Index IntroductionBody Tax Fairness in Rich and PoorCounterargumentsConclusionReferencesIntroductionEvery government imposes taxes on its citizens directly or indirectly. These taxes are in the form of levies such as income, property, and capital gains taxes, which are involuntarily imposed on a country's citizens. Many governments tend to impose excessive taxes on their citizens, but provide basic services that are not very beneficial to the citizens. This leaves many citizens feeling like they are being extorted by the very government that is sworn to protect them. However, this is not the same case in all governments as there are some government systems that try to be fair to their citizens and provide affordable services. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Body The argument of this article is that both the poor and the rich should be taxed equally. In my opinion, the rich should not be taxed more. The main question in taxation is what matters for fair taxation. Several arguments have been put forward to try to find the best solution as to who should pay taxes and what criteria should be used to determine what should be paid. Since we have two groups in society, the poor and the rich, it is always difficult to find a balance between them on tax related issues. Whether the rich should pay more taxes than the poor or whether the two groups should pay the same amount of taxes. “Some believe that fairness requires taxing the rich to help the poor, while others believe it is unfair to tax money that people have earned through their own efforts” (Sandel, 2009). Theoretically in many tax systems the more you earn the more you are taxed. This brings a feeling of excessive taxation for people who earn more. However, those with lower incomes are always comfortable with taxation as less is taken out of them. So, in addressing tax inequality, it is quite difficult to find common ground as one's financial situation seems to determine a person's opinion on the case. According to research conducted by the Pew Research Center, many governments have been faced with opinions on taxation: lower taxes for the rich and encourage economic development or raise taxes for the rich and support programs for the poor. I believe it is not right to excessively tax the rich because the government should find other ways to support the poor. Tax Fairness in the Rich and the Poor The rich should be allowed to enjoy every penny they earn without being extorted with taxes. What is earned should not be overtaxed and redistributed into society to support the poor (Herings & Predtetchinski, 2011). This will introduce hard work into every citizen and make the lazy understand that the only way to succeed is through hard work and not depending on the government. Despite the fact that a flat tax may appear to improve equity by requiring all taxpayers to pay taxes at the same rate the flat tax still takes more from the highest income earners. Some tax rates are already too high, so there is no need to increase the tax rate on the rich because unreasonably high tax rates for the rich are bad for any economy. According to (Vitelli, 2019), “Before the corporate tax cut, other countries had a competitive advantage over the United States when trying to attract businesses.” This is because too many taxes reduce business morale. SomeSome reasons why the rich shouldn't be taxed more are: most of the government hasn't used its tax resources as best as possible, and citizens don't really know what exactly the government is doing with their taxes. There may be a waste of taxpayers' money on unnecessary government spending, so there is no need to raise taxes if in reality the government is not using taxpayers' money in a useful way. Furthermore, higher taxes slow down economic growth as citizens desire to be taxed according to their ability, higher tax rates are seen as a failure leading to economic stagnation. Reducing taxes improves revenue because when tax rates are reduced people tend to invest more without fear, which increases overall revenue. On the other hand, increasing taxes causes investors to change their spending in order to avoid or reduce tax payments, thus this decreases revenue. Furthermore, higher taxes reduce the money supply, which leads to lower investment and, consequently, job losses and unemployment. This pushes the economy down and the government can't even generate enough revenue to support its population. Counterarguments However, not everyone is of the opinion that the rich should not be taxed more. Opponents of this argument argue that the rich should pay more taxes. This will help the government raise enough funds to provide services such as security, housing, education and healthcare, which everyone needs. Most governments rely heavily on taxes, and if people push for low tax rates even for the rich, the government will not be able to help citizens who need it. Therefore, it makes sense to tax the rich more since they have such a large share in the economy. This section will explore some of their arguments for why the rich should be taxed more. Economically, it makes sense to tax the rich more since the government is able to support the poor, increase the country's security, and initiate development projects that ultimately serve all of its people. This makes sense because when the rich are taxed more the government will be able to develop the country and help the poor with their daily needs. Another way to redistribute this wealth is to provide a tax cut for the middle class. Based on the work of Vitelli (2019), “tax increases often do not have the desired effect of increasing revenue” (Vitelli, 2019). When a tax increase is imposed on the rich, it does not affect them negatively since most of their income goes into savings. Furthermore, “some philosophers who tax the rich to help the poor reason in the name of utility; According to them, taking one hundred dollars from a rich person and giving it to a poor person will only slightly decrease the rich person's happiness, but will greatly increase the poor person's happiness” (Sandel, 2009). Even if high taxes don't affect them, it's not right to raise them. According to Goodman (2011), “taxing the rich can also be justified on moral grounds if it is used as a form of wealth redistribution”. In general, the rich have too much and it would seem quite fair to take more from them in terms of taxation. The wealth of some of the richest people in America can equal the wealth of thousands of poor people. This shows that the rich should be taxed more as they have a lot of money to support all classes and also help the country develop. Even if high tax rates are imposed on the super-rich, they will still be fine. Some billionaires are willing to be taxed more.
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