Read and translate the text. Federalism & the Tax System

Federalism & the Tax System

The United States has a federal system of government, and, followings that model; the tax system can be divided into the three major categories of federal, state, and local taxes. Federal, taxes make up about 56 percent of total taxes, al­though federal expenditures are: only about half of total expenditures. The differ­ence occurs because a substantial fraction of state and local government expendi­tures are, financed by federal government grants. Intergovernmental grants make up nearly one4hird of local government revenues. One of the goals of this chapter is to examine how the various levels of government raise revenues to finance their ex­penditures.

Although all levels of government tend to collect revenues from a variety of sources, more taxes than all table 1 shows that the different levels of government rely on different tax bases to state and local different degrees. Most income taxes are collected by the federal government, which collects 81 percent of all individual in­come taxes and 81.5 percent of all corporate income taxes.

Local governments collect 13. 1 percent of sates and gross receipts taxes, com­ing from a combination of local general sales taxes, excise taxes on gasoline» and other less significant excise taxes.

Stepping back to examine the overall tax system, we see that the federal gov­ernment relies primarily on income taxes, state governments on sales taxes, and local governments on property taxes. This division makes some sense when one considers the mobility of tax bases.

Although the property tax has remained a local tax, the income tax is be­coming, increasingly important at the state level, as will be discussed later, so states might be viewed as encroaching on a traditionally federal tax base. Likewise, the federal government collects a significant amount of sales and gross receipts taxes, primarily as excise taxes, which might be viewed as taxing a state tax base. One factor relevant to the discussion of a federal value added tax is that, as a con­sumption tax, it would be placed on a tax base that has traditionally been used by state governments. This was less of an issue when the value added tax was adopted by European governments because tax systems in Europe tend to be more centralized than the tax system in the United States.

So, we can divide US tax system into the three major categories of federal, state, and local taxes. Intergovernmental grants make up nearly one-third of local government revenues. The federal government collects more in revenues than all other governments in the United States combined.

We see that the federal government relies primarily on income taxes, state gov­ernments on sales taxes, and local governments on property taxes. This division makes some sense when one considers the mobility of tax bases.

Vocabulary:

Provisions-обеспечение

Levied-сбор

Expenditures-расходы

Sources-источник

Property-имущественные

Overall-полный

Excise-акцизный

Consumption-потребительские

Revenues-доходы

Recepts-получение

1. Translate from English to Russian:

1) The US tax system can be divided into 3 major categories

2) The property tax has remained a local tax

3) Most income taxes are collected by the federal government

2. Continue sentences:

1) The tax system can be divided into the 3 major categories of federal, state, and...

2) Although all levels of government tend to collect revenues from a variety of...

3) Intergovernmental grants make up nearly one-third of local...