美国国家公共电台 NPR We Asked People What They Know About Taxes. See If You Know The Answers

 

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

Tomorrow is the deadline for filing your taxes. And this year, NPR wanted to find out how much people actually know about the tax system. We partnered with the Ipsos polling company and asked a set of questions about things like who is taxed and how much. And we found out there is a lot of misinformation out there.

To clear some of this up, we're joined by NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben as well as Chris Jackson of Ipsos. They both worked on this poll. Hi to both of you.

CHRIS JACKSON: Good afternoon.

DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE¹: Hello.

MCEVERS: So, Chris, tell us quickly who was polled here.

JACKSON: This was a survey of 1,010 American adults. That is people age 18 and older, means they can pay taxes. And it is meant to be a representative survey of the American people.

MCEVERS: And, Danielle, what struck you in the survey?

KURTZLEBEN: Well, like you said in the introduction there, people do have some misconceptions about the U.S. tax code. And one big misconception that struck me was about the share of Americans who pay zero or negative income taxes.

Now, right now, around 45 percent of U.S. households pay zero or negative federal income taxes. Now, this survey showed that Americans think that number is a lot lower. A lot of people guessed 11 percent. A lot of others guessed 27 percent, so much lower than 45.

MCEVERS: Who are the people in that 45 percent who aren't paying federal income tax?

KURTZLEBEN: Right, that's a good question. And it is a mix of people, right? I mean, you have some people who are retirees. You know, they're not working, so they're not taking in enough money to really pay, you know, income taxes. But you also have the working poor.

These are people who are, you know, earning a paycheck, meaning a lot of these people are paying other taxes - a payroll² tax, sales tax, et cetera, whatever taxes might apply to them. But those working poor, they are helped by things like the Earned Income Tax Credit. After tax season every year, a lot of those people get money back. So that's where the negative income taxes come in.

MCEVERS: And, Chris, how about people on the other end of the spectrum³? What did this survey tell us about how much Americans think that the wealthy should pay?

JACKSON: Well, Americans think that the wealthy should be paying more to have a simple answer. But it's a little more complicated than that because people see themselves as paying too much income taxes. Doesn't really matter what level you are, you feel like you're paying too much. It's only when you're thinking about someone who has more than you that you see that.

And the reality is when you're talking about millionaires, people who have more than a million dollars in household income, most people don't have that much money so most people are saying those people should be paying more in income taxes.

MCEVERS: There was also a question in your survey at how important a source of revenue personal income tax is to the federal government. What did you find there?

JACKSON: Yeah. The - a majority of Americans think that federal income taxes are important. They understand that taxes are important. They don't necessarily think things like we should cut taxes even if it causes the deficit⁴ to go up. But the reality is people are sort of confused about what the tax code means. And that's one of the key takeaways, I think, from this study.

MCEVERS: And, Danielle, Congress is going to come back in two weeks. And there's some talk that they will look at changing the tax code. What could these survey results tell them?

KURTZLEBEN: So the big point here is that Americans are, first off, not ambivalent⁵ at all of how the tax code. Americans think the tax code is too complicated. They think that they personally are paying too much in income tax. Which means if you are a lawmaker coming back to Washington in a couple of weeks, you can think to yourself pretty reliably, oh, the people in my district, there's probably a lot of them who really want the tax code changed, right?

But the question is what kind of changes those people want. Now, there are some pretty firmly-held partisan⁶ views and pretty unsurprising, at that. For example, Democrats⁷ were more likely to say that taxes should be raised on the very richest, Republicans a bit less so. Likewise, a majority of Americans said they think taxes are too high on the poorest. But once again, Democrats were more likely than Republicans to say that.

But there's one important point here. Views on the tax code are not necessarily partisan across the board. For example, a majority of Democrats, Republicans and independents said that they think income from work should be taxed at a lower rate than income from wealth.

MCEVERS: And, Chris, any advice you could give to lawmakers who want to change the tax code?

JACKSON: Yeah. I think it's one of those things where, like Danielle said, it's easy to have a broad brush stroke and people will, generally speaking, be behind you. But it's one of those areas that it really depends on what you're saying.

Republicans will take the numbers that the majority thinks taxes should be lower for them. Democrats will take the number saying that they want the wealthy to pay more in taxes. And both are true. Both are real because Americans don't understand the tax code.

MCEVERS: That's Chris Jackson, vice⁸ president of Ipsos Public Affairs and NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Thanks to both of you.

JACKSON: Thank you.

KURTZLEBEN: Thank you.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 payroll   

n.工资表，在职人员名单，工薪总额

参考例句：

• His yearly payroll is $1.2 million.他的年薪是120万美元。
• I can't wait to get my payroll check.我真等不及拿到我的工资单了。

3 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

4 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

5 ambivalent   

adj.含糊不定的；(态度等)矛盾的

参考例句：

• She remained ambivalent about her marriage.她对于自己的婚事仍然拿不定主意。
• Although she professed fear of the Russians,she seemed to have ambivalent feelings toward Philby himself.虽然她承认害怕俄国人，然而她似乎对菲尔比本人有一种矛盾的感情。

6 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。

7 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。