for companies to understand and implement possible tax benefits for the company and its employees. One major benefit that applies to both is employer-provided meals. Employer-provided meals have become a major topic due to their double-sided benefits. These are both tax beneficial to employers, as the meals can be deducted by the business as an expense on its federal income tax return, which reduces the business’ tax liability. Concurrently, the benefit of the provided meal is excluded from the taxable gross income of the employee, providing the employee with a tax-free benefit. After fully understanding the laws related to employer-provided meals, a business could begin thinking about implementation of the benefit.
Ever since the ratification of the 16th amendment to the United States Constitution, Americans have faced the burden of federal income taxes. Income taxes were first proposed as a better way of gathering revenue, as well as an effective measure to manipulate economic spending. However, the current tax code bears very little resemblance to the relatively simple codes that were originally written into law. Today’s tax laws have grown astonishingly complex and unequally distributes the burden of tax liabilities. Our country should confront the issues derived from the increasing complexity of the tax laws and equally distribute the obligations to each taxpayer.
The current federal income tax system in the United States (U.S.) is progressive based on the vertical equity principle. However, the tax code is getting increasingly complex and the wealthy are able to avoid paying taxes through loopholes. Hence, more people are yearning for fairness in taxation. With the looming 2016 presidential election, Senator Rand Paul’s proposal of ‘Fair and Flat Tax’ appears to have the most significant change to the current tax policy and I will now analyze if this proposal will improve the efficiency and equity of the U.S. tax code.
A Federal Tax Law comprises of statutory provisions, administrative support and court decisions in certain cases. The first and foremost task of any Federal Tax Law is raising revenue for Federal and various state governments to absorb the cost of government operations. The role of social, economic, equity and political factors couldn’t be ignored while discussing various tax consequences during particular budget period. Nevertheless, the amount of revenue raised through this method decides the amount of services that the government can afford to provide. The forum topics for this week are explained in following broad heads:
Prior to the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment of the American Constitution, the majority of the income received by the federal government was through tariffs and excise taxation (Pollack, 2013). Tariffs are taxes “levied by governments on the value including freight and insurance of imported products (Tariffs and Import Fees, 2014)”. Excise taxes are “taxes paid when purchases are made on a specific good, such as gasoline (Excise Tax, 2014).” While the individual citizen did not incur wage taxation, through trickle-down economics, consumers often dealt with higher costs of goods as importers sought to recoup
Few Americans believe that their taxes are too low, especially when the amounts they pay in addition to federal and state income taxes are included. For example, individuals as well as their employers remit payroll taxes. There are federal taxes on gasoline, cell phone bills, hotel rooms, airline tickets and a bevy of other goods and services. Sales taxes and property taxes place an additional burden on consumers. Furthermore, there are numerous fees that are little more than thinly disguised taxes, such as disposal fees, tolls and building permits. Although the issue of taxation can be unpopular with voters, Hillary Clinton has repeatedly vowed to increase taxes and will likely keep her promise. However, the question remains as to for whom she plans to raise taxes.
Taxes are the dollars that we pay to government to supply the services that are not or can not be provided through the free enterprise system. Taxes have been around since the beginning of organized societies. They come in various forms. Most common are income taxes both federal and local government. These taxes are assessed on the amount of income a person earns. Other taxes come in the form of user taxes; these taxes are imposed on the people that are using the goods being taxed, such as gas tax, alcohol tax, sales tax, and luxury taxes. Property taxes make up the major revenues for local and city governments. Furthering the burden of taxation are taxes that are attached to such bills as utility
If you are a working American Citizen, you pay income tax. We are so used to the income tax that we do not even look at that part of our pay checks anymore. When we discuss our pay with friends or family we refer to it as our take-home pay not what we actually earn. Next time you receive a paycheck stop and really look at the details. There is federal income tax, state income tax, and some areas have local income tax. Do not forget about Social Security tax and Medicare. Now, imagine that the income taxes were erased from your paycheck. That's a big difference, is it not? Actually getting the money you earn. That is the reason I am an advocate of the Fair Tax Plan. We get to keep the money we earn, the government still receives revenue, and
Taxes have been around throughout the world since the idea of civilization came to being and was implemented. The earliest forms of taxations were implemented around 4500 years ago in Mesopotamia where people used to pay taxes by use of the commonly accepted currency then which was livestock. These kinds of taxes were paid throughout the year to finance the activities of the governing sectors. Looking at the ancient world, there are taxes such as the estate taxes and the death taxes. An example of a country that had death taxes was Egypt which upon the death of an individual the people left behind who would get the property the deceased had were to pay a ten per cent tax on the property they were to inherit. Over the years, the way we pay taxes
I worked on this case for over two years. The jury awarded my client $2,000,000 in damages, of which my fee was $300,000 plus recovery of expenses paid up front in the amount of $25,000. How is the $300,000 taxed? What about the $25,000? What can I do to minimize the tax consequences of each? Also, I am thinking about buying the building that I currently lease my office space in. My current lease is $3,500 per month. How is this lease reported on my income tax returns (either personally or for my business which is a separate law practice established as an LLC)? Do I get better tax benefits for paying the lease or for buying the building? What are the differences?