Taxes: Income

Taxes: Income

The income tax has been the primary means of funding the federal government since 1913 when the 16th Amendment to the Constitution was adopted. It is a progressive tax on individual and corporate income, based on income levels.  43 states impose an income tax on individuals, while 47 states impose a tax on the income of corporations. Many municipalities and counties also levy income taxes on their residents.

Commentary

Chamber of Commerce, Wrong Again

May 19, 2011

The California Chamber of Commerce released its hit list of so-called "job killer" bills. Like every year, they oppose every proposal to protect consumers, workers and the environment from irresponsible business practices, or raise revenues to fund public services, or support middle and working class families. 

They were wrong before and they are wrong now.

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Taxes and the wealthy

Will Higher Taxes on the Rich Kill Jobs?

December 01, 2010

Will raising income taxes on the rich hurt or help the economy? That's the key question that Congress will be debating as they consider whether to extend the tax cuts enacted by President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003, which are set to expire at the end of the year.

As he pledged during the 2008 campaign, President Obama, along with most Congressional Democrats, wants to maintain the Bush 2001 tax cuts for the middle class but allow them to expire for high income Americans. Business groups and Republicans are, predictably, claiming that such a plan would "kill jobs," harm small businesses, and deepen the recession. They are crying wolf, but they repeat their misleading warnings so often -- and the media report them as if they were true -- that many Americans believe them.

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Cry Wolf Quotes

This plan will not work. If it was to work, then I'd have to become a Democrat and believe that more taxes and bigger government is the answer and it's not what the president ran on during the campaign. President Clinton is much different than candidate Clinton and that's the frustration.

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Rep. John Kasich (R-OH), CNN.
07/28/1993 | Full Details | Law(s): Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993

[Obama tax proposal is] a bullet in the head for an awful lot of people that are going to be laid off and an awful lot of people who are hoping to get their jobs back.

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U.S. Chamber of Commerce economist Martin Regalia, The Hill.
08/16/2010 | Full Details | Law(s): Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003

It may be impracticable that our distinctively American experiment of individual freedom should go on.

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Senator David Hill (D-NY), The New Republic.
01/01/1894 | Full Details | Law(s): Tax: Income

Taxes will go up. The economy will sputter along. Dreams will be put off and all this for the hollow promise of deficit reduction and magical theories of lower interest rates. Like so many of the President's past promises, deficit reduction will be another cruel hoax. Tax revenues will lag because the economy will fall. Government spending will increase at least another $300 billion a year. And the deficit will reach another record high.

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Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX), Congressional Record.
08/05/1993 | Full Details | Law(s): Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993
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Related Laws and Rules

Evidence

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Backgrounders & Briefs

Taxes Not Seen as Making the Rich Flee New York

Almost everyone agrees that raising taxes on the rich does not induce mass upper-class migration. 

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Resources

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) is a think tank focused on tax and fiscal policy. They provide in-depth analysis of state issues.

Citizens for Tax Justice is an organization that represents low and middle income citizens in the tax debates on Capitol Hill.

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