Civics_Ch8_web-taxes


 * Your tax dollars and you**


 * Below is a picture of what is to be spent this year. If all stays the same this year, once again the government will spend over a trillion dollars more than it brings in. **(13)** Where does most of the federal money come from? **(14)** Where is most of the spending? **(15)** Do you agree with where most of the tax dollars are spend/why or why not?


 * Our state has a budget like the federal government does. Below is a picture of where your tax dollars are spent in your state. **(16)** Where is the money spent in PA? **(17)** When the state needed to cut spending since the state was spending more than it brought in, education was an area where there were cuts and citizens involved with schools protested. Do you agree with the state making some spending cuts to education based on the chart below/why or why not?


 * Look at the information below and you can see that half of the American citizens don't have to pay income tax. **(18)**With this information, do you think those who make more money are already paying their fair share in taxes or should those who earn a lot of money due to hard work pay more in taxes? Explain.
 * **The top 1 percent: ** Americans who earned an adjusted gross income of $410,096 or more accounted for 22.8 percent of all wages. But they paid 40.4 percent of total reported income taxes, an increase from 39.9 percent in 2006, according to the IRS.
 * **The top 5 percent: ** Americans who earned $160,041 or more accounted for 37.4 percent of all wages in 2007. But they paid 60.6 percent of the country's total reported income taxes, up from 60.1 percent a year earlier.
 * **The top 10 percent: ** Americans who earned at least $113,018 paid 71.2 percent of the nation's income taxes, up from 70.8 percent a year earlier.
 * **The top 25 percent: ** Americans who earned at least $66,532 paid 86.6 percent of the nation's income taxes, up from 86.3 percent a year earlier.
 * **The top 50 percent: ** Americans who earned at least $32,879 paid 97.1 percent of the nation's income taxes, up from 97 percent a year earlier.
 * **The bottom 50 percent: ** Americans who earned less than $32,879 paid 2.9 percent of the nation's income taxes, down from 3 percent a year earlier.

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