answersLogoWhite

0

A progressive tax is any tax RATE that increases as a person's income increases. This means that the percentage of income that the tax payer pays increases as their income increases. For instance, capital gains taxes are the same percentage (around 30%) if the investor makes $10k a year or $500 billion. This is NOT a progressive tax. The United States Income Tax structure is, with the lowest tax "bracket" actually having a negative tax rate due to all of the benefits they get from the government and the people in the highest "bracket" (above $357,700 a year) paying the greatest amount of their income to the government (35%) in income taxes. So the more a person makes, the greater percentage of their income they pay in taxes. Other examples are gift taxes (taxes on gifts to another person that are over a certain amount), some estate taxes, some property taxes (by having higher taxes on homes worth more and raising the tax rates of "rich" neighborhoods), and some complicated annuity taxes.

The opposite of this is called a "regressive tax" that taxes poorer people more. The only real example of this is the sales tax (which is being abolished by some states such as Florida). The sales tax taxes every good at x%, x being whatever the state government decides it to be. One might think "oh well you can only spend what you make, so wouldn't it always be 6% regardless of income?". In theory, this is correct, but in practice it is not. The easiest way to explain it is by looking at basic necessities such as clothes, dishes, etc (food is generally not subject to a sales tax for the following reason). Everyone needs clothes to survive. So both the poor and the rich have to buy clothes. Consider a poor person and a rich person both buy a $20 t-shirt. At 6% (a standard sales tax), the tax on the shirt is 1.20. The issue here is that the $1.20 is a larger percentage of the poor person's income than it is the rich person's income. Eg: Suggest, for simplicity, that the poor person makes $100 a year and the rich person makes $100,000 a year. The sales tax on the shirt is 1.2% of the poor person's income but only .0012% of the rich person's income. Thus, the poor person pays a higher percentage of their income with a sales tax.

A tax system that takes a larger proportion of income from high income people than from low income people.

User Avatar

Wiki User

11y ago

What else can I help you with?

Related Questions

What are some examples of non tax revenues?

what are some examples of non-tax revenue


What is a progressive tax structure?

What is Progressive Tax Structure


Is gasoline tax progressive?

No. Most gasoline tax in not progressive. It is a tax per gallon.


What is the tax stratagy where the consumer pays a higher tax rate as income increases?

a "progressive tax" A "progressive" tax system. == ==


Is an income tax a progressive shared proportional or regressive tax?

progressive shared


The federal income tax is a?

progressive tax


The federal income tax is a _____.?

progressive tax


What type of tax is the federal income tax?

progressive tax


Is the federal income tax proportional progressive or regressive?

The federal income tax is progressive A tax that charges more for higher incomes


Which tax structure is used for federal income tax?

progressive tax


What are some advantages and disadvantages of a Progressive tax?

Advantage: Progressive taxes attempt to reduce the tax incidence of people with a lower ability-to-pay, as they shift the incidence increasingly to those with a higher ability-to-pay


What is a progressiv tax?

A progressive tax is a tax system where the tax rate increases as the taxable income increases. This means that individuals or entities with higher incomes pay a larger percentage of their income in taxes compared to those with lower incomes. The goal of a progressive tax is to reduce income inequality and ensure that those who can afford to contribute more to public services and infrastructure do so. Examples of progressive taxes include federal income taxes in many countries, where rates rise with income brackets.