I recently posted about how much people care about corporate taxes—as far as feeling upset about their perceived unfairness, the answer is a lot. There are a lot of different types of taxes people pay. Which do people worry the most about? One small piece of interesting evidence that could address this is which tax people seem to try to learn the most about via Google:
Across property, income, sales, payroll*, and estate tax, income and sales are the most searched for tax. Which is the tax that most people pay the most money in? Individual income taxes raise the most money at the federal level, and sales taxes are very important at the state level. But, the second biggest source of revenue for the federal government, the payroll tax, is the least worried about (searched for) tax.
Why don’t people worry about such an important tax? Perhaps because it is, in many cases, unavoidable (unless you are Joe Biden, John Edwards or Newt Gingrich). It may also be because the salience of the payroll tax is low—it is quietly withheld, every paycheck, without you having to do anything. However, I was surprised to see so few people interested in learning more about their payroll taxes, which for many people, is by far the largest tax they pay to the federal government.
It is this disinterest in payroll taxes, which often fly under the radar, that gets folks like Dick Armey upset. He said that the governments automatically withholding taxes from paychecks, as we do with payroll taxes, is “the crucial, deceptive device that has made big government possible.” Further, he noted “Only by taking people’s money before they ever see it” he said, “has the government been able to raise taxes to their current height without sparking a revolt.” (quote from Slemrod and Smart).
*Yes, you can search for FICA, FUTA, etc., but all are pretty low volume. People just don’t seem to think about it.
