According to the wordassociation.org, often the tax payers associate tax with death. People say the contemplating taxes are what we stand to lose not what we stand to gain, and that it is why it is being related to death. Though tax brings long term benefit, but from a study, it was seen that people are more than happy to drive for 30 minutes to get a tax free product rather than getting the same product which included tax and was also discounted.
The question of concern is, why do people hate tax so much? An obvious reason could be that they don’t really know the benefits of taxation. In a survey, people were asked whether they had used any goverment social programs, and it was concluded that they had not. It is merely because the goverment hadn’t marketed them well.
There is another reason Americans hate taxes so much. In countries like Netherlands, the citizens have to pay taxes within their stratosphere and it’s about 52 %, and it is applicable to most of the citizens. On the other hand, in USA, it is nearly 40 % and it is applicable to a small percentage of the population. Even a study showed that countries that have happiest citizens are those where tax is applied with a progressive rate i.e. the richer you are, the more tax you will pay. Progressive tax system is not applied in USA in particular, but Americans are ranked high in happiness which shows that the tax system is not the only reason for satisfaction.
The key question that arises now is that what the US goverment can do to make the experience of paying tax a happy one. The state President in his Union speech in 2011 said that American taxpayers will be able to see how their tax dollar is spent (It can be seen at the White House website). However, providing some data cannot simply change the attitude of the tax payers.
We in our research have tried to make this information kind of arresting, too. A site was developed in Boston where the residents can report all sorts of problems which require the goverment’s action. Changes were made in the Boston Website by creating a running tally of all the services requests opened by the citizens and closed by the employees. We also included a map that had blue and yellow color-coded pins that showed the exact spot in the city where the requested service had been opened, as well as, closed. This actually worked. People felt that the goverment has started to consider their woes and it is doing a good job. Some of them even thought that it deserves more credit now.
Another change in the tax system was enabling the customers to decide where their taxes should be spent. Should it go to education, defense or healthcare? One of our research has proven that a thought that our wealth comes with a responsibly to others can change the feelings of the citizens while paying tax. This can give birth to sense of responsibility and citizens can actually start feeling obliged to pay tax without any pain.
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