Americans often say that there are only two things a person can be sure of in life: death and taxes. Americans do not have a corner on the "death" market, but many people feel that the United States leads the world with the worst taxes.

    Taxes consist of the money which people pay to support their government. There are generally three levels of government in the United States: federal, state, and city; therefore, there are three types of taxes.

    Salaried people who earn more than a few thousand dollars must pay a certain percentage of their salaries to the federal government. The percentage varies from person to person. It depends on their salaries. The federal government has a graduated income tax, that is, the percentage of the tax (14 to 70 percent) increases as a person's income increases. With the high cost of taxes, people are not very happy on April 15, when the federal taxes are due.

    The second tax is for the state government: New York, California, North Dakota, or any of the other forty-seven states. Some states have an income tax similar to that of the federal government. Of course, the percentage for the state tax is lower. Other states have a sales tax, which is a percentage charged to any item which you buy in that state. For example, a person might want to buy a packet of cigarettes for twenty-five cents. If there is a sales tax of eight percent is that state, when the cost of the cigarettes is twenty-seven cents. This figure includes the sales tax. Some states use income tax in addition to sales tax to raise their revenues. They state tax laws are diverse and confusing.

    The third tax is for the city. This tax comes in two forms: property tax (people who own a home have to pay taxes on it) and excise tax, which is charged on cars in a city. The cities use these funds for education, police and fire departments, public words and municipal buildings.

    Since Americans pay such high taxes, they often feel that they are wording one day each week just to pay their taxes. People always complain about taxes. They often protest that the government uses their tax dollars in the wrong way. They way that it spends too much on useless and impractical programs. Although Americans have different views on many issues, they tend to agree on one subject: taxes are too high.
     
    美國(guó)人常說(shuō)凡是一個(gè)人一生中有兩件事是肯定的：一是必有一死，一是必須納稅。雖然美國(guó)人并沒(méi)有壟斷了世界"死亡殯葬業(yè)"的市場(chǎng)，但是美國(guó)確以最苛重的賦稅在世界上獨(dú)占鰲頭。

    稅就是人民為了支持政府工作所交納的錢(qián)。在美國(guó)大體上有三級(jí)政府：聯(lián)邦政府、州政府和市政府。因此，征稅也有三種。

    凡是年薪收在兩三千美元以上的人，必須按年薪的一定百分比向聯(lián)邦政府納稅。這百分比的多少，人與人是不同的。這取決于年薪大小。聯(lián)邦政府征收累進(jìn)所得稅，也就是說(shuō)，隨著個(gè)人收的增長(zhǎng)，征稅的百分比率（百分之十到百分之七十）也在增長(zhǎng)。由于征稅數(shù)額高，在聯(lián)邦政府收稅日，即在四月十五日，那人們心情都不愉快。

    第二級(jí)征稅的機(jī)構(gòu)是州政府：紐約州，加里福尼亞州，北達(dá)科他州或另外的四十七個(gè)州。有些州征收所得稅，這跟聯(lián)邦政府征的所得稅類(lèi)似。還有些州征收銷(xiāo)售稅，這按你在該州所購(gòu)買(mǎi)的任何一件物品的價(jià)格的一定的百分比率來(lái)征收。例如，某人想買(mǎi)25美分一包的紙煙，如果該州的銷(xiāo)售稅征收率是物價(jià)的百分之八，那么這包紙煙的實(shí)價(jià)就是27美分，這個(gè)數(shù)字里面就包括了銷(xiāo)售稅。有些州除了征收所得稅，還要加征銷(xiāo)售稅，以提高州政府的每年的收入。各州的銷(xiāo)售稅法顯然是很不相同的，也很混亂。

    第三級(jí)征稅的機(jī)構(gòu)是市政府。市政府征收的有兩種稅：財(cái)產(chǎn)稅（凡擁有房產(chǎn)的人必須交納財(cái)產(chǎn)稅）和消費(fèi)稅（這是對(duì)市內(nèi)行馳的小汽車(chē)征的稅）。這些稅收資金用于教育、警察、消防等部門(mén)及公共設(shè)施和市政建設(shè)。

    由于美國(guó)人都要交納數(shù)額很高的各種稅款，所以他們都常常認(rèn)為每周必須有一天資是為了納稅去工作。人們老是抱怨這些稅收。他們經(jīng)常抗議說(shuō)，政府對(duì)他們交納的稅金使用不當(dāng)。雖然美國(guó)人民在許多問(wèn)題上持不同觀點(diǎn)，但是在這個(gè)話(huà)題上卻傾向一致：賦稅太重了。