As Tax Day approaches in the US, I have begun to wonder. How do other countrys pay taxes. Is the date April 15th (tax day in the US) burned into your brain? Do you get refunds? Do you get deductions? Is your governments tax service just as hated as our IRS? Does the word audit send chills down your spine? Just wondering if our neighbors have the same system, thoughts, and feelings that we do.
Oh, and no taxation without representation!
- Boston Harbor, December 16th, 1773.
Originally posted by willatkinsRemember, the federal income tax was introduced to finance the WWI, and only those who made over $20,000 (almost 90 years) had to pay, over 99% of the population was excluded. That is how it started, then gradually the a bigger and bigger portion of the population were taxed!
As Tax Day approaches in the US, I have begun to wonder. How do other countrys pay taxes. Is the date April 15th (tax day in the US) burned into your brain? Do you get refunds? Do you get deductions? Is your governments tax service just as hated as our IRS? Does the word audit send chills down your spine? Just wondering if our neighbors have the sa ...[text shortened]... we do.
Oh, and no taxation without representation!
- Boston Harbor, December 16th, 1773.
When you give away your finger to Uncle Sam, he takes not only your hand, but your arm also.
Harri
a.k.a. Luck
Originally posted by RhymesterTax on primary earnings is often deducted automatically by your employer, so you only receive your post-tax pay (known as Paye As You Earn, PAYE).
In the UK our date is April 6th. We now have Self Assesment and we have to pay tax on what we think we are going to earn in the coming year.
We can do our own calculations or give the Inland Revenue all the facts and let them miscalculate it our behalf.
Rhymester
Here are our (UK) tax rates if anyone is interested (from memory so may be a little out):
< £4,500 0%
next £2,000 10%
next £28,000 22%
the rest 40%
...plus national insurance contributions (supposed to cover state health and old age pension costs) of:
< £4,000 0%
next £26,000 10%
the rest 0% (this will change to 1% from this April, I think)
Any under payment of tax in one year is often recouped during the next by reducing the initial £4.5k tax free amount.
Am I wierd if I say I don't complain about paying tax. In the UK I paid about 30% straight from my income. In Belgium it's nearer 45%. But then I look at the roads and the police and the nice men who come to put the fire out in my house (maybe not in the UK🙁), and I pay more in Belgium but I actually expect to get out of hospital here less ill than when I went in, and I think - If this was a private club, I couldn't afford to join! Is it wierd that I appreciate what is provided for me instead of taking all that for granted and instead seeing the 45% missing from my wage packet and thinking about all the fun I could have had with that extra cash?
Jon - who is sozzeled so not in such a bad mood,
The conception, right or wrong, in the US is that you don't get much for your tax dollars. If you look at the current federal budget proposal for how to spend the tax revenues, the vast majority of that budget goes to defense (or offense, depending on your perpsective) spending, and social security. Social security includes certain social programs, and if I'm not mistaken consists primarily of giving people 'social security benefits.' This is a holdover from FD Roosevelt's 'New Deal,' which mandated that everyone has a certain percentage of the money that they make 'set aside' for retirement purposes, and is then given back to you with interest when you retire. In actuality, the money is never set aside, but is pooled together with the rest of the tax income, and the money that you get back keeps coming even if you've already received more than you ever put in, even accounting for interest.
Without universal health care, or very much in the way of comprehensive social services, people here feel as if their tax dollars are going to pay for a bloated military we no longer need, or to pay for the retirement of people who have already gotten back more than they put into the system.
-mike
Originally posted by legionnaireAll I ask from people asking for universal healthcare is that they get the opportunity to use a military hospital a few times when they are really sick! I bet it changes 90% of their beliefs!!
Without universal health care...
No offense to any Military Docs out there, there are a few good ones, just 99 out of 100 are not.
Originally posted by LuckI suspect taxes are significantly higher in Scandinavia than in the US! 😛
Remember, the federal income tax was introduced to finance the WWI, and only those who made over $20,000 (almost 90 years) had to pay, over 99% of the population was excluded. That is how it started, then gradually the a bigger and bigger portion of the population were taxed!
When you give away your finger to Uncle Sam, he takes not only your hand, but your arm also.
Harri
a.k.a. Luck
On the subject of taxes around the world, can anyone explain to me Bush's big tax cut?
Look at a copy of the US federal budget. He's cutting taxes, sure, but here are a few delicious inconsistencies (figures in $billions):
"Defense"-380
Education-61
Veteran's Affairs-60
NASA-15
...
Cutting taxes and promoting a debatable war seem to be diametrically opposed.
But I don't know how the tax cuts themselves work, exactly.
I must disagree with luck. I understand where he gets that the US income tax started with WWI, but I would say it truly started with the civil war.
It's good to question where your taxes go. I find a lot of irony with where they came FROM. Let's review the facts.
Income Tax started with either the Civil War or WWI, depending on your point of view. Both wars ended some time ago. The tax remains.
Social Security began during the great depression, initiated by Franklin Roosevelt to assist the elderly through the rough times. The tax remains. It's coffers are often robbed to fund other areas of government. Today it is fairly anti-social and offers little security.
To be sure, our taxation is with its representation. Our representatives are sticking it to our arse! 😛
IRS History and Structure
The agency has a long history. Its roots go back to the Civil War when President Lincoln and Congress, in 1862, created the Commissioner of Internal Revenue and enacted an income tax to pay war expenses. The income tax was repealed 10 years later. Congress revived the income tax in 1894, but the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional the following year.
In 1913, the states ratified the 16th Amendment, which gave Congress the authority to enact an income tax. That same year, Congress introduced the first Form 1040 and levied a 1 percent tax on net personal incomes above $3,000 with a 6 percent surtax on incomes of more than $500,000. As the nation sought greater revenue to finance the World War I effort, the top rate of the income tax rose to 77 percent in 1918. It dropped sharply in the post-war years, down to 24 percent in 1929, and rose again during the Depression. During World War II, Congress introduced payroll withholding and quarterly tax payments.
Maybe this will help.
(search engine and 'cut and paste' strikes again...!)
regards, Marc