Here’s what upsets Americans most about their tax system

Most United States citizens see taxes as a fact of life, something that can’t be avoided, or controlled. In many cases, according to a new study from Pew Research, they also view them as being unfair, a system rigged against the little guy in favor of big business and wealthy people.

“Among the public overall, 62% say they are bothered ‘a lot,'” by the feeling that some corporations don’t pay their fair share of taxes, and 60% say the same about some wealthy people not paying their fair share,” Pew reported.

That’s only one way in which Pew’s research, which involved interviews with 1,501 adults conducted between April 5-11, found that Americans took issue with the tax system.

What did the survey say?

In a broad sense the majority of Americans don’t find the tax system fair with 56% describing it “as either not too fair (29%) or not fair at all (27%).” Only 2% consider the system “very fair,” while 40% think it’s “moderately fair.” In previous Pew surveys on the same subject in 2010 and 2015, opinion about the fairness of the U.S. tax system was evenly split between people thinking it’s fair and people thinking it’s not.

How people feel about the system’s fairness only differs slightly based on their political affiliation. “Today, 54% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say the tax system is not too fair or not at all fair, up from 43% two years ago.,” wrote Pew. “Most Republicans and Republican leaners (58%) also view the system as unfair; these views are little changed since 2015.”

That’s not to say that there are no differences between how Democrats and Republicans feel about why the system is unfair. Three quarters (75%) of left-leaning Americans are bothered “a lot” by the idea that some companies don’t pay their fair share of taxes while only 44% of right-leaning voters feel that way. The numbers are about the same (76% vs. 40%) when it comes to the feeling that “some wealthy people don’t pay their fair share,” according to Pew.

You can read the other half of this article on USA Today here: http://usat.ly/2pI2UP3