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Economics
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When workers earn income, they and their employer pay equal portions of FICA (the Federal Insurance Contributions Act). Which statement is TRUE?

a. The worker bears almost all of the burden of the tax.

b. It's impossible to determine who bears the burden of the tax.

c. The employer bears almost all of the burden of the tax.

d. The worker and the employer each bear half of the burden (incidence) of the tax.

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Related questions

1) Which of the following explains the distribution of income?

Select one:

a. a positive externality

b. The person on which the final burden of a tax falls

c. An unintended result of taxation

d. The way that income is allocated to individuals, families, and other groups

2)Why can suppliers of goods can more easily shift the incidence of a tax to the consumer if the demand of the good is inelastic?

Select one:

a. Because markets that sell inelastic goods have so much competition, that a tax increase would not be noticed.

b. Because the tax would make marginal utility equal marginal benefit.

c. When taxes are levied, companies legally have to increase their prices.

d. Because the consumer needs the good regardless of the new price.

3)Where is the power to issue taxes granted to the federal government?

Select one:

a. The sixteenth amendment to the constitution

b. The bill or rights

c. The 20th amendment to the constitution

d. The declaration of independence

4)

What are intergovernmental revenues generally used to do?

Select one:

a. Sanitation workers’ benefits

b. To create national parks

c. Educate and provide public welfare

d. Provide public transportation for all state employees

5)

One of the noted advantages of a flat tax is

Select one:

a. all members of congress generally agree with issuing a flat tax

b. The flat tax offers a relatively simple tax process

c. There is a defined and agreed upon tax rate already in place.

d. The flat tax removes behavior incentives that are built into the tax code

6) Which of the following is TRUE regarding the “incidence of a tax”.

Select one:

a. This is a tax paid by all people to establish social security payments

b. This refers to the individual(s) who take the final burden of the tax

c. This is a loophole designed to help the rich

d. This is a tax on individuals who run oligopolies

7)

Person “A” earns $10,000 a year and pays 10% of his income in taxes. Person “B” earns $60,000 a year and pays 20% in taxes. Which kind of tax is being represented?

Select one:

a. A regressive tax

b. A progressive tax

c. A loophole tax

d. A flat tax

46. In a proportional income tax system,

marginal tax rates increase as the level of taxable income increases.

marginal tax rates are the same regardless of the level of taxable income.

everyone pays the same dollar amount in taxes.

marginal tax rates decline as the level of taxable income declines.

47 A tax system that applies a lower marginal tax rate at higher levels of income is

backward.

regressive.

progressive.

proportional.

48 The average tax rate can be calculated by which of the following formulas?

The change in taxes due divided by the change in taxable income

The change in taxable income divided by the change in taxes due

Total taxable income divided by total taxes due

Total taxes due divided by total taxable income

49 Under a progressive income tax system, the marginal income tax rate paid by taxpayers

declines as their incomes increase

. is unrelated to their incomes.

rises as their incomes increase.

is unchanged as their incomes increase.

50 The tax base is the minimum amount of tax revenue that government must collect each year.

the maximum amount of tax revenue that government must collect each year.

the sum of all incomes earned in the United States.

the value of all goods, services, incomes, or wealth subject to taxation.

51 A capital gain is defined as the tax paid when one sells an asset.

the tax rate one pays when one moves into a higher tax bracket.

an unanticipated increase in income.

the positive difference between the sale price and the purchase price of an asset.

52 Corporate profits are

taxed twiceonce by the corporate tax system, and again by personal tax system when they are paid to stockholders as dividends.

taxed only when a stockholder sells his or her shares of stock.

taxed at too low a rate.

taxed three timesonce by the corporate tax system, again by the personal tax system, and again as capital gains.

53 Social Security taxes are regressive because

they apply only to rich people.

they are not applied to income beyond a certain amount.

they are applied to welfare recipients.

they are applied to retired people only.

54 The largest share of federal government tax receipts is derived from

excise taxes.

individual income taxes.

corporate income taxes.

social insurance contributions.

55 Local government expenditures depend on which taxes?

Social Security taxes

Local property, sales, and excise taxes

Capital gains taxes

Revenues from licenses and permits

56 When the purchase price of an asset is less than its sale price, then there is a

budget deficit.

corporate income tax.

capital gain.

capital loss.

57 The earnings that a corporation saves for investment in other productive activities are

transfers in kind. c

apital gains.

tax incidence.

retained earnings.

58 Tax incidence refers to

determining who sends the taxes into the government.

the distribution of tax burdens among groups, or who really pays a tax.

the tendency of some people to avoid paying taxes at all.

determining the marginal tax rate applied to any increase in income.

59 Social Security taxes are paid by

neither employers nor employees

both employers and employees.

employers only.

employees only.

Dems, GOP talk up deficit reduction, but don't act

WASHINGTON (AP) — Liberals' loud objections to White House proposals for slowing the growth of huge social programs make it clear that neither political party puts a high priority on reducing the deficit, despite much talk to the contrary.

For years, House Republicans have adamantly refused to raise income taxes, even though U.S. taxes are historically low, and the Bush-era tax cuts were a major cause of the current deficit.

And now, top Democrats are staunchly opposing changes to Medicare and Social Security benefits, despite studies showing the programs' financial paths are unsustainable.

Unless something gives, it's hard to see what will produce the significant compromises needed to tame the federal debt, which is nearing $17 trillion.

"There's not much of an appetite for deficit reduction," said Bob Bixby of the Concord Coalition, which pushes for "responsible fiscal policy."

There might be a few small steps this year, he said, when the government again needs to raise its borrowing limit. But a "grand bargain" involving significant spending cuts and revenue increases seems unlikely, Bixby said.

He added, "It's a little depressing to hear the reactions to the president's budget, from both sides."

There was nothing surprising about Republican denunciations of Obama's proposed tax increases, which he wants to combine with spending cuts to reduce the deficit.

The newer wrinkle was the left's sharp criticism of his proposals to slow the growth in Medicare and Social Security benefits, provided Republicans agree to new revenues. Obama has offered Republicans such a deal before. But this month's budget proposal gave it a new imprimatur.

The group MoveOn.org said Wednesday that supporters "who are outraged at President Obama's proposal to cut Social Security benefits will protest and deliver petitions" this week.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a liberal independent from Vermont, is leading a similar petition drive, opposing "any benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid." The deficit, his letter says, "was primarily caused during the Bush years by two unpaid-for wars, huge tax breaks for the rich and a prescription drug program" for Medicare, funded through borrowing. He suggests that higher taxes on the wealthy are the fairest way to tackle the deficit.

Democrats cite several reasons to raise taxes on high-income households. Obama campaigned for such tax increases in 2008 and 2012 but accomplished them only partially with the "fiscal cliff" resolution of Jan. 1.

Major tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 played big roles in turning a federal budget surplus into soaring deficits, according to research by the Congressional Budget Office and others. And by many measures, the U.S. tax burden in near historic lows.

Households earning roughly the national median income paid, on average, 11.1 percent of their income in total federal taxes in 2009, the most recent year for such data. That's the lowest level in more than 30 years, the CBO says.

Nonetheless, House Republicans have placed their highest priority on refusing to raise income tax rates, effectively ranking it above all other goals.

"The president got his tax hikes on Jan. 1," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is fond of saying. It's a reference to the $620 billion in new revenues, over 10 years, that Republicans were unable to stop because of the "fiscal cliff" law, resolved on New Year's Day.

If it's easy to make a case for higher revenues, the same is true for slowing the growth of Social Security and Medicare benefits. For decades, studies have warned of approaching trouble in these popular but costly programs, as health care costs rise and baby boomers begin to retire.

"Both Medicare and Social Security cannot sustain projected long-run program costs under currently scheduled financing, and legislative modifications are necessary to avoid disruptive consequences for beneficiaries and taxpayers," the Social Security Administration says, summarizing findings by the two programs' trustees.

"The early detection light has been going on for a while, and there has been a failure to act," Social Security trustee Charles P. Blahous recently told a House panel. If lawmakers are to preserve the programs for future retirees, he said, they will have to accept much more "political pain" than officials endured during a 1983 overhaul that included "several extremely controversial measures."

Obama has proposed an often-discussed step, which deals with government accounting in general, not just entitlement programs. If Congress agrees to higher tax revenues, the president said, he would back a slower growth calculation for cost-of-living increases for Social Security benefits, plus higher Medicare premiums for higher-income seniors.

Interest groups have criticized both ideas. AARP calls the slower cost-of-living formula a "harmful change," and urges seniors to oppose it.

American voters can largely blame themselves when Congress is more talk than action on deficit reduction. Americans routinely say they want a smaller federal debt, but not at the cost of programs they hold dear — including Social Security and Medicare.

A CBS News poll in March found that most Americans want to cut spending and raise taxes to reduce the deficit. But 4 in 5 oppose cuts to Social Security or Medicare. And two-thirds are unwilling to have their own taxes raised in the name of deficit reduction.

When Pew Research asked which was more important — reducing the national debt or keeping Social Security and Medicare benefits as they are now — the public sided with safeguarding the benefits programs, 53 percent to 36 percent.

The deficit-spending partisanship continued Wednesday. On a party-line vote, House Ways and Means Committee Republicans passed a bill to protect Social Security recipients and investors in Treasury bonds if the government hits its borrowing limit and can't pay all its bills later this year. Democrats say if the federal government starts reneging on any obligations — even if it pays bondholders — financial markets will lose faith and the economy will tank.

Some Democrats fear a lose-lose situation if they support Obama's proposals. First, they could be attacked from the left for tweaking the programs that many Democrats see as their party's greatest legacy. And second, Republicans might accuse them of "raiding Medicare" in next year's congressional elections. That battle cry proved effective in 2010 after Obama's health care overhaul bill was passed.

Democrats call such tactics shamelessly hypocritical. Republicans, they note, have long called for reining in entitlement spending.

Boehner rebuked a top GOP campaign figure for hinting at a renewal of the "raiding Medicare" attacks. But Reince Priebus, the national Republican Party chairman, seemed eager to revive the question of whether Democratic trims to Medicare's costs amount to an unfair cut in benefits.

9. Read the AP article “Dems, GOP talk up deficit reduction, but don't act (Links to an external site.)” by C. Babington (Apr25’13).

a. What are the two basic ways of shrinking a budget deficit?

b. Which of your answers above are Republicans vehemently against? What are the potential negative economic effects of implementing this basic policy?

c. Which of your answers above are Democrats strongly opposed to? What are the potential negative economic effects of implementing this basic policy?

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