>Income tax cuts for individuals in the US are implemented in two ways:
>1) An adjustment in the percentage of tax due for certain wage brackets.
>2) An adjustment to the threshold of exempt income (above which you are taxed).

>Tax cuts in recent years have reduced the percentage due, and also raised the threshold of untaxed income. The poor benefit from the latter; the rich benefit from the former. In both instances the amount of net income available increases. In addition, the first round of tax cuts implemented by the Bush administration were followed by rebate checks - a flat amount per household. You can bet that made a much bigger difference to lower-income families than it did the rich.

I very much doubt that this is the case in the long run. Hidden benefits will disappear and their spendable income will not rise as much.

>Social Security taxes are a little different. There is an upper threshold of income on which SST are due; income above that amount is not taxed (the theory being that people above that line can help themselves). SST percentages have never been cut; the percentage has been raised over the years of the program, as well has the upper-level threshold. In effect, the rich are funding quite a bit of the program, with no guarantee that they will be able to benefit from it.

As is always the case with taxes.

>People in Holland may be ignorant of the tax rates levied against them, but people in the US pay great attention to both the rates AND the amount of net income they have available - you can count on that.

We don't care on how much tax there is in something we buy. End consumers don't give a damn about that. If they see price on an article they want to buy. They expect to pay exactly that amount. If you cannot see the stupidity of your own system where you first have to use a calculator to see how much you'll have to have in your wallet, then I cannot help you.

Let me help you in the issue here, why it cannot change with the help of the government. If one store is going to put tax included prices on their goods, they will chase clients out of their store as they'll have the idea that it is too expensive comapred to other stores.

>We are reminded of it every time the cash register rings (since sales taxes are not hidden in the cost of what we buy) and then in total every April 15th.

>>Again I conclude that your society is fixed and oversensitive to the word 'tax' and heavily debates taxes, but fails to realize that taxes are just a vehicle to define your netto income, distribution of wealth, and providing funds for your government to provide public services. And of course the rich don't want to educate you how it really works. Again I think you're beeing mislead by your government and esspecially by papers like this.

>Those are pretty broad assumptions, based on the premise that Americans are ignorant of the world around them.

Well, I would say that many americans are, indeed ignorant in regards of this issue.

>Your depth of paranoia regarding our government is pretty amazing, considering that you put yourself forward as an educated person. Get a grip - the information on how taxation works and how the money is spent is available for anyone that cares to research it.

I does not have anything to do with paranoia as I'm not living in the US. It is an observation. Again you fail to get the message. No-one really cares how much they pay on tax. The care about how much they have to spend and what services they get. Everyone wants a maximum spendable amount with as much government provided services. You're staring yourself blind on the word 'tax' as you think it has a very simple and direct relation to the services you get and your spendable income. Wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong again. This is not how it works in the big picture.

I'm happy to pay twice as much tax as I do now, as long as I can spend the same or more. And there are many scenarios where this might happen. In fact those cases did happen to me a few times.


Esspecially if you have to pay such a lot for healthcare insurances, daycare for you kids, pension, or worse you get i'll, you're area you live in is struck by disaster, you well might conclude that you we're willing to pay a little more tax to get you out of the mess. Unfortunately most people are shortsighted (Europeans are not much different in this respect, however)

Walter,