Federal Taxes as a Percentage of GDP (chart to share)

[canoeist52]

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2010/12/06/chart-of-the-day-u-s-taxes/



"# Any time that somebody starts complaining about how the poor don’t pay income tax, point them to this chart. Income taxes are just one part of the pie, and everybody with a job pays employment taxes.
# There aren’t any wealth taxes, but the closest thing we’ve got—estate and gift taxes—have shrunk to zero, after contributing a non-negligible amount to the public fisc in earlier decades."

[exboyfil]

1. Actually property taxes are a form of

wealth taxes. All many states license on value of cars - another form of wealth tax. I know these are state taxes, but we divide the pie a bit differently than other countries.

Very few countries have wealth taxes. The best example is France. It is a tax which is difficult to enforce.

[Scuba]

2. I'd like to see a comparison....

...of income earned by owning vs income earned by working, with corresponding taxes.

My perception is that working people are asked for more from less. A good graphic would be useful.

If any can help, that'd be great.

[n2doc]

3. It is clear that 20% is the value needed to balance the budget

All other tricks haven't done it. It would help to not be involved in so many wars, and to not give away trillions to banks, but on an average basis that is what it takes. And it is clear that people's wages need to go up in order to reach that goal, unless corp and estate/excise taxes go way up (unlikely in this climate). 14% of GDP is just fiscal suicide.

[On the Road]

4. That's Actually a Pretty Hopeful Chart

Total taxes are less than 15% of GDP, whereas they were just over 20% in the late 90s. Returning to that percentage would mean an increase of about 30% on a larger GDP base, too.

What's scary about the deficit is not the raw dollars as much as the proportion of deficit to spending. But his chart suggests there may be room to return to a balanced budget.