Questions tagged [taxes]
The primary means by which governments raise revenue. Taxes can be levied on almost any aspect of economic activity.
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questions
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Were the women of Travancore, India, taxed for covering their breasts by breast size?
There are some claims regarding a weird tax which existed just over a century ago in a part of India.
Several articles say that this tax existed. For example, the Economic Times:
State of ...
14
votes
1answer
838 views
Does an American taxpayer fund $870 in corporate subsidies for every $36 in food stamps?
I recently saw this Occupy Democrats claim on Facebook:
Now, obviously a lot of those categories are vague and open to interpretation (I've known people who would argue most of the U.S. defense ...
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1answer
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Do the Republican tax cuts cost more than forgiving student debt?
In today's US political climate, a big talking point for some of the Democratic Party candidates is the forgiveness of student loans. Whenever I hear this discussed among my peers, the consensus is ...
3
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1answer
393 views
Are US workers highly taxed if you count health premiums? [closed]
According to "US Workers Are Highly Taxed If You Count Premiums" (2019-04-08):
Finally, we can go back to the OECD NTCP data and compare the US to other developed countries. When we do that, we ...
133
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1answer
29k views
Did Amazon pay $0 in taxes last year?
Background
I saw this article saying that Amazon paid $0 in corporate income tax last year. Is this true or just phrased to sound like they are getting away with paying nothing?
Here's the article: ...
4
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0answers
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How many middle class families' tax burden was less in 2018 because of Trump's tax cuts?
In the news lately (early 2019) are many stories of regular people complaining that they have drastically lower tax refunds than the previous year, and some even owing instead. This is in the wake of ...
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0answers
301 views
Were Trump's tax cuts the largest in American history?
If anyone feels this is truly a duplicate of:
Is the GOP tax plan the 'largest tax cut in history'?
Feel free to close or delete the question. That question above was asked on 18 December 2017, ...
53
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4answers
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Are US workers legally required to pay income taxes?
In the 2006 film America: Freedom to Fascism, several interviews are shown which claim that American workers do not need to pay income tax. Specifically, this clip claims that
There is no law which ...
11
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2answers
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Do rich Americans pay a lower portion of their income in federal taxes than the middle class?
Not quite the same as this related question but similar.
According to Wikipedia, the origin of the "Buffett Rule" oft-quoted by former-President Obama is that:
rich people, like himself, could pay ...
44
votes
2answers
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2 % of 'the rich' pay 50 % of taxes in Germany
A statement made by a user under a news article claims that 50 % of all taxes are paid by 'rich people' being defined as making more than 70.000 €/a.
(...) 2% der "Reichen" zahlen 50% der Steuern ...
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0answers
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Is the US is heavily reliant on its richest citizens to support the tax burden? [closed]
Found this on Pol.SE:
The US relies on its higher income residents for an exceptionally large amount of its revenue. Almost half of the population pays no federal income taxes at all. The top % pay ...
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1answer
851 views
Is the GOP tax plan the 'largest tax cut in history'?
The GOP recently released their final tax plan this week, after going to a conference committee to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the bill.
US President Donald Trump has frequently ...
9
votes
1answer
516 views
Is the average effective corporate tax rate in US only 15% in 2017?
I have seen plenty of arguments and articles claiming that companies pay significantly below statutory tax rates. This Forbes article claims that number was around 15%. But then I see articles like ...
20
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1answer
2k views
Will the Republican tax plan cost Donald Trump “a fortune”?
In this video (Donald Trump in St. Charles, MO - Youtube), Donald Trump says the Republican tax plan is going to "cost him a fortune, believe me" (1:30).
This is going to cost me a fortune, this ...
2
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0answers
415 views
Do voters refuse to believe accurate accounts of Republican tax plans? [closed]
There are plenty of controversial ideas in tax policy in the USA. Republicans often argue that lowering tax will enhance growth. Or that reducing taxes on corporations will increase wages. Many people ...
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0answers
466 views
Does Toomey's amendment to the GOP Tax Bill only benefit Hillsdale College?
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer just said this on the Senate floor, regarding the Republican Tax Bill:
One college, Hillsdale College, has been exempted from taxes on colleges with large ...
20
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1answer
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Is the US tax code only 2,600 pages long?
Andrew L. Grossman wrote in the Slate article Is the Tax Code Really 70,000 Pages Long?
:
American Public Media’s Marketplace Morning Report has reported that the tax code is 70,000 pages long.* ...
5
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1answer
426 views
Did Whiskey taxation make up 30%-50% of England's revenue?
In this article it is claimed that (1st paragraph):
Especially in England and Ireland, it became the drink of choice, and through taxation, came to contribute 30%-50% of the nation’s revenue.
This ...
8
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1answer
546 views
Earned income tax credit 25% fraud?
I was listening a discussion on poverty on CSPAN radio this morning and Robert E. Rector from The Heritage Foundation claimed that 25% of the Earned Income tax credit is fraudulent.
Specifically, ...
3
votes
2answers
609 views
Why does the IRS want you to declare income from illegal activites? [closed]
According to a paper by the IRS you should declare illegal income from dealing drugs or stolen property. What's the motivation behind this? And are there examples of people who reported such ...
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votes
2answers
22k views
Does Shell get $2 billion a year in subsidies from the US government?
While browsing reddit, I saw the following graphic from the Late Stage Capitalism subreddit:
(Two stick figures are shown, the second one with Shell's logo for a head)
This is Bob.
Bob gets $...
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votes
2answers
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Does the USA have the highest taxes?
I was listening to the Trump rally tonight in Ohio and Trump said:
My administration is working every single day to heed and honor the will of the voters. That includes working on one of the ...
7
votes
1answer
570 views
Did the Washington Post ever advocate Amazon's position on sales taxes?
On July 24th, 2017, Donald Trump tweeted:
Is Fake News Washington Post being used as a lobbyist weapon against
Congress to keep Politicians from looking into Amazon no-tax
monopoly?
First of ...
57
votes
2answers
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Can the US government garnish 100% of your income?
I was reading a Wikipedia article about Karl Hess. The article contained this quote (emphasis mine):
During that time [1967], President Johnson, a Democrat, ordered the Internal Revenue Service to ...
49
votes
2answers
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Does the United States have more tax preparers than police and firefighters combined?
According to The Economist (May 13th, 2017, print edition, webpage),
America has more tax preparers—over 1m, according to a project at
George Washington University—than it has police and ...
14
votes
0answers
762 views
Does the Netherlands allow letterbox companies to exist as long as they have a houseplant in their empty office?
The following article came to my attention:
OneWorld - Kunstenares Tinkebell toert langs kamerplanten van belastingontwijkers (Dutch).
It describes how an artist will be doing tours of companies ...
3
votes
0answers
483 views
Did Donald Trump leak his own tax returns? [closed]
Part of Trump's tax returns for 2005 were leaked yesterday. Some source claim that Trump leaked them, while others say he didnt (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
Is there any credible evidence showing that Trump did ...
4
votes
2answers
3k views
Can I avoid property tax by showing a judge my land grant?
In this article or here the author says that there is truly a legal way to stop paying the property tax for your house.
These steps are legal, and you can use them to accomplish the goal to stop ...
6
votes
2answers
4k views
Do over 20 countries have zero tax, but high-quality services?
This picture:
(source) currently has nearly 6,000 likes on Facebook. Its claim as text:
There are over 20 countries on Earth that have zero tax, yet somehow they still have roads, schools, sewers, ...
10
votes
1answer
906 views
Does a tax on drinks with high sugar content reduce sugar consumption?
The UK government is introducing a sugar tax on soft drinks with more than 5g per 100ml of sugar.
Coca-Cola claims that this "flies in the face of evidence from around the world"
A longer quote:
...
26
votes
1answer
1k views
Did NASA receive a tax refund on a diamond window when it left the Earth aboard a space probe?
According to Hughesscgheritage.com:
“Probe” is an export; diamond duty saved—Hughes News January 6, 1979
The cost of HAC’s highly successful Pioneer Venus mission was reduced by $12,474 ...
10
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1answer
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Are the ABA and IRS foreign-owned private debt collection agencies?
A colleague recently shared An Open Letter to Sheriff Ward of Harney County Oregon - and to All County Sheriffs in America from Judge Anna
This letter makes a number of claims, among which:
The ...
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votes
2answers
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Do Greeks evade taxes by not finishing their houses?
I've heard this claim several times:
Q: Why are there so many unfinished houses in Greece?
A: as long as the house is not finished, they don't have to pay building tax for it. So the leave it ...
48
votes
2answers
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Are razor blades tax-free in the UK?
This comic has been circulating heavily on social media:
The world according to the UK government:
Men’s razors are taxed as necessities because you need to avoid stubble
Women’s sanitary ...
23
votes
1answer
2k views
Does the UK government have only 300 staff investigating tax evasion of £70bn+ vs 3250 staff investigating benefits (welfare) fraud of £1.2bn?
The following graphic is doing the rounds on Facebook:
Is it true?
Does the graphic give an accurate representation of the comparative headcount/effort/resources that the UK government (as a whole) ...
3
votes
1answer
831 views
Is tax wedge 80%-90% in most of western Europe vs 50% in US?
Wikipedia definition of tax wedge references a document, which makes following claim:
Europe's comparatively high tax burden has created big marginal
effects and tax wedges. For example a 2007 ...
60
votes
1answer
35k views
If American churches paid taxes, how much revenue would that generate?
A recent Cracked.com photoplasty contest produced this image:
Is this image correct? Would taxing churches generate that much money, and would that much money be enough to cover food stamps and house ...
2
votes
0answers
274 views
Did Americans leave behind over $1bn in tax refunds in 2012?
In this television advertisement H&R Block claims that:
Last year, thinking they could do their own taxes, Americans left behind more than a billion dollars.
Did American tax payers leave ...
5
votes
1answer
320 views
Must Japan's population pay for any accident caused by nuclear power plants sold abroad by Japanese companies?
This image is currently trending on social media:
source
The caption reads:
海外で日本の売った原発が事故を起こした場合、その費用はすべて日本国民の税金から支払う約束になっていりる
If a nuclear power plant sold abroad by Japan causes an accident, ...
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0answers
431 views
Did tax and inflation consume more wealth in the 20th Century than previously produced? [closed]
In the chapter on Statism: Our Condition of the 1983 version of the New Libertarian Manifesto by Samuel Edward Konkin III the following can be found,
In the 20th Century alone, war has murdered ...
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votes
1answer
3k views
Has income tax been found unconstitutional by a court?
Someone told me that there are people who claim that the income tax, and by extension the IRS, is unconstitutional, and that some have won in court using this argument. Is this true?
An example of a ...
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2answers
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Does Scotland receive more public funding than its tax-payers contribute?
On the 18th of September 2014 the Scottish people will vote in a Referendum. The question:
"Should Scotland be an independent country?"
As you might expect the magnitude of this event has dredged ...
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votes
4answers
11k views
Did Swedish tax rate ever exceed 100%?
In several places I've seen the claim that some people have at some point in history paid more than 100% taxes in Sweden.
The Economist on the Nordic Countries:
Astrid Lindgren, the inventor of ...
11
votes
1answer
577 views
Is there a single US tax law that allows profits to be moved offshore to avoid taxes?
[A] tax provision that allows multinational corporations to defer U.S.
taxes by moving profits into offshore financial subsidiaries. This
provision -- known as the "active financing exception" -- ...
20
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1answer
3k views
Was the 16th Amendment (income tax) improperly ratified?
Bill Benson released The Law that Never Was in 1985, which "claims that the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, commonly known as the income tax amendment, was never properly ...
5
votes
1answer
720 views
Are university research studies involving children a money making scheme?
I would like to point out that this question is from a dubious and unverified claim that I had encountered. I thoroughly searched the internet for any information on such claims but could not find ...
9
votes
1answer
2k views
Did Warren Buffett pay a lower rate of income tax than his secretary?
Within the past few months, Warren Buffett has been quoted as saying he only paid 15% income tax while his secretary paid much more (I think the number is 35%, but I could be wrong). This "fact" has ...
28
votes
2answers
6k views
Does 20% of the population pay 80% of Federal income tax in the US?
I have heard this used in arguments (and even used it myself several times): that 20% of the US population pays 80% of the taxes. But I am starting to wonder if that is statistically accurate.
Also, ...
15
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3answers
5k views
If you raise taxes, will the rich leave the country? [closed]
I often see/hear this argument used as an argument against raising income tax, at least here in the UK. The argument being the rich will leave, taking their cash out of the country, resulting in ...
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3answers
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Are value-added taxes naturally progressive?
In The solution to income disparity? Consumption taxes, Timothy Taylor claims the following:
Why are VATs and sales taxes so unpopular? One common critique is that they are regressive. ... But if ...
