A progressive tax, or graduated tax or fair tax, is a tax that is larger as a percentage of income for those with larger incomes. It is usually applied in reference to income taxes, where people with more income pay a higher percentage of it in taxes. The term progressive refers to the way the rate progresses from low to high, but over time it has become confused with modern.

The opposite of a progressive tax is a regressive tax. In this case, the amount of the tax is smaller as a percentage of income for people with larger incomes. Many taxes other than the income tax tend to be regressive in practice: e.g. most sales taxes (since lower income people spend a larger portion of their income), social security taxes (because they exclude interest, rent, and other kinds of income common for the affluent), excise taxes, and so on. (A flat tax, also called a proportional tax, is one where the tax amount is fixed as a function of income, and is a term mainly used only in the context of income taxes.)

There are two main arguments for a progressive tax system. First, if the utility gained from income exhibits diminishing marginal returns, as many psychologists assert (see Weber-Fechner law), then for the tax burden to be vertically equitable , those with higher incomes must be taxed at a higher rate.

Second, it is argued that people with higher income tend to have a higher percentage of that in disposable income, and can thus afford a greater tax burden. A person making exactly enough money to pay for food and housing cannot afford to pay any taxes without it causing material damage, while someone making twice as much can afford to pay up to half their income to taxes. The converse argument is that too progressive a tax rate acts as a disincentive to work; in the previous (extreme) example, there would be no monetary incentive at all for the first person to try to double his or her income. In practice, however, no advocates of a progressive tax go as far as that extreme example, so they often argue that the taxes they propose have very little effect (or even no effect at all) on incentives.

Contents

1 Personal Income Tax Brackets 1.1 United States 1.2 Sweden 2 Problems, alternatives, similar concepts 3 See Also 4 External links

Personal Income Tax Brackets

United States

For example, in the United States as of 2004 there are six "tax brackets" that are used to calculate the percentage of taxable income that must be paid to the United States Treasury. These percentages in 2003 and 2004 are:

• 10%: $2,651 - $9,700
• 15%: $9,701 - $30,800
• 25%: $30,801 - $68,500
• 28%: $68,501 - $148,700
• 33%: $148,701 - $321,200
• 35%: $321,201 and up

If an individual's taxable income falls within a particular tax bracket, the individual pays the listed percentage of income on each dollar that falls within that monetary range. For example, a person who earned $10,000 in 2003 would be liable for 10% of each dollar earned from the 2,651st dollar to the 9,700th dollar, and then for 15% of each dollar earned from the 9,701st dollar to the 10,000th dollar, for a total of $749.75. This ensures that every rise in a person's salary results in an increase of after-tax salary.

Sweden

Sweden has three income tax brackets (2004): ([1] http://www.skatteverket.se/english/main.html ) ([2] http://www.skatteverket.se/infotext/ackink.html )

• 33% (federal and state tax): 0 - 291,800 kronor
• 33 + 20% (federal tax): 291,800 - 441,300 kronor
• 33 + 25% (federal tax): 441,300 and up

Problems, alternatives, similar concepts

The tax bracket system has a few problems, however. Bracket creep occurs when the amounts are not tied to the cost of living, due to inflation tax rates would thus slowly rise.

An alternate system of having taxes with an increasing relative rate is a negative income tax, which eliminates the step problem.

Tax progressivity or regressivity should not be confused with two similar concepts: tax neutrality and tax incidence . Tax neutrality refers to the effect a change in taxation policy will have on government revenues. If the change has no net impact to government income, it is said to be neutral. Tax incidence refers what group ultimately bears the burden of a tax. For example, sales taxes, which are nominally applied to businesses, are passed through to consumers as higher prices - although the degree to which a sales tax is passed on to the consumer depends on elasticity), and one can measure the effective progressivity of a tax by income group as well as breaking the impact down by geographic area or other factors.

See Also

• Income tax
• Laffer curve
• Elasticity

External links

• Revised 2003 Tax Rate Schedules http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=109877,00.html