Elected Republican officials love to tell anyone who will listen that too many people don't pay taxes in the United States. They say that to defend their own efforts to convince people that the rich and corporations have too great a tax burden. The problem with the statement is that it is simply not true.
While some in this country don't owe income taxes, that is not because the tax code is unfair, but because they are the victim of GOP economic policies that force them to try to subsist on an inadequate income. But they still pay taxes. Everyone pays taxes -- even the poor. And when you consider the state and local taxes, most of which are very regressive, most people (poor, working class, middle class) actually pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than the rich (or the corporations) do.
This is explained well by Ryan Denson in his article for Addicting Info. Denson says:
Rewind back to 2012 when Mitt Romney ruined his chances of becoming President of the United States with his infamous 47 percent of the American people are “dependent on government, believe that they are victims … believe the government has a responsibility to care for them … believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it” comment. And on top of that, Romney adds, it’s because they have the audacity to not pay taxes. But here’s the kicker that Romney and his ilk won’t discuss: a new study shows that the working poor actually pay more of their income in state and local taxes than the rich. In other words, taxes actually hurt the lower wage earners more than the higher earners. The study, conducted by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, found:
- That on average, the poorest firth of Americans will pay 10.9 percent of their income in state and local taxes, the middle fifth will pay 9.4 percent and the top 1 percent (the Romney’s of our country) will average 5.4 percent.
- That “Virtually every state’s tax system is fundamentally unfair,” saying that “Unfair tax systems not only exacerbate widening income inequality in the short term, but they also will leave states struggling to raise enough revenue to meet their basic needs in the long term.”
- That Property taxes, which are huge sources of revenue for sates and municipalities, are hitting lower-and middle-class families harder than the wealthy due in part of their homes representing a larger asset.
- That in the institutes “Terrible 10″ states ranking, the bottom 20 percent of wage earners (AKA the working poor and struggling lower middle class) pay up to seven times as much of their income in taxes as the top 1 percenters do.
These include Washington, where the poorest residents pay 16.8 percent of their income in taxes while the wealthiest sliver pays just 2.4 percent, followed by Florida, Texas, South Dakota, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Arizona, Kansas and Indiana.
Standard & Poor’s issued a report last September that goes hand-in-hand with the findings of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, in which it found that regressive state taxes and income inequality are linked and actually are burdensome on the economy. Even conservatives say the poor pay a bigger price overall. David Burton, a senior fellow in economic policy at the Heritage Foundation, said “Rich people pay substantially more, but not a greater share.” So while Mitt Romney, who touts his smug, arrogant rich-boy nature, thinks the rest of us don’t pay our fair share, the facts will prevail. I’m not saying that both sides don’t pay their taxes. I’m simply calling on people like Mitt Romney to stop accusing th poor of getting a free ride.