===================================== W H O P A Y S F O R T A X E S ? ===================================== Two States Far Apart In Nationwide Study By Jim Luther --> [Send the 1-line message GET REGRESSV.LOC-TAXS ACTIV-L to] [LISTSERV@UMCVMB.BITNET for a copy of this file. ] --> [Send GET ACTIV-L ARCHIVE ACTIV-L to above address for a ] [listing with brief descriptions of other files available] [From: Valley News ("Published for the Upper Connecticut River Valley") Monday, April 22, 1991] ################################################################## "WASHINGTON -- Middle-income families pay one-third more of their earning in state and local taxes than do the riches Americans, a labor-backed research group said today. "The disparity is even worse for families in the bottom one-fifth of the income scale, said Citizens for Tax Justice. The poorest families see 81 percent more of their earning swallowed up by state and local taxes than do the most affluent. " ``The biggest problems is over-reliance on regressive sale and excise taxes rather than on progressive, ability-to-pay income taxes,'' said Robert S. McIntyre, director of the group. [...] "The study found that only Vermont and Delaware have tax systems that are even slightly progressive, meaning that they are based on ability to pay. The 10 states considered to have the least-fair taxes require middle-income families to pay up to three times as much of their earnings compared with the Rich. "New Hampshire is on the list of eight states with the worst tax systems. The others are South Dakota, Nevada, Texas, Florida, Washington, Tennessee and Wyoming. None has a broad personal income tax. Pennsylvania and Illinois, states also found to be most regressive in taxing, have flat, low-rate income taxes. "``By letting the rich off easy, New Hampshire has put too much of the tax burden on those who can least afford to pay,'' said Robert McIntyre, the group's director. ''The problems is over-reliance on regressive property and excise taxes rather than a progressive, pay- by-ability income tax.'' [...] Chris Zimmerman, chief economist for the National Conference of State Legislatures, said he had not seen the report but acknowledged that in general, it is more difficult for states, cities and counties to maintain a progressive tax system " ``The federal government still relies on the income tax for 90 percent of its revenue,'' leaving little income base for other government to tax, Zimmerman said. ``If a state taxes wealthy people at a high rate, they can simply more across the border [..]'' " [Perhaps not so simply if they own a house... --Harel] Key Findings of the study: ========================== Four member families whose incomes put them in the ____ fifth, averaging ____ a year, pay _____ percent of their earnings in state and local taxes. ________________________________________________________________ | | | Average yearly Percent of earnings | | Economic stratum earnings paid in state/lcl tx | | ================ ============== ==================== | | | | Bottom fifth $12,700 13.8 % | | 2nd-lowest fifth $26,800 10.9 % | | Middle fifth $39,100 10.0 % | | 2nd-highest fifth $54,000 9.5 % | | Richest 15% $82,800 9.2 % | | Next 4 percent $184,400 8.7 % | | Richest 1% $875,200 7.6 % | | | -------------------------------------------------------------- ""By the organization's reckoning, Nevada has the worst tax system. In Nevada, the share of the poorest families' income earmarked for state and local taxes is 5 1/2 percent times that for the richest families. The rate for a middle-income family is more than triples that for the rich. "Texas is next, also requiring the poor to pay 5 1/2 times the rate faces by the rich, while the share of middle-income families is 2.7 times that of the wealthy. " ``Only in Vermont, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland and Minnesota do the richest 1 percent pay an equal or greater share of income in state and local taxes as the share paid by the poorest fifth of families,'' the report said. ``Only California, Delaware, Maine and Vermont tax their richest citizens at greater rates than they impose on middle-income families. Only Vermont and Delaware succeed at both. " ``The best we can say is that there are still a few places where the Rockefellers and the Trumps are asked to pay taxes at slightly higher rates than the Orphan Annies and Oliver Twists of the world,'' McIntyre said. "Washington has the highest taxes on the poor: 17.4 percent of their income, the report said. Nevada has the lowest taxes on the rich: 1.8 percent. ############################################################### # Harel Barzilai for Activists Mailing List (AML) # ################################################################ { For more info about ACTIV-L or PeaceNet's brochure send } { inquiries to harel@dartmouth.edu / mathrich@umcvmb.bitnet } To join AML, just send the 1-line message "SUB ACTIV-L " to: LISTSERV@UMCVMB.BITNET; you should receive a confirmation message within 2 days. Alternate address: LISTSERV@UMCVMB.MISSOURI.EDU Qs/problems: Rich Winkel, MATHRICH@UMCVMB.["MISSOURI.EDU" or "BITNET"]