Income Taxes - article about Income Taxes

There are many things in our country that seem strange for someone that has recently moved here. A young woman that I supervised for her social work internship recently became engaged to a young man from Scotland. After her internship she went to Scotland to work and met the love of her life. They came to visit us when they were in the United States getting visas and filling out forms for citizenships. The young Scott had never been here before so he had many questions.

We live on a large lake about sixty miles from the city where the young woman grew up. When they arrived at our home the young Scott mentioned how vast our country is. He said that if you drove sixty miles in Scotland you would have gone from one end of the country to the other. He asked about our transit and highway systems. We explained that the highways are paid for through property and income taxes in the state that we live in. We also explained that not every state has the same taxing system. Some states have income taxes others do not. We further confused him by telling him that there are also federal income taxes that all workers pay.

He mentioned that he had been doing some shopping since he arrived on his visit. He could not understand why some things had taxes on them and other things did not. We were then trying to explain sales taxes and that some things are taxed and other things are not, but this also varies from state to state. He was amazed that each state sets there own tax system up. He thought it sounded unfair that some workers are required to pay income taxes and others are not. We explained that some states offer better road systems and also have higher costs for road maintenance due to weather conditions. We then talked about how varied the climate is in different areas of the country.

By the end of the visit my husband and I were questioning why we have chosen to live in an area with income taxes, freezing temperatures and no public transportation. We live in the state we were both born in, so we have not experienced not having income taxes and also having the convenience of some type of mass transit. It is amazing how you do not stop to think about the way things work. At the end of the visit my husband told me that he felt he had just given a crash course in American economics.

Let your friends know about this article!

About our articles...

Terms and Conditions Of Site Usage. If you can't see the graphic please visit refresharticles.com/authors-publishers-terms.php

<a href="http://www.refresharticles.com/articles/taxes/income_taxes.txt">Income Taxes</a>