Taxes Definition: Types, Who Pays, and Why

Tips

  • Understanding what triggers a tax situation can enable taxpayers to manage their finances to minimize the impact of taxes.

  • income taxes are applied to some form of money received by a taxpayer. The money could be income earned from salary, capital gains from investment appreciation, dividends or interest received as additional income, payments made for goods and services, and so on.

  • important for individuals and corporations to carefully study a new locale’s tax laws before earning income or doing business there. 

  • tax evasion—the deliberate failure to pay one’s full tax liabilities
    On the other hand, tax avoidance—actions taken to lessen your tax liability and maximize after-tax income—is perfectly legal.


Types of Taxes

There are several very common types of taxes:

  • Income tax—A percentage of generated income that is relinquished to the state or federal government
  • Payroll tax—A percentage withheld from an employee’s pay by an employer, who pays it to the government on the employee’s behalf to fund Medicare and Social Security programs
  • Corporate tax—A percentage of corporate profits taken as tax by the government to fund federal programs
  • Sales tax—Taxes levied on certain goods and services; varies by jurisdiction Property tax—Based on the value of land and property assets
  • Tariff—Taxes on imported goods; imposed with the aim of strengthening domestic businesses
  • Estate tax—Rate applied to the fair market value (FMV) of property in a person’s estate at the time of death; the total estate must exceed thresholds set by state and federal governments

Income Tax

Like many nations, the United States has a progressive income tax system, through which a higher percentage of tax revenues are collected from high-income individuals or corporations than from low-income individual earners.

Taxes are applied through marginal tax rates.

A variety of factors affect the marginal tax rate that a taxpayer will pay, including their

  • filing status—married filing jointly, married filing separately, single, or head of household.

Which status a person files can make a significant difference in how much they are taxed.
The source of a taxpayer’s income also makes a difference in taxation.
It’s important to learn the terminology of the different income types that may affect how income is taxed.

This is where people can exploit taxes therefore they don't pay or at least pay less for a tax

Capital Gains Taxes

  • Capital gains taxes are of particular relevance for investors.

  • Taxes on the profit generated when you sell an asset that's increased in value. 8 The rate of taxation on the profit depends on the length of time for which the asset was held. Short-term capital gains (on assets sold one year or less after they were acquired) are taxed at the owner’s ordinary income tax rate, whereas long-term gains on assets held for more than a year are taxed at a lower capital gains rate—based on the rationale that lower taxes will encourage high levels of capital investment.

  • Payroll Taxes Payroll taxes are withheld from an employee’s paycheck by an employer, who remits the amount to the federal government to fund Medicare and Social Security programs.

  • Payroll taxes have both an employee portion and an employer portion. The employer remits both the employee portion, described above, and a duplicate amount for the employer portion.

  • Payroll taxes and income taxes differ, although both are withheld from an employee’s paycheck and remitted to the government. Payroll taxes are specifically to fund Social Security and Medicare programs

  • self-employed individual must pay the equivalent of both the employee and employer portion of payroll taxes through self-employment taxes, which also fund Social Security and Medicare. 15

  • Corporate taxes are paid on a company’s taxable income. The

  • Sales Taxes Sales taxes are charged at the point of sale when a customer executes the payment for a good or service. The business collects the sales tax from the customer and remits the funds to the government.

  • Each state can implement its own sales taxes, meaning they vary depending on location. There's even room for cities and counties to use their own rates, provided that they abide by the taxing rules of their state.

  • Property tax rates vary considerably by jurisdiction and many states also tax tangible personal property, such as cars and boats.

  • Tariffs A tariff is a tax imposed by one country on the goods and services imported from another country. The purpose is to encourage domestic purchases by increasing the price of goods and services imported from other countries. There are two main types of tariffs: fixed fee tariffs, which are levied as a fixed cost based on the type of item, and ad valorem tariffs, which are assessed as a percentage of the item’s value (like the real estate tax in the previous section).

  • Estate taxes are different from inheritance taxes in that an estate tax is applied before assets are disbursed to any beneficiaries. An inheritance tax is paid by the beneficiary

Created: 2023-07-25 Tags: #fleeting Link: