Tax system is too taxing

Four in five Americans say that the federal tax system needs to be completely overhauled, according to a recent survey. The 2009 Survey of U.S. Attitudes on Taxes, Government Spending and Wealth Distribution, commissioned by the Washington-based Tax Foundation, reported that 85% of those surveyed think that the country's tax code is too complex, and 56% said that income taxes are too high. When asked their opinion on the appropriate maximum percentage of income that should go to pay federal, state and local taxes, the average response was 15.6%. The actual estimated tax burden is 28.2%. “People have always underestimated what their tax burden should be,” said Matt Moon, the Tax Foundation's manager of media relations. The survey also included questions about the perceived fairness of federal, state and local taxes. Using a scale of one to five, with one being very fair and five being not at all fair, respondents named the estate tax the least fair federal tax, followed by the gas tax, federal and corporate income taxes, Social Security taxes, and cigarette, beer and wine taxes. Gas taxes were considered the least fair state and local taxes, followed by local property taxes, motor vehicle taxes, state income taxes, retail sales taxes, and cigarette, beer and wine taxes. “A notable demographic difference on state and local "sin taxes' comes in levels of education,” Mr. Moon said. According to the survey, respondents with a high school diploma or less were more likely to call cigarette, beer and wine taxes unfair than those with higher degrees of education. Meanwhile, taxes on junk food met with opposition. Fully 71% said they oppose taxes on foods with salt, 59% said they oppose taxes on sugary drinks and 55% oppose taxes on junk food. The online study of 2,002 adults was conducted between Feb. 18 and 27.