When it comes to taxes normally we are just interested in how it affects us on an individual basis. Basically we want to know what we owe the tax department at the end of the year, get it paid, and move onto the next year. For some though it means maybe getting a bit back by way of a tax refund.
Whenever there is a tax hike we are always led to believe it’s because there is just not enough money in the country’s tax account to cover the expenses it incurs. We have no other choice but to accept this explanation.
Every year there are always statistics that pop up that if we take the time to really look at could give us some interesting information that may change your thinking about taxes. These figures are usually a year behind the current tax filing year, so let’s take a look at some of the 2012 stats.
No doubt you will find variations in the statistics that appear on the internet because they come from different sources, so what we refer to them here it is in general.
There are around 25.5 million people who file tax returns every year, and it’s said that there is about $120 billion dollars brought in through personal income tax. Close to 255,000 of the tax payers are in the top 1% of income earners but even so they only make up for about 21% of the total taxes collected. It should also be realized that this group is the higher tax payers because a lot of the money they have to pay taxes on is at the top rates.
Another interesting point is just how much money really gets donated to charity that shows up in the tax stats as well. It is indicated that in the 2012 stats it amounted to about $8.3 billion and the average claim was around $1,437. Manitoba has a higher average but they have gained the reputation as being generous donators to charities.
Tax is always a personalized thing and knowing this we often don’t look at the tax of the country on the whole as we just have done here. Of course it doesn’t make having to pay taxes any easier, but at least it’s comforting to know that everyone else has tax obligations as well. Really without the payment of taxes there are a ton of services that we enjoy that we simply would not have without this money to rely on.
