WalletHub has recently released in 2021 Taxpayer Survey, which has found that 74% of people think that the government has not handled their tax dollars wisely during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“There are plenty of reasons why around 222 million Americans believe the government does not spend their tax dollars wisely, but some of the biggest factors are a general distrust of politicians, the truthful perception that the private sector invests more efficiently than the government, and a mismatch between the amount we pay and the benefits we get in return,” said Jill Gonzalez, WalletHub analyst. “It hurts to part with our hard-earned money, and that’s especially true when every time an election rolls around we hear about billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse. When that’s the message we hear over and over, it’s easy to believe that the government isn’t handling our taxes wisely.”
The survey also found that 32% of people think charities would make the best use of their tax dollars, outnumbering those who trust the federal government the most with their taxes by nearly 2.5 times. 38% of people would also move to a different country for a tax-free future.
“The largest share of people, rather their tax dollars go to charities than any level of government. When it comes to paying taxes to the government, people have more faith in local levels,” continued Gonzalez. “Americans would rather pay taxes to their local government than their state, and to their state rather than the federal government, which reflects people’s distrust of the federal government and special interests.”
WalletHub also recently released its yearly report on the states with the highest and lowest tax rates. The lowest state was Alaska, with a rate of 5.84%, followed by Delaware (6.25%) and Montana (7.11%). The state with the highest tax rate is Illinois, with a rate of 15.01%, followed by Connecticut (14.84%) and New York (14.08%).
Finally, Gonzales concluded that: “The biggest things that Americans fear on Tax Day are making a math mistake and not having enough money, each of which gets close to 30% of the vote. What people should be most concerned about is having enough money to pay what they owe, as trying to find more money on short notice could be difficult for many people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Avoiding math errors is easier if you start completing your tax return early and take time to check it for errors. There are plenty of free tax-prep resources that can help make sure the math checks out, too.”
