As provable as any number is, it all ultimately derives from government statistics on GDP, the Federal Budget & Treasury/IRS reports of total government revenues.
Something abit easier to understand, placed in terms of gross income (which most people relate to), instead of consumption expenditure & takehome pay:
According to the Tax Foundation, in 2001 the tax burdent on the average American was 23.6% of his or her income in federal taxes, plus 10.2% in state and local taxes = 33.8% total.
Unfortunately that is just the beginning, The burden of government in this nation is much more than the federal revenue collected each year.
Dr. James Payne of the University of California, Reason Magazine '94; found that in addition to direct taxes we also pay huge, hidden taxes including:
- Tax compliance costs: record keeping, reporting, filling out forms, and learning about tax regulations.
- Costs of tax enforcement: resources expended in responding to the tax authority. Each act of tax enforcement--each audit, each notice, each levy--entails a burden for the citizen subject to it.
- Tax disincentive costs: the loss of production because of the discouraging effect of taxes on investment and labor.
"When the overhead costs are added together, (24 percent compliance costs, 33 percent disincentive costs, and 8 percent other costs), they total 65 percent of tax revenue."
And even that figure doesn't include the cost of import duties, license fees and other government regulations. For a typical U.S. family, the real cost of taxes and regulations as a percent of gross income is at least:
Federal taxes 23.6%(taxfoundation)
State & local taxes 10.2%(taxfoundation)
Overhead costs 21.9%(James L. Payne)
Regulatory costs 13.0%(M.W. Hodges)
More than 68% of one's income is now consumed by government through tax collections, tax compliance overhead & regulation.
EBUCK