May

5

Problems with Missouri tax structure

May 5, 2008 |

Show Me Progress has an interested post on the sad state of Missouri’s tax structure, where the wealthiest citizens have a lower tax rate than the everyone else and the poorest have the highest tax rate. But it’s not all income tax, a big chunk of the imbalance is in propety tax and sales tax.

Even though sales taxes are regressive by nature (meaning they impact the poorest the most), they are increasingly popular.  Politicians seem to see new sales taxes as an easier sell than raising property or income taxes.  In Kansas City, sales pays for everything from streets and bridges to buses and someday light rail. With the total sales tax approaching 8%, just imagine how high it would be without the earnings tax.


Comments

1 Comment so far

  1. locomotivebreath1901 on May 14, 2008 6:41 pm

    I’m no tax expert, but I disagree with SMP’s stats on the tax percentages.

    Not sure how he/she/it crunched those figures & rates, but it doesn’t add up to my experience with paying Jeff City’s DOR.

    That being said, if there is a complaint about class/income taxation disparity, the only obvious solution is to implement a ~flat tax~ on ALL citizens at ALL levels of gub’mint.

    If equality is to mean anything, then let it begin with how the gub’mint taxes its citizens - a flat tax - everyone equal - everyone the same. It is the only truly equitable & fair solution for ALL citizens.

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