This book focuses on one big question, what needs to change or stay the same in the United States tax system? The author of this book, Noel Merino, is like a composer of a musical piece, he found viewpoints on different debates and put them together into one book that looks at both sides of the argument. Merino took the main question and broke it into three smaller issues. First, is the tax system working? This explores the amount of money Americans are paying to taxes and where that money goes. Second, is the current system fair for rich and poor? This section talks about the how much the rich pay in taxes compared to the middle class and poor. Third, what taxes should be enacted or repealed? This talks a little about the type of taxes people pay for and whether they are beneficial or not.
There are many critics of the tax system in the United States. Many Americans argue that the system is not working and want it changed. This section goes into detail about where our tax dollars go. It talks about the different government programs that are run using the citizens tax dollars. Some people benefit from one program so they believe that program is necessary while they think programs they don't benefit from are unnecessary. The only problem with this is that all Americans don't find the same programs beneficial. For example, one person thinks that a government run program is a waste of our taxes while another needs that program to live. This happens all the time so all programs are necessary to some extent. The book goes into more depth on which programs are widely used and absolutely necessary.
Almost every person thinks that their tax rates are too high, but is that actually true? This chapter debates whether the tax system is fair for rich and poor. It talks about different types of tax systems, progressive, regressive, and proportional. These three systems have many benefits, but they all come with costs as well. This chapter shows the costs and benefits of each system while explaining government policies. Many people get deductions and exemptions while doing their taxes, but don't really know why. This chapter helps individuals understand why certain people get deductions and exemptions while others do not. Overall, experts debate who benefits from different tax regulations.
This chapter talks about what is taxed and where. To start off it states many different types of taxes: federal, income, state, payroll, social security, medicare and Medicaid, and estate. It goes on to explain a little about each type of tax and where those taxes are enacted. This chapter focuses on the value-added tax, alternative minimum tax, and the estate tax. Here experts argue that all of these taxes should be repealed, then other experts argue that all of these taxes are necessary.
The debate over taxes is long and confusing, but these debates are needed to keep the United States tax system in balance. It is necessary for people to challenge the tax system and ask questions, this makes sure that the current tax system is the best one we could possibly have. This book helps extinguish some of the myths of the United States tax system while confirming others. Noel Merino covers both sides of the debate on taxes and leaves it up to the reader to do what they want with the information given.
Key Passages
- In the book "Tax Reform" Doug Bandow stated "Americans this year will spend more on taxes than on clothing, food, and shelter combined"(20).
- "the top 20 percent pay almost 70 percent of all federal taxes and over 86 percent of all income taxes"(Dubay 61).
- "Instead of the hundreds of forms demanded by the current tax system, the Armey flat tax would have required just two postcards"(Mitchell 144).
Thought provoking Questions
- Is the United States tax system working for you?
- Do you think you are under/over taxed?
- Who do you think is under/over taxed?
- Do you believe your tax dollars are well spent?
- Do you think all government run programs are necessary?
- If you could change the tax system, what would you change?
Fitting in with my topic
My topic proposal asks the same questions and talks about the same topic as the book "Tax Reform". I found this book after I wrote my topic proposal and it sounds like it was written by me. Noel Merino goes over all of the parts of taxes that I want to know about. He asks the question "Is the current US tax system fair for rich and poor?" and goes into detail on that question. This is the question my entire capstone project is on and Noel Merino has 50 pages written about it. He also asks questions like "is the US tax system working?" or "how should it be changed?" and I will talk a little about those throughout my capstone project.
Annotated Bibliography
The book "Tax Reform" by Noel Merino is a collection of viewpoints on the problems with taxes. This book has many different questions that the author goes through one by one in his chapters. The book is broken down into four main points, three of which I will be focusing on. First of all, Merino finds viewpoints that support and are against the United States tax system. After that, he talks about whether the tax system is fair between the rich and poor. Finally, he finishes off the argument by asking what taxes should be enacted or repealed, some solutions to the tax problem. A very interesting fact about this book is that it is not biased at all. The author finds viewpoints that support both sides current argument or question and allows the reader to draw their own conclusion. Also, this book is a very reliable source because it is supported by the opposing viewpoints series. The questions Merino asks throughout this book parallel my research and my topic. Before I found this book I made an outline for my project and it showed what information I was looking for, this book had all that information and more.
Merino, Noël. Tax Reform. Detroit, MI: Greenhaven, 2011. Print.
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