February 17th, 2010 
admin 
With April 15th looming in the near future, we are all starting to think about gathering all of our receipts and W-2s together to husel off to our CPA (or QuickBooks) to start working on our tax returns. Between trying to keep our jobs, pay our mortgage, and settling our debts, more and more of our hard earned money is going toward inflated taxes. Besides the obvious taxes we pay via our paycheck and gas pump, there are a lot of “hidden” taxes we don’t see.
We all see the tax we pay on gas and cigarettes, but what about that Snicker bar you just ate? Did you know there are import taxes and duty taxes that inflate the cost of that little snack? The government keeps the prices of imported goods artificially high making domestic products cheaper and more attractive to consumers. Did you know that an imported jar of peanut butter has 143% tax rate added to it? Unreal!
According to MSN Money:
“A recent government report estimates that consumers pay between $400 million and $1.9 billion a year to fatten the sugar industry with federal subsidies and artificially inflated prices.”
Think about that next time you bite into that Milky Way!
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not appose to paying taxes. In fact, there are purposes for some of the taxes we pay – like the 18.4-cent gas tax that pays for highway construction or the airline-ticket tax helps build runways.
Others taxes like the $13.50-a-gallon tax on hard liquor and the 33-cent tax on a six-pack are meant to discourage certain types of behavior.
So, next time you are in the store buying that broom, flashlight, or plastic school lunch box for your kid, think about all the tax you are paying on top of the cost of the actual product. Chances are that product was made abroad (probably China) and our government had added their fair dose of import tax.
Can you think of any other hidden taxes you pay? Send in your comments.
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