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The taxation system of the United States of America, at first glance, may seem incredibly complicated. While it is very surely a complex system, it is not that hard at all to understand, once you take some time off to understand it. After taking up much of the history of federal taxation of the United States of America, we have come to understand much of the mechanics of the evolution of taxation, particularly in this country. Now, we will attempt to find simpler means of identifying and understanding the many elements of the taxation system that were are currently engaged in today.

As has been evident in the previous discussions of the history of taxation, there are many ways that an individual may be taxed by his or her government – there are many ways that we are made to contribute to the budget that will eventually come back to us in the form of public services (like social services and national security measures), public structures (such as public parks and public roads) and the like. These taxes range from taxes that we pay as soon as we buy a certain item – that is to say, certain commodities sold and produced in the United States are a little more expensive than they should be, because a tax is levied upon them – to taxes that are levied on a person’s income, whether it is automatically taken from their payroll before they receive them or it is to be personally filed by the individual depending on where this has come from.

Taxation in the United States of America, depending on you income and location, may have to be payed to at least four different government levels – which of course include the local governments that may include more than one municipal (which refers to the local government of a city), civil township (which refers to a town’s – which is usually a more rural community or subdivision of a county – government), a county (which is also known as a borough or a parish, refers to an area of government that is smaller than a state, but larger than a city or town), or districts.

Just a brief discussion on districts, because the idea of districts can be confusing: districts are local areas with legislative and administrative roles in politics. Districts can be congressional (a constituency with a representative in congress), legislative (a constituency with a representative in state legislature), federal judicial (an area where the federal court has jurisdiction), and special purpose districts (which include public school districts, hospital districts, port districts and other specialized districts). As of late however, non-governmental districts have been cropping up – these, unlike the aforementioned types of districts, are part of a parent city as opposed to being part of an area that could consist of an entire city or several places from different cities. Examples of districts such as this include historical districts. At best, districts could be incredibly fluid because they’re influenced by the development of their areas (physically, culturally or politically), and a good rule of thumb in terms of identifying them would be to pay attention to current events.

Going back to taxation: much of the local government taxation is limited to property taxes – that is to say, taxes levied on land and real estate owned or rented within the territory of these municipals, civil townships, counties and districts – and other low-hassle taxes. In the case of special-purpose districts, for example – these districts provide special services to individuals residing in their territory; as such, they not only charge property taxes to the locals, but also excise taxes and sales taxes. These taxes levied by the local government are, of course, paid ON TOP of the taxes that are levied by the Federal Government.

With all the taxes being levied on the people, it is quite understandable why there are so many people who protest it. After all, if one really thinks about it, a really big chunk of a taxpayer’s earnings (and we’re all taxpayers if we really think about it, since some of the products and services we consume are, in fact, taxed) go to the government. This is especially true if the taxpayer in question has to pay not only for the local government taxes, but the federal and state taxes as well – according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, these particular individuals, if they happen to be ordinary working class citizens, would have to give up forty percent of their income. In fact, the Tax Foundation was also known to have determined that “government at all levels takes thirty-two point seven percent of the nation’s income”. That percentage would be roughly four months worth of work from the individual, and the sad part is that this does not yet include the various excise taxes that they pay when they buy taxed goods.

This, of course, seems rather unfair, and there are reasons why it certainly does seem that way. For one thing, there is little tangible evidence of this supposed national budget being used for the collective good of the American people. For another, more and more of the political constituents look like they’re spending at least some of the taxpayer’s money in what looks to be frivolous (even dangerous) endeavors that would only make them look good to voters and foreign dignitaries. But taxation is a two-way street: we as a people have a hand in how taxes will evolve. The more people pay their taxes (because we have to admit that there are lots of tax evaders out there), the more likely that the tax rates in all levels of government would shrink. The masses, once truly united in voicing their concern over the tax expenses, may be able to steer the government towards a fairer tax system.