www.federalist.com
FOR THE TAX RECORD
2002 Tax Facts
"The total (year 2000) U.S. government haul in taxes -- income,
corporate, capital gains, gasoline, excise taxes, telecommunications,
payroll, and so on -- amounts to about 20% of the nation's gross
domestic product (GDP), more than any time since 1944." --Washington
Post
For 124 years prior to the 1913 Sixteenth (Personal Income Tax)
Amendment there was no direct tax levied on each person in proportion
to personal income. As a matter of fact, Article I, Section 9,
paragraph 4 forbade taxation of individuals' incomes.
At the beginning of the 20th century, federal taxes were equal to 3%
of GDP and the entire tax code was only a few hundred pages. Now at
20% of GDP and 46,000 pages (481 separate tax forms), Americans will
spend 6.1 billion hours complying with the code. Due to the code's
complexity, more than half of filers will pay for "professional
preparation" of their taxes (up from only 20% in 1960) at a cost of
more than $200 billion -- almost 10% of what the IRS actually
collects.
"From its beginnings as a simple, two-page form in 1913, the income
tax has grown into a monstrosity because politicians have been unable
to resist the temptation to use it for political purposes," according
to taxation expert Daniel M. Mitchell. "No longer are taxes merely the
means to raise revenue. They have become the tools politicians use to
pursue social engineering, backdoor industrial policy and ham-fisted
attempts to steer private behavior with subsidies and penalties. And
what is the result after 87 years of letting politicians and lobbyists
run amok? A tax code nobody can understand. When Money magazine sent a
hypothetical family's tax return to professional tax-preparers in
1998, they got back 46 different responses, every one of them wrong."
U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill notes, "There is a constituency
in the Congress that sees the tax code as a way to do favors for
people which is a way to get elected that's not as obvious as actually
writing them a check from the American people."
The Internal Revenue Code:
Number of Words: Over 2.8 million
War and Peace
Number of Words: 660,000
The Bible
Number of Words: 774,746
The Internal Revenue Service:
Annual Budget $9.4 billion (FY 2002)
Number of Employees: 99,887
The F.B.I.
Annual Budget: $4.2 billion (FY 2002)
Number of Special Agents: 12,582
The Border Patrol
Annual Budget: $1.5 billion (FY 2002)
Number of Agents: 10,551
Individual Income Tax Returns Filed (projected CY 2002) 132 million
Filers using 1040EZ 9.8 million (7%)
Filers using 1040A 13.9 million (11%)
Filers using 1040 57.9 million (44%)
Electronic Filings 50.1 million (38%)
Filers Using Professional Preparers ('99): 69.2 million (53% of all
returns)
1040EZ 761 thousand (3% of EZ filers)
1040A 3.7 million (13% of 1040A filers)
1040 64.7 million (91% of 1040 filers)
Estimated Preparation Time (TY 2001):
Form 1040 13 hr., 27 minutes
Schedule A (Itemized Deductions) 5 hr., 37 minutes
Schedule B (Interest and Dividend Income) 1 hr., 26 minutes
Schedule C (Profit or loss from a Business) 10 hr., 35 minutes
Schedule D (Capital gains and losses) 7 hr., 36 minutes
Filing Status (TY 1999):
Single Filers: 56.9 million (45%)
Joint Filers: 49.9 million (39%)
Married Filing Separately: 2.4 million (2%)
Head of Household: 17.9 million (14%)
Federal Tax Revenues:
Total Taxes Paid (Fiscal Year 2001): $1.991 trillion
Individual Income Taxes: $994 billion (49.9%)
Social Insurance Taxes: $694 billion (34.8%)
Corporate Income Taxes: $151 billion (7.6%)
Other (excise, estate, and others): $152 billion (7.6%)
Who Pays The Income Tax? (Calendar Year 2001):
Income Category Share of Population Share of Income Taxes
$200,000 and over 2.7% 49.7%
$100,000 to $200,000 9.0% 23.9%
$75,000 to $100,000 9.1% 11.6%
$50,000 to $75,000 9.2% 3.5%
$30,000 to $40,000 11.1% 2.4%
$20,000 to $30,000 13.0% 0.4%
$10,000 to $20,000* 16.4% -1.3%
Less than $10,000* 14.0% -0.7%
(*due to cash payments to EIC recipients)
Cost of Government Day (COGD), n. The date of the calendar year,
counting from January 1, on which average Americans have earned enough
in cumulative gross income to pay for their share of government
spending (total federal, state, and local) plus the cost of
regulation. In 2001, Cost of Government Day was July 6, 2001.
Payroll Taxes:
Employee Tax Rate 7.65%
Employer Tax Rate 7.65%
Social Security, or Old Age and Survivor's Disability Insurance
Portion 6.2%
Medicare, or Hospital Insurance Portion 1.45%
Self-Employed Tax Rate 15.3%
"Give me a break -- They say taxes are inevitable ... like death. At
least death doesn't come every year." --John Stossel
FOR THE TAX RECORD
2002 Tax Facts
"The total (year 2000) U.S. government haul in taxes -- income,
corporate, capital gains, gasoline, excise taxes, telecommunications,
payroll, and so on -- amounts to about 20% of the nation's gross
domestic product (GDP), more than any time since 1944." --Washington
Post
For 124 years prior to the 1913 Sixteenth (Personal Income Tax)
Amendment there was no direct tax levied on each person in proportion
to personal income. As a matter of fact, Article I, Section 9,
paragraph 4 forbade taxation of individuals' incomes.
At the beginning of the 20th century, federal taxes were equal to 3%
of GDP and the entire tax code was only a few hundred pages. Now at
20% of GDP and 46,000 pages (481 separate tax forms), Americans will
spend 6.1 billion hours complying with the code. Due to the code's
complexity, more than half of filers will pay for "professional
preparation" of their taxes (up from only 20% in 1960) at a cost of
more than $200 billion -- almost 10% of what the IRS actually
collects.
"From its beginnings as a simple, two-page form in 1913, the income
tax has grown into a monstrosity because politicians have been unable
to resist the temptation to use it for political purposes," according
to taxation expert Daniel M. Mitchell. "No longer are taxes merely the
means to raise revenue. They have become the tools politicians use to
pursue social engineering, backdoor industrial policy and ham-fisted
attempts to steer private behavior with subsidies and penalties. And
what is the result after 87 years of letting politicians and lobbyists
run amok? A tax code nobody can understand. When Money magazine sent a
hypothetical family's tax return to professional tax-preparers in
1998, they got back 46 different responses, every one of them wrong."
U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill notes, "There is a constituency
in the Congress that sees the tax code as a way to do favors for
people which is a way to get elected that's not as obvious as actually
writing them a check from the American people."
The Internal Revenue Code:
Number of Words: Over 2.8 million
War and Peace
Number of Words: 660,000
The Bible
Number of Words: 774,746
The Internal Revenue Service:
Annual Budget $9.4 billion (FY 2002)
Number of Employees: 99,887
The F.B.I.
Annual Budget: $4.2 billion (FY 2002)
Number of Special Agents: 12,582
The Border Patrol
Annual Budget: $1.5 billion (FY 2002)
Number of Agents: 10,551
Individual Income Tax Returns Filed (projected CY 2002) 132 million
Filers using 1040EZ 9.8 million (7%)
Filers using 1040A 13.9 million (11%)
Filers using 1040 57.9 million (44%)
Electronic Filings 50.1 million (38%)
Filers Using Professional Preparers ('99): 69.2 million (53% of all
returns)
1040EZ 761 thousand (3% of EZ filers)
1040A 3.7 million (13% of 1040A filers)
1040 64.7 million (91% of 1040 filers)
Estimated Preparation Time (TY 2001):
Form 1040 13 hr., 27 minutes
Schedule A (Itemized Deductions) 5 hr., 37 minutes
Schedule B (Interest and Dividend Income) 1 hr., 26 minutes
Schedule C (Profit or loss from a Business) 10 hr., 35 minutes
Schedule D (Capital gains and losses) 7 hr., 36 minutes
Filing Status (TY 1999):
Single Filers: 56.9 million (45%)
Joint Filers: 49.9 million (39%)
Married Filing Separately: 2.4 million (2%)
Head of Household: 17.9 million (14%)
Federal Tax Revenues:
Total Taxes Paid (Fiscal Year 2001): $1.991 trillion
Individual Income Taxes: $994 billion (49.9%)
Social Insurance Taxes: $694 billion (34.8%)
Corporate Income Taxes: $151 billion (7.6%)
Other (excise, estate, and others): $152 billion (7.6%)
Who Pays The Income Tax? (Calendar Year 2001):
Income Category Share of Population Share of Income Taxes
$200,000 and over 2.7% 49.7%
$100,000 to $200,000 9.0% 23.9%
$75,000 to $100,000 9.1% 11.6%
$50,000 to $75,000 9.2% 3.5%
$30,000 to $40,000 11.1% 2.4%
$20,000 to $30,000 13.0% 0.4%
$10,000 to $20,000* 16.4% -1.3%
Less than $10,000* 14.0% -0.7%
(*due to cash payments to EIC recipients)
Cost of Government Day (COGD), n. The date of the calendar year,
counting from January 1, on which average Americans have earned enough
in cumulative gross income to pay for their share of government
spending (total federal, state, and local) plus the cost of
regulation. In 2001, Cost of Government Day was July 6, 2001.
Payroll Taxes:
Employee Tax Rate 7.65%
Employer Tax Rate 7.65%
Social Security, or Old Age and Survivor's Disability Insurance
Portion 6.2%
Medicare, or Hospital Insurance Portion 1.45%
Self-Employed Tax Rate 15.3%
"Give me a break -- They say taxes are inevitable ... like death. At
least death doesn't come every year." --John Stossel
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