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

[Taxing the rich] was supported by the Socialist party, the Populist party, and by the Democratic party with a few honorable exceptions, simply as a means of re-distributing the wealth.

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Senator Nelson Aldrich (R-RI), 1909
01/01/1909 | Full Details | Law(s): Tax: Income

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

[The voters] will remember who let loose this deadly virus into our economic bloodstream.

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Rep. Robert Michel (R-IL), The Los Angeles Times.
05/28/1993 | Full Details | Law(s): Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993

Why should any of us strive to make that extra dollar of income when the government is going to lay claim to an increasing share of it?

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Reagan Treasury Secretary Donald Regan’s Address to the Business Council, 1984.
01/01/1984 | Full Details | Law(s): Tax: Income
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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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