Franchise Taxes
Franchise taxes are a type of tax levied on corporations by states in the United States. Corporations and similar business entities enjoy certain legal benefits. One is the ability to exist indefinitely until terminated by the desire of the owners, or until declared insolvent and allowed to die. This allows the business of the corporation to persist beyond the lives of those who began the business. It also allows for the accumulation of capital and ownership separate from people who manage...
Excise Taxes
What are Excise Taxes? Excise taxes are taxes on specific goods or services that are typically included in the price of the product or service. Governments claim that they usually impose these taxes to raise revenue, discourage certain behaviors or activities, or to fund specific projects or programs. Excise taxes can be levied at the federal, state, or local level and are typically assessed as a percentage of the purchase price or as a fixed amount per unit. Examples of products or services...
Business Property Taxes
Business property taxes are a tax levied on the value of a business’s property or real estate holdings. While these taxes play a role in funding public services and infrastructure that benefit businesses and the community, they can also disproportionately impact lower-income people. When businesses are required to pay significant amounts in property taxes, they must find ways to pass on the costs to consumers through higher prices for goods and services. This makes it more difficult for...
A Brief History of the American Tax System and How it Targets the Poor and Middle Class
How many times in your life have you heard “life isn’t fair!”? Either you heard yourself exclaiming it in a moment of distress or perhaps you had a punishing parent tell it to you in an attempt to teach you a lesson. Life isn’t fair, and the dialectic of that phrase is that most of us seek fairness in not only our individual lives but also socially and economically. The drive for justice and fairness is innately placed deep in most Americans. Now more than ever Americans are feeling political...
Can “defund the IRS” become a solution to the problem of inherent unfairness?
One need only look to the actions of the new Republican majority in Congress. The first order of business for them was to defund the IRS. The last Congress and the Senate passed legislation designed to modernize the IRS infrastructure, enable the replacement of retiring IRS personnel, and to hire more auditors. The ostensible rationale for the Republican majority was that the new funds were intended to result in the hounding of small business through more auditing of those returns. The...