Both payroll taxes and income taxes are based on an employee’s wage or salary. The main difference between each tax is who end up paying the tax. Employers pay most of an employee’s payroll taxes while just the employee pays the income taxes. Both taxes end up coming from employee’s salary. Typically in America, employees end up paying more payroll taxes than they do income taxes. This paper is going to look at the differences between payroll taxes and income taxes and will also explain what “wage shifting” is and when it occurs.
Payroll taxes are taxes that employers and employees pay to the federal government from an employee’s salary. The amount of payroll taxes paid comes from a percentage of the salary that employers pay to their staff.
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At the lowest level of employment such as minimum wage employers must pay a set payroll tax per employee they hire. In order off set this burden on employer, employers attempt to reduce the salaries they pay to their employees. Since employers cannot reduce the amount they pay to employees at the minimum wage level, they end up reducing the number of employees they hire. This is what is known as “wage shifting”. Basically payroll taxes at this level cannot be shifted to minimum wage employees because their wages cannot be lowed to a level that offsets the burden of the tax. This causes a problem for low wage workers in attempting find work because getting hired causes a burden on employers, which they are not willing to pay.
In conclusion, the difference between payroll tax and income tax is the person that ends up paying that tax. Employers pay payroll taxes, while the employee pays income tax. Wage shifting occurs when employers attempt to shift the burden of the payroll tax on to employees. Yet at the minimum wage level employers cannot lower wages any further and as a result they end up hiring less
Filing and payment – Individual income tax on employment income is subject to withholding, payment and reporting by the employer. Payment is due by 25th of the month following the month the income was paid. Income and tax should be reported on a quarterly basis by the 15th of the second month following the reporting quarter.
Whether the government should impose a tax on employers to provide workers with benefits such as unemployment insurance or mandate employers to provide workers with benefits, which are normally benefits such as health insurance or workers compensation will ultimately depend on how much their employees value the benefit. Mandated benefits are those benefits that are protected by federal law. Firms are liable to make these benefits available to their employees and failure to do so will result in severe penalties. Payroll tax is relatively different from mandated benefits for the reason that payroll taxes are imposed on the wage of employees, which are either paid by the workers or the firm. When analyzing to see how successful a mandated
Currently, in the United States, the federal minimum wage has been $7.25 for the past six years; however, in 1938 when it first became a law, it was only $0.25. In the United States the federal minimum wage has been raised 22 times since 1938 by a significant amount due to changes in the economy. Minimum wage was created to help America in poverty and consumer power purchasing, but studies have shown that minimum wage increases do not reduce poverty. By increasing the minimum wage, it “will lift some families out of poverty, while other low-skilled workers may lose their jobs, which reduces their income and drops their families into poverty” (Wilson 4). When increasing minimum wage low-skilled, workers living in poor families,
Taxes are the dollars that we pay to government to supply the services that are not or can not be provided through the free enterprise system. Taxes have been around since the beginning of organized societies. They come in various forms. Most common are income taxes both federal and local government. These taxes are assessed on the amount of income a person earns. Other taxes come in the form of user taxes; these taxes are imposed on the people that are using the goods being taxed, such as gas tax, alcohol tax, sales tax, and luxury taxes. Property taxes make up the major revenues for local and city governments. Furthering the burden of taxation are taxes that are attached to such bills as utility bills and rental expenses.
This paper will take a close look at the concepts of the "flat tax," and look at the possible benefits and potential failings. Although there is a basic format to the flat tax, there are multiple flat tax proposals that have been offered by conservatives. Along with critiquing the basic format of the flat tax, this paper will compare an...
First, raising minimum wage affects the amount of job availability. Many businesses will reduce their amount of employees, because the business will not be able to afford to pay all the employees and still gain profit. As a matter of fact, James Sherk, a Bradley Fellow in Labor Policy, states “Businesses will not hire workers whose labor produces less than the cost of hiring them” (Sherk 2). On the other hand, Holly Sklar, a director of Business for Shared Prosperity, states “Contrary to what critics predicted when the minimum wage was raised, our economy had unusually low unemployment, high growth, low inflation, and declining poverty rates between 1996 and 2000” (Sklar 4). The problem with this statement is Sklar states that inflation was low, which is not the case now. Inflation is rather high, and unemployment is lower than ever. With every minimum wage increase in the past, inflation has also risen. Since minimum wage affe...
Raising the minimum wage would affect employees. Supporters believe that raising minimum wage will improve people’s lives. We live in a consumer society. People who earn more spend more on products and services. As stated by BuzzFlash Headlines, “Higher Minimum Wage Would Create Over 100,000 New Jobs Nationally” (BuzzFlash Headline). Families would be able to use the money they earn to save for important things such as bills. If they wanted to, they could also buy more groceries or appliances. Non-supporters feel that raising the minimum wage will create many job losses. According to Economic Policy Institute, “Across the phase-in period of the increase, GDP would grow by about $22 billion, resulting in the creation of roughly 85,000 net new jobs over that period.”(David Cooper). If a family owned business has to raise the wage rate they pay, it is possible they will not hire as many people as they usually do. Businesses across the nation would be impacted by raising the minimum wage. According to the CNBC, “The great division among businesses and economists over the impact of raising...
Taxation has always been a major controversy. Just like any major corporation, the government is constantly looking to raise revenue. The easiest and fairest way to do this is by taxing the people. However, how the people will be taxed is always an issue.
This is somewhat related to my second reason on why minimum wage should not increase in the United States. Companies are going to raise their prices on their products. They will increase their prices in order to be able to pay all of their employees. That situation will cause the employers extreme anxiety due to money issues. Companies may have to eventually shut down if they are not able to pay their employees like they need to be paid. If the minimum wage increased and businesses/employers have to pay those higher minimum wages (higher salaries/income) to their employees. To offset them having to pay more money to their employees, they offset that extra cost to the customers or consumers generally who shop with them. It creates a ripple effect for a city, county, or region. Prices have been going up without the increase of minimum wage so imagine when if I does happen to go up. Increasing minimum wage will definitely hurt small businesses more than
Raising minimum wage can slow down the use of government help programs such as food stamps and section 8 due to the fact that there wouldn’t be as much use for it since the minimum wage worker now makes more money and can better provide for themselves and his or her family. It puts the employee in a place where they feel as if they can do it on their own and doesn’t have to rely on other people for finical assistance. They feel extremely self-reliant in how much they’re getting paid and with the right amount of hours at work they can make enough to supply for bills, food, and any other important living necessity they might need. Now with making the right amount of money for the right amount of work puts the worker in a less frustrating place and decreases their thoughts on quitting or resigning at the work
The minimum wage being too low has been a public issue in America for generations. Basically, the debate includes two different opinions. Firstly, people who want to raise the minimum wage, and second, people who would rather is stay the same. The overwhelming majority of liberals are on the side that favors a raise. Additionally, a somewhat smaller proportion of conservatives favor the change as well, but for different reasons. The liberal opinion on raising the minimum wage is based on the idea that putting more money in the people’s pockets, will stimulate the economy, and decrease poverty. The problem that conservatives and liberals alike have with this, is that a few direct consequences are proven to apply when raising wages. Some proposed consequences include unemployment, inflation, and unfairness to higher educated people. Another main point is that raising the minimum wage is thought to helps small business by increasing worker satisfaction. This issue of minimum wage has become increasingly popular and important in current times, as president Obama has proposed the idea of raising the minimum wage of contract workers to 10.10$ per hour (about a 30% increase from the current 7.25$ per hour minimum wage). A large number of people consider this wage hike unnecessary due to the fact that today’s value of minimum is higher than it has ever been since the 80’s, and because the wage hike comes at too high of a cost. All things considered, the issue of raising minimum wage is not a battle of political parties and their agendas, its really a debate between everyone.
... it. Another example imagine three competing coffee shops. All three need to make a certain profit margin to stay in business and make their effort worthwhile. Then they all three coffee shops will lower their prices as much as possible while still covering that necessary profit margin. If one of the shop tries to charge more, customers will simply go to the competitor shops. Wages are prices of labor, so the minimum wage is a price control. Like any price control, it has a ripple effect prices of other services and goods have to compensate. When an employer's labor costs go up, he has to lay off workers and/or increase the prices of what he sells.
At the same time, this allows employers to not pay the minimum wage, because they know that illegal and undocumented workers will not sue them nor fight for it. But, this also affects the wage and employment opportunities of U.S citizens. As a matter of fact, paying less than minimum wage for illegal and
The four types of taxes this paper will discuss are income tax, sales tax, property tax, and user fees. Income tax was not permanently established until the 16th Amendment was passed in 1913. Most federal taxes had been previously derived from excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol and other consumer goods. The US Constitution, when written and still continues to, legitimize taxation in the United States through Article I, Section 8, that Congress has the power to lay and collect taxes, duties et al, pay the debts or provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States (Cornell Law LII). Investopedia defines income tax as ‘a tax government(s) impose on financial income generated by all entities within their jurisdictions (Investopedia, 2014). Businesses and individuals are required to file an income tax return every year to determine if they owe taxes or qualify for a refund. That is determined by measuring the total income one earns to a designated tax rate, calculating one’s taxable income, which are some or all items of income reduced by other adjustments or expenses in that tax year. There are different subcategories of income tax; there is a federal income tax that is set by the federal government, apart from a few states, there is a state income tax that is imposed on their respective residents, as well as the possibility of there being local income tax ...
Entin, Stephen. J. (2004). Tax Incidence, Tax Burden, and Tax Shifting: Who really pays the tax? Retrieved January 24, 2008 from http://www.heritage.org/research/taxes/cda04-12.cfm