Which Is Higher, Your Food Bill or Your Tax Bill?

How high is your tax bill? Would you say you spend more on taxes than you do on food? What about clothing and shelter; do you spend more on them than you do on your taxes? The answer might surprise you. That’s because in actuality you probably spend more on your taxes every year than you spend on all three of those things combined. That’s according to the Tax Foundation, which claims that Americans pays more in taxes every year than they do for essential necessities.

According to the Tax Foundation, Americans will pay $4.85 trillion in taxes in the year 2015 between federal and state taxes. That is approximately 31 percent of the country’s total income. Meanwhile, based on data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis the Tax Foundation estimates that the country will spend about $4.3 trillion in 2015 for basic necessities such as food, clothing and housing.

So do these numbers represent a real issue for the country and its citizens? That depends on how you look it. On the down side, the difference between spending on the basic essentials and taxes is getting worse. Whereas in 2012, the difference was about $150 billion, in 2015 it will likely be about $550 billion. That’s not a good sign. However, the Tax Foundation does not decipher spending between the different classes, so the number could be somewhat misleading.

In any case, there is no question that Americans are paying a hefty tax bill every year and the numbers would appear to indicate that that tax bill is only going to continue to rise. If you are interested in learning more about keeping your tax bill as low as possible, then contact us at GROCO today at 1-877-CPA-2006, or click here.

Posted in

Lawmakers Vote To Make Three Tax Provisions for Businesses Permanent

Late last year lawmakers in Washington extended a bill that made three important tax provisions for businesses valid through December 31, 2014. That means those provisions were good for last year’s taxes, but expired when the clock struck midnight on January 1, 2015. The extension was welcome news last year for many businesses. Now there…

It’s Time for a Tax Scam Refresher Course

Despite repeated warnings from the media and the IRS alike, thousands of people are conned out of money every tax season by scammers. Make sure you’re not one of them. Here is a list of some of the most common scams the IRS sees this time of year. The list is not all-inclusive, as scammers…

Believe it or Not, So Far the IRS Is Refunding More Money This Year

It’s a rarity that anyone ever has anything good to say about the IRS; just as it’s a rarity that the federal tax agency has good news for taxpayers. However, according to recent reports, the IRS does have some very good news to share in regards to tax returns so far in 2015. While earlier…

IRS Guilty of Questionable Hiring and Rehiring Practices

How confident are you that the IRS is going to handle your tax return properly? Even if you’ve already filed, this latest news could affect you. According to new reports, the IRS apparently used some questionable hiring practices as it prepared to begin reviewing the roughly 150 million individual tax returns it expected to receive…