Where does my tax money go? From USA Today, a calculator and graph that lets you enter your salary and shows you how your tax dollars are spent. You can also change the year shown, so that you can compare now and then.
posted by OmieWise
on Feb 3, 2010 -
39 comments
Many people want to legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana and other drugs, however, few know that many
U.S. states are content simply to tax. In fact,
even the federal government wants a share (middle of p. 89 of the PDF), and
used tax stamps in
early prohibition, but only the states have recently issued
issued cool
stamps (be sure to click "exhibit"). The point, of course, is not to actually tax the drugs, but to
penalize the drug dealers for tax evasion as well as drug sales.
They have brought in some money, though. A few interesting state government pages:
Conecticut,
Nebraska,
North Carolina and their
tax return form, and
Kansas.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim
on Jan 15, 2007 -
30 comments
Cost of Government Day - "
n. the date of the calendar year, counting from January 1, on which the average American has earned enough in cumulative gross income to pay for his or her share of government spending (total federal, state, and local) plus the cost of regulation."
posted by Gyan
on Dec 3, 2006 -
16 comments
Is the U.S. Bankrupt? [332Kb PDF] Laurence Kotlikoff, writing in this month's
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, says "yes" - to the tune of $66 trillion! [more inside]
posted by ikkyu2
on Jul 16, 2006 -
67 comments
Tax Man Bush says tax cuts stimulate the economy. Unfortunately, he's fallen more than 2.2 million jobs short of the projection made by his own economists.
posted by Postroad
on Jul 28, 2004 -
6 comments
The FairTax is a consumption tax designed to replace the entire federal income tax system, including personal, payroll, corporate, self-employment, capital gains, gift, and inheritance taxes.
[more!!]
posted by hama7
on May 1, 2004 -
139 comments
A flood of red ink This time the turnaround will be much tougher. There will be no “peace dividend” from the end of the cold war (indeed, the pressure on military spending may continue to increase). America is unlikely to see another stockmarket bubble, with its surge in tax revenues. As baby-boomers retire, the pressure from entitlement spending will be more acute. Set against this background, the path back to a sustainable fiscal policy will be extremely painful, even without any dramatic fiscal crisis. Long after Dubya is back on his ranch, Americans will be trying to recover from the mess he created.
posted by y2karl
on Nov 6, 2003 -
35 comments
Rumors abound about the
legality of the IRS, and about
people who've managed to avoid paying income taxes based on the lack of legality of the IRS itself. Is any of this real, or simply people trying to make a buck selling a book or two? And if the IRS is fraudulent, what can a citizen without massive fundage do to fight it?
posted by woil
on Aug 25, 2003 -
30 comments
Most state tax systems are regressive. That's the thesis of "Who Pays: A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems In All 50 States" published by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The writers argue that states actually augment the effects of the Bush tax plan by replacing income taxes with sales and property taxes, a move that disproportionately hurts the poor and middle classes. Scroll down to the charts to see how your state matches up. (Link is PDF 653 KB, and is summarized at
TomPaine.com. Via
Talking Points Memo.)
posted by PrinceValium
on Feb 13, 2003 -
19 comments
I'm curious, isn't this exactly opposite of what we're being told? I'm always hearing the wealthy are benefitting somehow from GWB's new tax plan. I'm certainly no-where near the top 5%, and now I don't want to be.
posted by the_0ne
on Apr 9, 2002 -
54 comments
"The sky won't fall, it will probably just trickle down." On whom? (Guess who.) Out here in Washington State voters just approved another in a series of initiatives that, collectively, choke off the state government's primary funding sources. What else are the results of the initiative process around the country? And are The People responsible enough to be trusted with it?
posted by argybarg
on Nov 8, 2001 -
30 comments
The tax bill was based on conservative ideology: not only did it offer the largest rate breaks to the richest people, but it had the explicit purpose of reducing the activities of the federal government.
posted by semmi
on Aug 29, 2001 -
21 comments
How Corporations Operate Tax Free Senator Byron Dorgan on corporations getting away with billions of dollars of taxpayer money. One of the reasons: they negotiate their taxes behind closed doors with the IRS. Wouldn’t
you like that access?
posted by capt.crackpipe
on Oct 29, 2000 -
17 comments
"Tax Clarity was created to help you decipher what the tax plans by both presidential candidates mean to you personally." Enter some information from your paycheck and find out how much you'd save using either Bush's or Gore's tax plans.
via dandot.
posted by phooey
on Oct 11, 2000 -
37 comments