Government’s take is even higher than that
Re: “Taxes soar for Washington region’s residents,” April 15
David Sherfinski’s article about taxes was egregiously erroneous. My real estate tax bill is higher than those listed, and I am unemployed with an average house. Even if he only meant to include income taxes, the numbers are still too low. The national average income multiplied by the average tax bracket would yield numbers larger than Sherfinski reports.
Clearly he has omitted critical assumptions and information that is needed to correctly understand his claims.
In order to get a fair comparison, in addition to federal and state income taxes, one must include all the county real estate and personal property taxes, as well as all the sales taxes, excise taxes, estate taxes, luxury taxes, licenses, fees, penalties, and other revenue-producing sources such as traffic cams, yada yada.
When those are included, the total tax burden is several times higher than Sherfinksi claims. Without computing the total tax burden, ranking the states is meaningless. Some states with no income tax get their money through other taxes, so their total take is similar.
Doesn’t matter how they tax you, the government still takes way too much.
William Adams
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