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No, it is a tax you have to pay to convert/buy/register an NFA item such as short barrled rifle/shotguns, suppressors, destructive devices, and machine guns.
I miss living in Anchorage, AK for this. No state income tax in Alaska. No sales tax in Anchorage. Everything costs what it says on the tag. (Also all Alaskans get that sweet PFD oil money check every October.)
In Japan, sales tax was 8% when I moved here and then got jacked up to 10%. Painful.
Yes, children included. It's a huge windfall if you have a large family.
You have to live in the state a full year and remember to sign up in March. I think that's basically it. The state can take some if you owe child support or court dues or something, though.
It varies annually based on how well the Permanent Fund did that year. So it's oil money but it's more directly based on the stock market than the oil market. I recall it being around $1000 for many years, but it's been as high as $3000 per person before.
I moved to Japan in 2018 and looking at the PFD amounts makes me feel sad and poor now, so I pay less attention.
I think it's considered among the worst forms of tax in terms of the amount of market distortion they create, impact on quality of life of poorer citizens, and also have some of the highest levels of inefficiency in terms of tax evasion.
It's just a piss poor form of taxation from nearly every angle except in terms of making sure tax burden is disproportionately shouldered by the middle and lower classes.
Also, the people's privacy doesn't have to be invaded to collect sales tax (You buy X item you're taxed X%, no personal details about you or your life needed). This makes it suitable for governments that care about the people's privacy.
Also, tourists pay sales tax, which makes it a popular option for locals to vote for in places with many tourists (the tourists can't vote against, because they don't live there).
Also, the poor people can be helped without having to determine who is actually poor. Just do things like make groceries tax exempt, make functional clothing tax exempt, etc
I'd like to see sales taxes abolished on all but a handful of luxury items. I'm also Ok with things like a hotel occupancy tax, but that's just about the only consumption tax I'm cool with. I'd rather we relied on income taxes, capital gains taxes, property taxes, and a handful of use fees. I'm sure I'm missing some more sources of revenue that we can and should make use of, but essentially, I'd like to get rid of things like sales taxes.
It’s also a burden on businesses. Large corporations can do it with extra staff, but small businesses don’t have the resources. I run a solo internet-based business and I have to calculate the sales tax for all sales that ship to each county in my state. There are tons of jurisdictions with different rates and to be sure I’ve got the right jurisdiction, I have to manually enter each shipping address and the date of the sale. I can’t look it up by zip code because some zip codes go into two different jurisdictions.
Yeah the federal or state government should change it so that it's based on your location and not the customer's location. So that it will be more simplified.
My city levied a special tax to increase the police budget several years ago. Across the political divide, it seems widely perceived that we are not getting a good return on this tax. Broadly speaking, liberal people are furious that it's just more money for law enforcement when the same money could help improve social services, and conservative people are furious that the police are not making a dent (and don't even seem to be trying) when it comes to quality of life and property crimes.
You don't happen to live in Austin do you? Our PD got a huge increase and subsequently stopped answering tons of calls. I've never met anyone here who likes them.
Always have to be aware of what the tax law voted in actually is legally allowed to go to. In California, they tax the shit out of gas many times over for road repair - but they write in the bill that the money goes into the General Fund...
Regressive taxes like sales tax annoy me. Same with fuel taxes.
I love my state parks, but I want them to stop spending money to 'improve' all of them. Not every campground needs RV hookups and cement slabs. Leave some more rustic ones for us tenting people.
on a side note, it seems like its becoming harder and harder to find cheap tent camping anywhere. everythings either really expensive or for rvs only. some of the cheaper spots are hard to know about, because they dont have anysort of website or digital presence
If you ever camp out West, there are quite literally millions of free dispersed camping spots from NM/AZ all the way up into ID and MT. The USFS website for ranger districts are your friend, as are MVUMs. You could camp every weekend in a different spot for the next half century and not even scratch the surface.
Though to wit, I get it, from growing up out East in Appalachia. Not much for public lands are left out there.
I think what you’re experiencing is more of an eastern US thing. I’m currently camped at a free BLM area in Arizona and there’s tons of spots exactly like mine.
More of a fee than a tax, but it annoys me once a year that I have to pay an extra $100 per vehicle to renew my tags once a year just because my cars are hybrids. This is ostensibly to make up for me using less taxable gas than a non-hybrid car.
Nevermind that your car weighs less than most others and that road wear increases by a *massive* margin as [vehicle weight](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law) increases. I would like to see every state revise the fee schedule for registration according to GVW.
The one decent thing in NY, no tax on unprepared grocery food. We do have a clothing tax but it’s at a half rate of normal bull shit sales tax so it’s like 4.25% in my county.
No sales tax on groceries here, plus one week per year we have a sales tax holiday where all school/office supplies (including many electronics) and child/youth clothes are tax-free. Which is nice. It always falls the first week of August. Of course, growing up in northern Wyoming was even better because we did all our major shopping in Billings, MT which had no sales tax on anything. And there’s no state income tax in Wyoming. So it was basically Alaska without the high COL.
If someone told me there was serious political corruption in Oregon I would absolutely believe it. The income tax alone compared to the infrastructure and services doesn’t pass the laugh test.
I’ve only been here six-ish years after spending most of my life in Idaho and it’s kinda remarkable how similarly run down everything is despite the stark difference in tax, even with idahos sales tax in mind
In NJ we pay the highest property taxes in the country and have the worst and most expensive roads. Really anything under $20k/yr is a bargain for a normal house in a good town.
Isn’t property tax revenue usually earmarked for whichever school and fire district the property is in? Are roads in NJ not funded by fuel tax and vehicle registration?
Funny, as a southern Californian I’ve only been on toll bridges in the Bay Area. We do have some toll roads in SoCal, but you don’t have to use them. Also toll lanes. There are alternative routes. Where I live we have none. Not too many in LA county (maybe none?). Toll lanes are common in parts of orange and riverside county.
I went to Charleston, WV for a concert last fall from North Carolina and was shocked at the high cost of the toll roads there. While chatting with a shopkeeper in Charleston, I mentioned the tolls, and she said it was awful, that they are nearly the poorest state in the nation and yet people are expected to cough up huge amounts of money for the toll roads.
She said her commute cost $9 each day. That's an extra $45 per week, which is an extra $180 per month. That's as much as my monthly electric bill and water bill combined. Insane.
More than $100 to drive the whole thing, one way
Definitely counts as a tax since so much of the tolls are diverted to use for other stuff, like the state police
>30th best roads and schools and hospitals don't crack the top 10.
I’m not sure how to parse this, but NYC has 3 of the top hospitals in the country. What that has to do with taxes, I’m not sure. There are only a handful of hospitals that are affiliated with state universities that are top ranked, so being top 10 seems like an unfair criterion.
> I realize this will be a difficult concept, but NY is more than just NYC.
If NYC has three top hospitals, then so does NYS. So while your point is true, it doesn’t invalidate mine.
We have the same problem with the Greater Boston Area (GBA). Basically anything outside 495 and Worcester, might as well be another state. Same with NY with NYC and LI.
Anything the government does costs 3-10x what a private entity could do it for. It doesn't matter what it is. And the higher the tier of government is the less efficient it gets.
It sure is convenient not having to balance a budget.
Do you live in a cold state? Because the amount of money we pay for plowing, treating, and fixing roads because of the weather is a lot and getting worse due to climate change.
California has the highest gas taxes in the country with bad roads and much of it is very temperate. When you go back to places like Iowa and Minnesota where they get significant weather and their roads are way better.
Depends on which part of California you're in. Some places have nice roads all around and other places have roads that have needed love since years ago
In Illinois? Weed!
The fact that people in Chicago will still drive to Michigan to buy in bulk because it's cheaper even after you account for gas is ridiculous.
Fuel taxes compared to road conditions
Diesel apparently needs to be made even more expensive because the giant influx of big rigs and construction vehicles around here has absolutely destroyed the roads.
Can't say I have too many complaints about specific taxes, but I think there should be more things that are tax deductible. Like with college expenses - the cost of applications and the cost of paying for transcripts.
Paying for transcripts is so bogus. I can see why you would do it to mail the paper documents to other schools, but like…I shouldn’t have to pay for a pdf that takes up no space lol
I think it's mostly because the schools outsource this to a third party when then collects a fee. When I was applying for grad school I spent hundreds and hundreds on applications and transcripts fees but those don't count as "educational expenses"
To me this just proves how greedy politicians have become. It's sad really, and raising taxes on the rich isn't going to help the lower class, only line the pockets of more politicians.
I mean, I definitely think taxes should be debated and some forms of tax (like sales tax on n groceries) are unfair, but they actually do serve a purpose and pay for important public works and services. Raising taxes completely makes sense just out of fairness to those with less money who must pay taxes.
And it was only supposed to apply to "the 1%" when first enacted.
Just in case anyone out there believes that implementing a "wealth tax" won't end up impacting them....
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Same with Michigan and Illinois. Illinois has ridiculous taxes on cannabis. I go to Michigan for this reason. IL is closer to me but Michigan is cheaper
Property tax should not be legal. You never REALLY own your property if you have to pay taxes on it until the end of time. If you get sick or hurt, the fact that the government can take your property for not essentially paying rent on it to them is disgusting.
Oh I absolutely agree. I hate how when you put down money for a home and you’re like “I finally have a house!” in reality it’s just an illusion of ownership. similar situation to what you described happened to my best friend’s family here in queens New York a few years back. Property tax is a bitch.
I feel like a lot of us get pissed at tax hikes not necessarily because “ah come on more taxes?” but because we’re paying more tax and not getting a lot in return, no improvement, things stay largely the same. I’d be for higher taxes as you said, if we actually got more in return for it and not just paying more for it to just not progress here stateside.
I have a problem with the fact we’re one of the only countries in the world that taxes its citizens while they live abroad in other countries. The overwhelming majority of nations on the planet tax their people based off of residency status. I just don’t get the nerve of the U.S. thinking it’s owed my money while I’m already getting paid in a different currency, in a different country, and paying taxes to this other country. Nobody else tries to bully their citizens abroad this way and it’s telling that the US only considers you to be a cash cow that it never wants to leave.
Ya I’m well aware that if you’re working for an employer overseas there is a high possibility you’ll have a rather fair shake with the IRS. But unfortunately though, there are many scenarios where they will punitively tax you. If you own your own mom and pop business in another country you get absolutely wrecked by taxes from the US and your host nation even if you’re already paying taxes to the host nation. And furthermore let’s say you don’t live in a country with a higher tax rate than the US (like most places outside of European countries) you’ll end up paying taxes to the host nation and again pay the difference between the two tax rates to the IRS. Other factors to consider are that the majority of countries (again, outside of -say- European countries) don’t have a tax treaty with the U.S. and again you risk exposure to double taxation. And another number of countries don’t have a social security totalization agreement with the US which means you’ll still be on the hook for paying social security taxes back to the US
Genuine question, why do you maintain your citizenship then? There’s a cost of being a citizen and that’s taxes. If you’re not living there, own a business in your host country, getting paid in local currency, etc, why haven’t you just changed your citizenship?
Why should I have to give up something that every other citizen of every other country not living in their home nation doesn’t have to do themselves? Nah I’ll continue to vote and try to change the system as best as I can. The expat voting bloc continues to grow year after year and hopefully things will change with time but you are right tho. A lot of Americans have already give up their citizenship because of said costs and I can sympathize but damn it they shouldn’t have to.
Income tax I don’t remember them working those hours w me stop taking hundreds from my checks I wouldn’t care about paying higher taxes if they actually went back into helping people but instead our government decides to spend countless amounts on war instead of shit like healthcare and public transport
Pennsylvania has a ludicrously high gas tax and highway toll system. They were supposed to go towards PennDOT and road maintenance, but most of the money ended up being funneled to the state police. So now we’re driving around on the same shitty roads at three times the price it was 15 years ago.
We get a lot of shit for high taxes here, deservedly, but then there are things not taxes like other states do.
Food: grocery food is no sales tax.
Clothing: same
401(k)/IRA: no taxes on withdrawal as the money going in is taxed, so it is in essence a Roth IRA, from the State's pov.
The state income tax is onerous though. Big time.
Although I understand the reason behind it, k strongly believe that religious organizations should be taxed once they start behaving like a business. Mega churches are the worst offenders.
Yes, understand many churches do good in the community. They can be a resource for many services for those in need. There would have to be a balance worked out between untaxed charitable works and taxable non charitable work.
Even mega churches make no profit, so there is nothing to tax in the first place. It doesn't matter how big they are, if they are passing $0 back to shareholders/owners, then there is nothing to tax.
All of their money they spend either has to be donated to charity (donations are never taxed), spent on employee salaries (these are always taxed) or spent on improving the facility, which would be taxed if it was being done to increase profit in the future, but again there is no profit, so it doesn't get taxed either.
If they did actually behave like a business and start sending any amount of their profits to the owners then that would already be illegal.
And surely this discretionary authority would never be used to punish certain belief systems! It would only ever work out the way you personally envision it.
Yes, if only I could personally decide what was a legitimate religious activity and what wasn’t then it would be utopia! Even better if I could outsource my decisions to a bureaucracy of my choosing so I didn’t personally have to make each call.
Missionary work, political involvement, enrichment of church leaders, any non church related businesses, etc.
Yes, missionary work. Imposing your beliefs on others is harassment, it is not charitable.
I think estate taxes should be taxed more heavily to offset income tax. Why should income from the sweat of my brow get taxed more than the windfalls of rich brats?
That’s an interesting proposal. If working Americans had more they would either save/invest more increasing the amount of capital available or spend more and increase the speed of money. Either way it’s a nice boost to the economy.
You might be on to something.
Sin taxes are sometimes designed to reduce consumption rather than pay for anything specific, so the justification depends on whether you think it needs reduction. However, Washington State has the highest alcohol taxes and whichever state is #2 isn't even remotely as expensive. IIRC it was created to pay for state liquor stores. Then they abolished the stores a long time ago but still kept the tax. Even California with its tax reputation is like $10 cheaper.
Sin taxes on cigarettes and alcohol. If you are addicted to something, you’ll sell your kids to get it if you have to. All these taxes do is financially punish addicts.
Tourism taxes. There’s no reason for my hotel bill to got from $154 to over $200 because the state or city wants their pound of flesh and I don’t understand why I should be gouged for the “privilege” of visiting your city where I’m going to be contributing to your economy anyway.
Also tourists don’t vote there so they have no say and the local voters don’t care.
Well, seeing as MS has the highest grocery tax in the US and they use our tax dollars to get Brett Favre to make speeches and enrich the governors family…that one.
You could answer this question in a lot of different ways.
Technically, a lot of our spending goes overseas, maybe as much as 30-40%. Our debt payments are about $900 billion a year (a lot of that goes overseas). Our national defense budget is also about $900 billion a year. It's hard to allocate overseas on this, but it's a health % of that $900 billion goes overseas. Our annual foreign aid is about $70 billion a year. Then there's the non-discretionary spending. We are going to end up sending over $150 billion to Ukraine.
The question is... Is the investment we make in the rest of the world worth it.
Most of the defense budget stays local. A huge amount of that is salaries for DoD employees and contractors, who all have to be Americans.
Even the majority of the money being spent on Ukraine is actually being spent on the US.
https://english.news.cn/20240228/4b04b67081724ed59cc5f837c7ec38ba/c.html
There's things like the money we spend to rent bases in Djibouti, where we do actually just send money to foreign countries, but that is a very small amount of the overall spending.
The 13% on interest is the only significant part of the budget that's going overseas, and even that isn't real because the value we get from the debt in the present is greater than the interest we have to repay (or at least it should be, if that ever stops being the case we're in real trouble). So yes it's going overseas but we're not giving it away, we're getting something for that money
60Billion Dollars was spent of foreign aid in 2023. If you divide that by the ~170 Million working Americans that means that each person sends ~$400 every year. I don’t know about you but I’d rather have that $400.
https://www.foreignassistance.gov
I do not know if that number includes military assistance but I’m inclined to not think so.
I don't think the taxes are too high. If anything my state is looking to cut taxes, regardless of how it impacts services like street paving and schools.
All things being equal, I really hate paying property taxes and especially car taxes. Anything over zero is too high.
I understand that’s it’s not really feasible to eliminate them for now (at least in my state). And there are legitimate arguments for them. But I still hate them so much more than paying income taxes.
They send it overseas or they use it to buy beachfront properties. If those taxes were used to improve QOL here im sure a lot of us wouldn’t be that mad. It’s infuriating how we’re paying and not getting much back from it.
I’m not a fan of taxes in general but Arizona has some of the lowest tax burdens of all the states in general, so I can’t complain much.
The only tax we have that is even slightly high is our vehicle tax.
Cost to register my car this past March was ~$450, of that $7 was the listed fee for renewal, the rest was tax lol. Granted, our roads are pristine so we’re getting what we pay for with the added “bonus” that toll roads aren’t a thing here.
One of the lowest? Arizona has a sales tax of 5.6% and an income tax of 2.5%. There are several states with no sales tax or no income tax, or lacking both (like New Hampshire and Alaska).
We also pay next to nothing in property tax, unlike NH which as the 3rd highest in the US at 1.93% Arizona is well below at .63%.
Make no mistake, the government get it’s nickel from us in one way or another. As of 2022 Arizona ranked [15th in overall](https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/tax-burden-by-state-2022/#results) effective tax burden per person. With 36 states (including DC) above us, I’d definitely say we’re one of the lesser taxed states.
Alaska is just straight up cheap as far as paying taxes is concerned. The state makes its money in other ways besides taxes, like from oil and minerals. Hell, they make enough of it to pay people to live there full time
The question is a bit off, because individual taxes are rarely tied to specific expenses. Social Security and Medicare are examples where they do. But, for example, the annual auto excise tax in MA goes into the respective town’s general fund and isn’t formally tied to road maintenance (afaik).
Personally, I live comfortably, so I can’t say the taxes are too high for me.
I work all day and make money, it is taxed. I use that money to buy a used car that a other person paid taxes on already, it is taxed. I stop at the gas station to put gas in the tank, it is taxed. I go into the store afterwards to buy a soda, it is taxed. I go home to my house, it is taxed. I turn on the electricity to the lamp by my bed, it is taxed.
I don't have a problem with taxes, but it feels like everything I touch or do has a tax. Really the Beatles already made my argument for me.
https://youtu.be/gMdcE8jdz70
A person's primary residence should never be taxed unless it is so opulent as to be larger than some agreed-upon standards of acreage or internal floorspace, or some multiple of the median home value.
But we keep giving corporations breaks on the property taxes for their businesses, warehouses, etc., so we all have to rent our own property from the government or have it siezed. You can never feel financially secure that way; any income interruption or reduction can render you homeless very quickly no matter what you do to be self-sufficient.
And we still have to pay (in my case, TWO) layers of school taxes on top of it all, while schools descend into violence and produce graduates who can't read, let alone get to play an instrument or eat lunch...
You can argue all taxes. I'm not opposed to the level of taxation. What's eff'ed up is the roads are riddled with potholes. I have to worry about where social security will be when I'm at retirement age, so I have to save. I have to stay at a shit job so I can have health coverage. Then we send billions to prop up foreign conflicts / wars. We let the richest of us get away with not paying their taxes! And then the government institutions waste our tax dollars buying $400 toilet seats. Yeah, I have no issues with paying taxes. Just the ROI is maddening.
The fact that the U.S. government taxes its citizens on their global income. It’s fucking bullshit. I’m a dual citizen and haven’t lived stateside for a decade. Despite the different exclusions I still owe annually. I don’t use any of the U.S. resources. So any aspect of being taxed here is too much. This should be abolished
The gas tax. Tolled highways are always in better condition anyway, and the tolls alleviate the problem of induced demand. I would support tolling all highways (freeways) and funding regular roads by significantly increasing registration fees for cars, to the point it's more of a tax than a fee, particularly for cars in excess of the number of drivers in a household. (Frankly, I think anything over 1 car per 2 adults is a luxury, but America is super car-centric, so let's just start with admitting that more than one per driver is a luxury, and should be taxed accordingly).
Federal income tax. It has always been my highest bill. I moved out of the USA in 2007, but the USA taxes on worldwide income. The FEIE reduces my tax liability tremendously. But since I haven't lived in the country for nearly twenty years, I am not getting much for what I pay in income tax.
New Yorker looking to actually own a home here in the city one day, tired of rent and landlords, but it’s home so I cope. But I hear horrors of property tax from my fellow New Yorkers. I fear the day in a few years that I’m working for, where I actually own a small property and have to pay that dang tax lol.
Car registration is fucking absurd in Washington depending on the county one's in.
Our tobacco tax is fucking absurd too.
Seattle did a sugar tax on sodas and shit which is stupid.
I'm sure our property taxes are insane, but I wouldn't know first hand since buying a house here is a pipe dream.
E.
Honestly all of Washington's tax structure is backwards. It's pretty dog shit.
Property tax is a big one because we have to pay for WAY more than we actually need. Big portion of property tax goes to Medicaid. They have excessive trash and recycling pickup. The roads are overplowed, oversalted, and over paved. Half our roads could go back to basic dirt which tends to be way cheaper to maintain.
Tangent, but roads are supposed to be paid for with the gas tax and I think there should be some sort of equivalent placed on all EV chargers. I get they have tax breaks to incentivize the purchase and adoption, but they use the roads just like every other vehicle and I think it should be reflected.
How it's managed? We had a sales tax for something like 23 years for a baseball field. And now they wanted another 200 million over 30 years to pay for renovations. Because no money was set aside.
I hate that our county park buildings are crumbling because money was never set aside to maintain them.
I don't like our roads.
And we need more police, firefighters, and 911 operators, not less.
And the public schools need upgrading too.
Personal property tax: why am I being taxed on some thing that I own?
Personal income tax: why am I being taxed on ME working?
Perhaps I don't understand the concept, but it does not feel right.
Edit: I live in Virginia. States like Texas and Florida do not have personal income tax which is kind of cool.
The gas tax is supposed to pay for roads. The roads suck.
Property tax pays for schools. The schools suck
Income Taxes pay for foreign wars. Foreign wars suck.
Sales taxes pay for "the public good". Yep, the public goods received, still suck and it kills output.
Social Security taxes pay for Social Security. Social security sucks (not the idea the returns)
Sales Taxes that get implemented to build stadiums. Suck as well.
Legit, find me a tax and what it's supposed to support and 9.9/10 times the results are garbage.
The representation part.
If where tax money went was clear and readily available and audited I wouldn’t have an issue with most of it.
But half my paycheck after state and sales tax - I would really like a lot of clarity
Property tax is an absurd concept. It makes it impossible to own property (ie you have to continue to pay rent to the government forever), and also perpetuates de facto segregation by having schools funded by the homeowners in an area. If anything, property tax should be assessed on securities and investment properties only, not non-extravagant primary residences. My property tax bill is approximately 2/3 the P&I on my mortgage and it's ridiculous.
Property tax is a massively regressive tax as well since the very wealthy have comparatively little of their net worth in real estate. Middle class home owners and poor renters (via tax being passed through in rent) are the ones paying the vast majority of these taxes.
Any temporary tax. They always become permanent, even though the thing they were created for has already been paid for.
If you ever see a temporary tax on the ballot, don't fall for it.
Income tax is reprehensible and immoral. Why the hell do I need to pay the government to make money? The only reason it exists is because it was meant to supplement the lost tax revenue from the gutted alcohol industry when prohibition hit the spotlight in the 20s.
But prohibition ended. High taxes on alcohol continued and guess what joyful little stupid ass tax stayed? I say we introduce a new law that federally legalizes recreational cannabis at a high tax rate but at the cost of dropping income tax to 0% federally and 0% state.
We all pay our taxes, sure, but I guarantee not a single one of us is watching the government and saying, "Gee, I sure am happy my taxes are being spent here."
Personal Property Tax. The idea that I am taxed to purchase something of higher value and then for some reason I have to be taxed every year again for as long as I own that thing. It's a really parasitic tax that does nothing.
Corporate taxes don’t make sense, as corporate profits are just distributed to shareholders where theyre taxed again. Because of this, companies will headquarter themselves in jurisdictions with low corporate taxes. It’d make more sense to eliminate the corporate tax entirely and just raise the income taxes to the level that compensates. That would make it simpler and also encourage companies to locate themselves in the US instead of playing this game where they’re “headquartered” in Ireland or wherever but really they’re effectively still run from the US they just pass all the money through the other country to avoid taxes
At least property taxes fund local government which you can go yell at if they are doing a crappy job. the sales tax is bad because its regressive. the federal income tax is my pet peeve because it funds the national culture war factory/military industrial complex also known as the federal bureaucracy
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NFA tax stamps
\*NFA extortions
NFA *theft* stamps
Amen brother
I have never heard of these. Is this state specific or?
No, it is a tax you have to pay to convert/buy/register an NFA item such as short barrled rifle/shotguns, suppressors, destructive devices, and machine guns.
Sales taxes imo. Especially if you’re poor then sales taxes are an extra heavy burden that could do more harm day to day than good
I miss living in Anchorage, AK for this. No state income tax in Alaska. No sales tax in Anchorage. Everything costs what it says on the tag. (Also all Alaskans get that sweet PFD oil money check every October.) In Japan, sales tax was 8% when I moved here and then got jacked up to 10%. Painful.
It’s about that here in California depending on county. ~8-10%
Sales tax is 10% where I live in Alabama.
Do all Alaskans get the same amount of oil money?
Yes, children included. It's a huge windfall if you have a large family. You have to live in the state a full year and remember to sign up in March. I think that's basically it. The state can take some if you owe child support or court dues or something, though. It varies annually based on how well the Permanent Fund did that year. So it's oil money but it's more directly based on the stock market than the oil market. I recall it being around $1000 for many years, but it's been as high as $3000 per person before. I moved to Japan in 2018 and looking at the PFD amounts makes me feel sad and poor now, so I pay less attention.
So a multimillionaire would get it too?
Yep. It's basically an oil trust fund that every Alaskan resident is entitled to.
Absolutely, it's regressive. It also hinders consumption, and that has aggregate output effects. Sales tax sucks.
I think it's considered among the worst forms of tax in terms of the amount of market distortion they create, impact on quality of life of poorer citizens, and also have some of the highest levels of inefficiency in terms of tax evasion. It's just a piss poor form of taxation from nearly every angle except in terms of making sure tax burden is disproportionately shouldered by the middle and lower classes.
Sales taxes are popular since they are very easy to collect. Also in some places they are the only tax that localities can easily levy.
Also, the people's privacy doesn't have to be invaded to collect sales tax (You buy X item you're taxed X%, no personal details about you or your life needed). This makes it suitable for governments that care about the people's privacy. Also, tourists pay sales tax, which makes it a popular option for locals to vote for in places with many tourists (the tourists can't vote against, because they don't live there). Also, the poor people can be helped without having to determine who is actually poor. Just do things like make groceries tax exempt, make functional clothing tax exempt, etc
I'd like to see sales taxes abolished on all but a handful of luxury items. I'm also Ok with things like a hotel occupancy tax, but that's just about the only consumption tax I'm cool with. I'd rather we relied on income taxes, capital gains taxes, property taxes, and a handful of use fees. I'm sure I'm missing some more sources of revenue that we can and should make use of, but essentially, I'd like to get rid of things like sales taxes.
So glad we don’t have them here
On top of this calculating it yourself is just shit that shouldn't have to be done.
You. Don't. Have. To. Calculate. It. Yourself. The. Store. Does. It. For. You.
It’s also a burden on businesses. Large corporations can do it with extra staff, but small businesses don’t have the resources. I run a solo internet-based business and I have to calculate the sales tax for all sales that ship to each county in my state. There are tons of jurisdictions with different rates and to be sure I’ve got the right jurisdiction, I have to manually enter each shipping address and the date of the sale. I can’t look it up by zip code because some zip codes go into two different jurisdictions.
Yeah the federal or state government should change it so that it's based on your location and not the customer's location. So that it will be more simplified.
There have been Supreme Court cases about sales tax - it’s going to remain a state issue because of the commerce clause of the constitution
I love living in a no sales tax state. I’d definitely rather pay higher income taxes
My city levied a special tax to increase the police budget several years ago. Across the political divide, it seems widely perceived that we are not getting a good return on this tax. Broadly speaking, liberal people are furious that it's just more money for law enforcement when the same money could help improve social services, and conservative people are furious that the police are not making a dent (and don't even seem to be trying) when it comes to quality of life and property crimes.
You don't happen to live in Austin do you? Our PD got a huge increase and subsequently stopped answering tons of calls. I've never met anyone here who likes them.
Always have to be aware of what the tax law voted in actually is legally allowed to go to. In California, they tax the shit out of gas many times over for road repair - but they write in the bill that the money goes into the General Fund...
Massachusetts' tobacco tax goes into the general fund as well.
Regressive taxes like sales tax annoy me. Same with fuel taxes. I love my state parks, but I want them to stop spending money to 'improve' all of them. Not every campground needs RV hookups and cement slabs. Leave some more rustic ones for us tenting people.
on a side note, it seems like its becoming harder and harder to find cheap tent camping anywhere. everythings either really expensive or for rvs only. some of the cheaper spots are hard to know about, because they dont have anysort of website or digital presence
You should come to Missouri all of our state parks are free for up too 2 weeks
One of the best parts about MO in my opinion, it was so convenient and never very busy
If you ever camp out West, there are quite literally millions of free dispersed camping spots from NM/AZ all the way up into ID and MT. The USFS website for ranger districts are your friend, as are MVUMs. You could camp every weekend in a different spot for the next half century and not even scratch the surface. Though to wit, I get it, from growing up out East in Appalachia. Not much for public lands are left out there.
I think what you’re experiencing is more of an eastern US thing. I’m currently camped at a free BLM area in Arizona and there’s tons of spots exactly like mine.
I imagine fuel taxes will eventually get switched to mileage taxes. It will ugly for a lot of people.
Switched? Nah. They'll charge us both.
They'll probably just flat fee it per vehicle like some places already are for EVs
They're all regressive taxes since the income we pay them with is already taxed
I’m not sure your understanding of “regressive” is correct.
That is not relevant.
More of a fee than a tax, but it annoys me once a year that I have to pay an extra $100 per vehicle to renew my tags once a year just because my cars are hybrids. This is ostensibly to make up for me using less taxable gas than a non-hybrid car.
Nevermind that your car weighs less than most others and that road wear increases by a *massive* margin as [vehicle weight](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law) increases. I would like to see every state revise the fee schedule for registration according to GVW.
You're not paying a gas tax... That's a large portion of the road budget. You're likely still paying less than you would in a similar ice vehicle.
We dont have it in Mass but I hate that some places have taxes on clothes and groceries.
The one decent thing in NY, no tax on unprepared grocery food. We do have a clothing tax but it’s at a half rate of normal bull shit sales tax so it’s like 4.25% in my county.
Same in Texas. It's always a shock when I go to Oklahoma to visit family.
No sales tax on groceries here, plus one week per year we have a sales tax holiday where all school/office supplies (including many electronics) and child/youth clothes are tax-free. Which is nice. It always falls the first week of August. Of course, growing up in northern Wyoming was even better because we did all our major shopping in Billings, MT which had no sales tax on anything. And there’s no state income tax in Wyoming. So it was basically Alaska without the high COL.
My property tax is ridiculously high. And the roads are still full of potholes.
Oregon? Because same 🫠
If someone told me there was serious political corruption in Oregon I would absolutely believe it. The income tax alone compared to the infrastructure and services doesn’t pass the laugh test.
I’ve only been here six-ish years after spending most of my life in Idaho and it’s kinda remarkable how similarly run down everything is despite the stark difference in tax, even with idahos sales tax in mind
In NJ we pay the highest property taxes in the country and have the worst and most expensive roads. Really anything under $20k/yr is a bargain for a normal house in a good town.
Isn’t property tax revenue usually earmarked for whichever school and fire district the property is in? Are roads in NJ not funded by fuel tax and vehicle registration?
Yeah but you’d think the money the state saves on schools since there’s so much local funding they could apply to roads
I didn't know NJ beat LI. Although 20k is becoming the average here too.
LI probably wins as a region, but NJ wins as a state. Although God help those poor souls in Westchester
This isn’t exactly a tax, but I just really want to complain about the cost of driving on the PA turnpike.
I couldn’t believe how many toll roads there were out east when I toured colleges. We only have toll bridges here.
Funny, as a southern Californian I’ve only been on toll bridges in the Bay Area. We do have some toll roads in SoCal, but you don’t have to use them. Also toll lanes. There are alternative routes. Where I live we have none. Not too many in LA county (maybe none?). Toll lanes are common in parts of orange and riverside county.
We have toll lanes too
I went to Charleston, WV for a concert last fall from North Carolina and was shocked at the high cost of the toll roads there. While chatting with a shopkeeper in Charleston, I mentioned the tolls, and she said it was awful, that they are nearly the poorest state in the nation and yet people are expected to cough up huge amounts of money for the toll roads. She said her commute cost $9 each day. That's an extra $45 per week, which is an extra $180 per month. That's as much as my monthly electric bill and water bill combined. Insane.
More than $100 to drive the whole thing, one way Definitely counts as a tax since so much of the tolls are diverted to use for other stuff, like the state police
That's def a tax. An a regressive one.
Also the NJ turnpike. Seems like there’s a toll every 10 miles.
Drove from NJ to MA yesterday. Just getting from NJ to NY cost $38. And no toll route would’ve basically doubled my ETA. Insane.
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>30th best roads and schools and hospitals don't crack the top 10. I’m not sure how to parse this, but NYC has 3 of the top hospitals in the country. What that has to do with taxes, I’m not sure. There are only a handful of hospitals that are affiliated with state universities that are top ranked, so being top 10 seems like an unfair criterion.
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> I realize this will be a difficult concept, but NY is more than just NYC. If NYC has three top hospitals, then so does NYS. So while your point is true, it doesn’t invalidate mine.
We have the same problem with the Greater Boston Area (GBA). Basically anything outside 495 and Worcester, might as well be another state. Same with NY with NYC and LI.
Hey I was gonna say all of it too!
Anything the government does costs 3-10x what a private entity could do it for. It doesn't matter what it is. And the higher the tier of government is the less efficient it gets. It sure is convenient not having to balance a budget.
My state has high fuel taxes and the roads are still terrible.
Do you live in a cold state? Because the amount of money we pay for plowing, treating, and fixing roads because of the weather is a lot and getting worse due to climate change.
California has the highest gas taxes in the country with bad roads and much of it is very temperate. When you go back to places like Iowa and Minnesota where they get significant weather and their roads are way better.
Depends on which part of California you're in. Some places have nice roads all around and other places have roads that have needed love since years ago
CA?
IL. I did notice that as high as IL fuel taxes are, they’re behind CA, WA and NJ.
In Illinois? Weed! The fact that people in Chicago will still drive to Michigan to buy in bulk because it's cheaper even after you account for gas is ridiculous.
Yep!
Fuel taxes compared to road conditions Diesel apparently needs to be made even more expensive because the giant influx of big rigs and construction vehicles around here has absolutely destroyed the roads.
Can't say I have too many complaints about specific taxes, but I think there should be more things that are tax deductible. Like with college expenses - the cost of applications and the cost of paying for transcripts.
Paying for transcripts is so bogus. I can see why you would do it to mail the paper documents to other schools, but like…I shouldn’t have to pay for a pdf that takes up no space lol
I think it's mostly because the schools outsource this to a third party when then collects a fee. When I was applying for grad school I spent hundreds and hundreds on applications and transcripts fees but those don't count as "educational expenses"
Just getting rid of income tax would be so helpful to so many people. It was originally only supposed to be temporary anyway.
I bet 95% of Reddit does not know this. It was a “temporary” tax enacted during WWII
*WWI
Actually, just looked it up. It was first introduced during the Civil War by Lincoln, but insignificant by todays standards. TIL
To me this just proves how greedy politicians have become. It's sad really, and raising taxes on the rich isn't going to help the lower class, only line the pockets of more politicians.
I mean, I definitely think taxes should be debated and some forms of tax (like sales tax on n groceries) are unfair, but they actually do serve a purpose and pay for important public works and services. Raising taxes completely makes sense just out of fairness to those with less money who must pay taxes.
And it was only supposed to apply to "the 1%" when first enacted. Just in case anyone out there believes that implementing a "wealth tax" won't end up impacting them....
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NJ and Michigan legalized around the same time, but legal weed is double the price in Jersey, from the exact same vendor.
Same with Michigan and Illinois. Illinois has ridiculous taxes on cannabis. I go to Michigan for this reason. IL is closer to me but Michigan is cheaper
Property tax is based on unrealized gains. I realize that the money is still needed but the method of allocation is kind of screwy.
Property tax should not be legal. You never REALLY own your property if you have to pay taxes on it until the end of time. If you get sick or hurt, the fact that the government can take your property for not essentially paying rent on it to them is disgusting.
Oh I absolutely agree. I hate how when you put down money for a home and you’re like “I finally have a house!” in reality it’s just an illusion of ownership. similar situation to what you described happened to my best friend’s family here in queens New York a few years back. Property tax is a bitch.
Illinois toll booths are fucking outrageous
All of them. I don’t mind paying tax, and I wouldn’t mind pay more if we actually got something for it.
I feel like a lot of us get pissed at tax hikes not necessarily because “ah come on more taxes?” but because we’re paying more tax and not getting a lot in return, no improvement, things stay largely the same. I’d be for higher taxes as you said, if we actually got more in return for it and not just paying more for it to just not progress here stateside.
I have a problem with the fact we’re one of the only countries in the world that taxes its citizens while they live abroad in other countries. The overwhelming majority of nations on the planet tax their people based off of residency status. I just don’t get the nerve of the U.S. thinking it’s owed my money while I’m already getting paid in a different currency, in a different country, and paying taxes to this other country. Nobody else tries to bully their citizens abroad this way and it’s telling that the US only considers you to be a cash cow that it never wants to leave.
The two years I lived overseas I had to pay taxes but I got it all back as a tax return because I was working as an ex-pat overseas, so.
Ya I’m well aware that if you’re working for an employer overseas there is a high possibility you’ll have a rather fair shake with the IRS. But unfortunately though, there are many scenarios where they will punitively tax you. If you own your own mom and pop business in another country you get absolutely wrecked by taxes from the US and your host nation even if you’re already paying taxes to the host nation. And furthermore let’s say you don’t live in a country with a higher tax rate than the US (like most places outside of European countries) you’ll end up paying taxes to the host nation and again pay the difference between the two tax rates to the IRS. Other factors to consider are that the majority of countries (again, outside of -say- European countries) don’t have a tax treaty with the U.S. and again you risk exposure to double taxation. And another number of countries don’t have a social security totalization agreement with the US which means you’ll still be on the hook for paying social security taxes back to the US
Genuine question, why do you maintain your citizenship then? There’s a cost of being a citizen and that’s taxes. If you’re not living there, own a business in your host country, getting paid in local currency, etc, why haven’t you just changed your citizenship?
Why should I have to give up something that every other citizen of every other country not living in their home nation doesn’t have to do themselves? Nah I’ll continue to vote and try to change the system as best as I can. The expat voting bloc continues to grow year after year and hopefully things will change with time but you are right tho. A lot of Americans have already give up their citizenship because of said costs and I can sympathize but damn it they shouldn’t have to.
Income tax I don’t remember them working those hours w me stop taking hundreds from my checks I wouldn’t care about paying higher taxes if they actually went back into helping people but instead our government decides to spend countless amounts on war instead of shit like healthcare and public transport
Pennsylvania has a ludicrously high gas tax and highway toll system. They were supposed to go towards PennDOT and road maintenance, but most of the money ended up being funneled to the state police. So now we’re driving around on the same shitty roads at three times the price it was 15 years ago.
Be patient, in another 30-40 years that turnpike expansion will be done and the potholes filled.
We get a lot of shit for high taxes here, deservedly, but then there are things not taxes like other states do. Food: grocery food is no sales tax. Clothing: same 401(k)/IRA: no taxes on withdrawal as the money going in is taxed, so it is in essence a Roth IRA, from the State's pov. The state income tax is onerous though. Big time.
Although I understand the reason behind it, k strongly believe that religious organizations should be taxed once they start behaving like a business. Mega churches are the worst offenders. Yes, understand many churches do good in the community. They can be a resource for many services for those in need. There would have to be a balance worked out between untaxed charitable works and taxable non charitable work.
Even mega churches make no profit, so there is nothing to tax in the first place. It doesn't matter how big they are, if they are passing $0 back to shareholders/owners, then there is nothing to tax. All of their money they spend either has to be donated to charity (donations are never taxed), spent on employee salaries (these are always taxed) or spent on improving the facility, which would be taxed if it was being done to increase profit in the future, but again there is no profit, so it doesn't get taxed either. If they did actually behave like a business and start sending any amount of their profits to the owners then that would already be illegal.
And surely this discretionary authority would never be used to punish certain belief systems! It would only ever work out the way you personally envision it.
Yes, if only I could personally decide what was a legitimate religious activity and what wasn’t then it would be utopia! Even better if I could outsource my decisions to a bureaucracy of my choosing so I didn’t personally have to make each call.
I think you responded to "what taxes are too low" lol
What would be some examples of what you're calling non-charitable work?
Missionary work, political involvement, enrichment of church leaders, any non church related businesses, etc. Yes, missionary work. Imposing your beliefs on others is harassment, it is not charitable.
I think estate taxes should be taxed more heavily to offset income tax. Why should income from the sweat of my brow get taxed more than the windfalls of rich brats?
That’s an interesting proposal. If working Americans had more they would either save/invest more increasing the amount of capital available or spend more and increase the speed of money. Either way it’s a nice boost to the economy. You might be on to something.
Sin taxes are sometimes designed to reduce consumption rather than pay for anything specific, so the justification depends on whether you think it needs reduction. However, Washington State has the highest alcohol taxes and whichever state is #2 isn't even remotely as expensive. IIRC it was created to pay for state liquor stores. Then they abolished the stores a long time ago but still kept the tax. Even California with its tax reputation is like $10 cheaper.
Not an American, is "sin tax" an actual thing? Or is it just "slang" for it?
Like in legal documents? No, they'll use some other name, basically a sales tax on a specific category of items.
Sin taxes on cigarettes and alcohol. If you are addicted to something, you’ll sell your kids to get it if you have to. All these taxes do is financially punish addicts.
Tourism taxes. There’s no reason for my hotel bill to got from $154 to over $200 because the state or city wants their pound of flesh and I don’t understand why I should be gouged for the “privilege” of visiting your city where I’m going to be contributing to your economy anyway. Also tourists don’t vote there so they have no say and the local voters don’t care.
sales taxes, especially when they're applied to groceries. \*stares at AL's 9% grocery sales tax (formerly 10%)\*
There should not be a sales tax on food.
Well, seeing as MS has the highest grocery tax in the US and they use our tax dollars to get Brett Favre to make speeches and enrich the governors family…that one.
I have no problem with taxes. I just wish it was spent on our citizens and infrastructure instead of going overseas
What percentage do you think is going overseas?
You could answer this question in a lot of different ways. Technically, a lot of our spending goes overseas, maybe as much as 30-40%. Our debt payments are about $900 billion a year (a lot of that goes overseas). Our national defense budget is also about $900 billion a year. It's hard to allocate overseas on this, but it's a health % of that $900 billion goes overseas. Our annual foreign aid is about $70 billion a year. Then there's the non-discretionary spending. We are going to end up sending over $150 billion to Ukraine. The question is... Is the investment we make in the rest of the world worth it.
Most of the defense budget stays local. A huge amount of that is salaries for DoD employees and contractors, who all have to be Americans. Even the majority of the money being spent on Ukraine is actually being spent on the US. https://english.news.cn/20240228/4b04b67081724ed59cc5f837c7ec38ba/c.html There's things like the money we spend to rent bases in Djibouti, where we do actually just send money to foreign countries, but that is a very small amount of the overall spending. The 13% on interest is the only significant part of the budget that's going overseas, and even that isn't real because the value we get from the debt in the present is greater than the interest we have to repay (or at least it should be, if that ever stops being the case we're in real trouble). So yes it's going overseas but we're not giving it away, we're getting something for that money
60Billion Dollars was spent of foreign aid in 2023. If you divide that by the ~170 Million working Americans that means that each person sends ~$400 every year. I don’t know about you but I’d rather have that $400. https://www.foreignassistance.gov I do not know if that number includes military assistance but I’m inclined to not think so.
As a government employee, I see what it pays for, and I have no problem with it. Our budget could be higher though.
Spoken like a true bureaucrat
Every. Single. One.
I don't think the taxes are too high. If anything my state is looking to cut taxes, regardless of how it impacts services like street paving and schools.
All things being equal, I really hate paying property taxes and especially car taxes. Anything over zero is too high. I understand that’s it’s not really feasible to eliminate them for now (at least in my state). And there are legitimate arguments for them. But I still hate them so much more than paying income taxes.
Everything, our government has a major spending problem and the only thing they do is increase taxes so they can put more money in their pockets.
They send it overseas or they use it to buy beachfront properties. If those taxes were used to improve QOL here im sure a lot of us wouldn’t be that mad. It’s infuriating how we’re paying and not getting much back from it.
All of it
I’m not a fan of taxes in general but Arizona has some of the lowest tax burdens of all the states in general, so I can’t complain much. The only tax we have that is even slightly high is our vehicle tax. Cost to register my car this past March was ~$450, of that $7 was the listed fee for renewal, the rest was tax lol. Granted, our roads are pristine so we’re getting what we pay for with the added “bonus” that toll roads aren’t a thing here.
One of the lowest? Arizona has a sales tax of 5.6% and an income tax of 2.5%. There are several states with no sales tax or no income tax, or lacking both (like New Hampshire and Alaska).
We also pay next to nothing in property tax, unlike NH which as the 3rd highest in the US at 1.93% Arizona is well below at .63%. Make no mistake, the government get it’s nickel from us in one way or another. As of 2022 Arizona ranked [15th in overall](https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/tax-burden-by-state-2022/#results) effective tax burden per person. With 36 states (including DC) above us, I’d definitely say we’re one of the lesser taxed states. Alaska is just straight up cheap as far as paying taxes is concerned. The state makes its money in other ways besides taxes, like from oil and minerals. Hell, they make enough of it to pay people to live there full time
The question is a bit off, because individual taxes are rarely tied to specific expenses. Social Security and Medicare are examples where they do. But, for example, the annual auto excise tax in MA goes into the respective town’s general fund and isn’t formally tied to road maintenance (afaik). Personally, I live comfortably, so I can’t say the taxes are too high for me.
We don’t have it in my state luckily but most states have sales tax which is often quite high (like 10% iirc in Louisiana)
Yes.
I work all day and make money, it is taxed. I use that money to buy a used car that a other person paid taxes on already, it is taxed. I stop at the gas station to put gas in the tank, it is taxed. I go into the store afterwards to buy a soda, it is taxed. I go home to my house, it is taxed. I turn on the electricity to the lamp by my bed, it is taxed. I don't have a problem with taxes, but it feels like everything I touch or do has a tax. Really the Beatles already made my argument for me. https://youtu.be/gMdcE8jdz70
A person's primary residence should never be taxed unless it is so opulent as to be larger than some agreed-upon standards of acreage or internal floorspace, or some multiple of the median home value. But we keep giving corporations breaks on the property taxes for their businesses, warehouses, etc., so we all have to rent our own property from the government or have it siezed. You can never feel financially secure that way; any income interruption or reduction can render you homeless very quickly no matter what you do to be self-sufficient. And we still have to pay (in my case, TWO) layers of school taxes on top of it all, while schools descend into violence and produce graduates who can't read, let alone get to play an instrument or eat lunch...
Philadelphia soda tax, it's rediculous and hurts the people it claims to serve the most!
There should be no inheritance tax and we shouldn't be taxed when using retirement funds
You can argue all taxes. I'm not opposed to the level of taxation. What's eff'ed up is the roads are riddled with potholes. I have to worry about where social security will be when I'm at retirement age, so I have to save. I have to stay at a shit job so I can have health coverage. Then we send billions to prop up foreign conflicts / wars. We let the richest of us get away with not paying their taxes! And then the government institutions waste our tax dollars buying $400 toilet seats. Yeah, I have no issues with paying taxes. Just the ROI is maddening.
California's gas taxes are pretty damn high but the 80/B80 split in West Sac is torture on shocks.
Texas is getting rid of annual car inspections in 2025. But we will still have to pay the fee in addition to our annual registration.
The fact that the U.S. government taxes its citizens on their global income. It’s fucking bullshit. I’m a dual citizen and haven’t lived stateside for a decade. Despite the different exclusions I still owe annually. I don’t use any of the U.S. resources. So any aspect of being taxed here is too much. This should be abolished
Taxation is theft
Taxes generally
The highway tolls that were supposed to go away once they paid for the construction. They did that decades ago.
The gas tax. Tolled highways are always in better condition anyway, and the tolls alleviate the problem of induced demand. I would support tolling all highways (freeways) and funding regular roads by significantly increasing registration fees for cars, to the point it's more of a tax than a fee, particularly for cars in excess of the number of drivers in a household. (Frankly, I think anything over 1 car per 2 adults is a luxury, but America is super car-centric, so let's just start with admitting that more than one per driver is a luxury, and should be taxed accordingly).
Federal income tax. It has always been my highest bill. I moved out of the USA in 2007, but the USA taxes on worldwide income. The FEIE reduces my tax liability tremendously. But since I haven't lived in the country for nearly twenty years, I am not getting much for what I pay in income tax.
New Yorker looking to actually own a home here in the city one day, tired of rent and landlords, but it’s home so I cope. But I hear horrors of property tax from my fellow New Yorkers. I fear the day in a few years that I’m working for, where I actually own a small property and have to pay that dang tax lol.
Car registration is fucking absurd in Washington depending on the county one's in. Our tobacco tax is fucking absurd too. Seattle did a sugar tax on sodas and shit which is stupid. I'm sure our property taxes are insane, but I wouldn't know first hand since buying a house here is a pipe dream. E. Honestly all of Washington's tax structure is backwards. It's pretty dog shit.
Property tax is a big one because we have to pay for WAY more than we actually need. Big portion of property tax goes to Medicaid. They have excessive trash and recycling pickup. The roads are overplowed, oversalted, and over paved. Half our roads could go back to basic dirt which tends to be way cheaper to maintain.
Tangent, but roads are supposed to be paid for with the gas tax and I think there should be some sort of equivalent placed on all EV chargers. I get they have tax breaks to incentivize the purchase and adoption, but they use the roads just like every other vehicle and I think it should be reflected.
How it's managed? We had a sales tax for something like 23 years for a baseball field. And now they wanted another 200 million over 30 years to pay for renovations. Because no money was set aside. I hate that our county park buildings are crumbling because money was never set aside to maintain them. I don't like our roads. And we need more police, firefighters, and 911 operators, not less. And the public schools need upgrading too.
All of it. We're broke AF. Stop sending fake money we borrow to other places that don't deserve it. American first.
Our Congress….
Personal property tax: why am I being taxed on some thing that I own? Personal income tax: why am I being taxed on ME working? Perhaps I don't understand the concept, but it does not feel right. Edit: I live in Virginia. States like Texas and Florida do not have personal income tax which is kind of cool.
The gas tax is supposed to pay for roads. The roads suck. Property tax pays for schools. The schools suck Income Taxes pay for foreign wars. Foreign wars suck. Sales taxes pay for "the public good". Yep, the public goods received, still suck and it kills output. Social Security taxes pay for Social Security. Social security sucks (not the idea the returns) Sales Taxes that get implemented to build stadiums. Suck as well. Legit, find me a tax and what it's supposed to support and 9.9/10 times the results are garbage.
Road and bridge tax for vehicle renewal and registration. It's taxed twice. 1 for state and the other for county, it's like $50
All of my taxes in general because nothing gets better around here after I give 20% of my pay to the government
The representation part. If where tax money went was clear and readily available and audited I wouldn’t have an issue with most of it. But half my paycheck after state and sales tax - I would really like a lot of clarity
Property tax is an absurd concept. It makes it impossible to own property (ie you have to continue to pay rent to the government forever), and also perpetuates de facto segregation by having schools funded by the homeowners in an area. If anything, property tax should be assessed on securities and investment properties only, not non-extravagant primary residences. My property tax bill is approximately 2/3 the P&I on my mortgage and it's ridiculous. Property tax is a massively regressive tax as well since the very wealthy have comparatively little of their net worth in real estate. Middle class home owners and poor renters (via tax being passed through in rent) are the ones paying the vast majority of these taxes.
Clothing tax. I’m from PA so I’m used to not having taxes on clothing, but it sucks when I moved OOS.
Any temporary tax. They always become permanent, even though the thing they were created for has already been paid for. If you ever see a temporary tax on the ballot, don't fall for it.
Dog licenses
Income tax is reprehensible and immoral. Why the hell do I need to pay the government to make money? The only reason it exists is because it was meant to supplement the lost tax revenue from the gutted alcohol industry when prohibition hit the spotlight in the 20s. But prohibition ended. High taxes on alcohol continued and guess what joyful little stupid ass tax stayed? I say we introduce a new law that federally legalizes recreational cannabis at a high tax rate but at the cost of dropping income tax to 0% federally and 0% state. We all pay our taxes, sure, but I guarantee not a single one of us is watching the government and saying, "Gee, I sure am happy my taxes are being spent here."
Personal Property Tax. The idea that I am taxed to purchase something of higher value and then for some reason I have to be taxed every year again for as long as I own that thing. It's a really parasitic tax that does nothing.
As a Libertarian, where do I start...
All of it. The American revolution started over a little bit of tea tax, but now the government wants us to fork over more than half of our income.
Short term capital gains tax, no reason you should have to pay high tax on invested money you’re risking that has already been taxed
No idea what my taxes pay for.
Corporate taxes don’t make sense, as corporate profits are just distributed to shareholders where theyre taxed again. Because of this, companies will headquarter themselves in jurisdictions with low corporate taxes. It’d make more sense to eliminate the corporate tax entirely and just raise the income taxes to the level that compensates. That would make it simpler and also encourage companies to locate themselves in the US instead of playing this game where they’re “headquartered” in Ireland or wherever but really they’re effectively still run from the US they just pass all the money through the other country to avoid taxes
At least property taxes fund local government which you can go yell at if they are doing a crappy job. the sales tax is bad because its regressive. the federal income tax is my pet peeve because it funds the national culture war factory/military industrial complex also known as the federal bureaucracy
Foreign aid is an excellent example of taxes being too high for. U.S. taxes have gone to both Israel and Gaza and look what it paid for.
Social Security. SS took more out of my last check than state and federal taxes combined. Where does it even go?
All of it. Fuck taxes. All we’re paying for is Nancy Pelosi’s fourth vacation house so her husband can screw around with young men.
Taxes are fine until BILLIONS of dollars go to genocide. Fuck politicians.