United States
Previous examples of a broadly-levied surtax in the United States include one imposed to help finance the Vietnam War during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration. It essentially consisted of calculating one's ordinary federal income tax liability and then adding another 10% to it—the amount of the surtax.
As the U.S. income tax system at that time was highly progressive, the surtax was much higher on those with higher incomes, as a 10% surtax imposed on a tax rate of 20% would result in an overall rate of 22%, while the same surtax imposed on a rate of 50% would result in an overall rate of 55%.
Some anti-war protesters refused to pay this tax, stating that while they were not anarchists and understood the need for and positive role played by government in many areas, they wanted none of their tax money going to a war that they felt was immoral. The surtax was repealed well before the war ended in Vietnam.
Surtaxes can be imposed on other taxes. They are usually imposed on the grounds of moral justification; they only affect persons who are already paying taxes rather than extending taxation to new areas or persons who are not previously being taxed.
A surtax of 4.3 percent was recently proposed on incomes over $500,000 by Congress to alleviate the alterations to the Alternative Minimum Tax code in the United States.
A surtax was proposed as part of the 2009-2010 health care reform in the United States.
Read more about this topic: Surtax
Famous quotes related to united states:
“... when we shall have our amendment to the Constitution of the United States, everyone will think it was always so, just exactly as many young people believe that all the privileges, all the freedom, all the enjoyments which woman now possesses were always hers. They have no idea of how every single inch of ground that she stands upon to-day has been gained by the hard work of some little handful of women of the past.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)
“In the larger view the major forces of the depression now lie outside of the United States, and our recuperation has been retarded by the unwarranted degree of fear and apprehension created by these outside forces.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)
“In the United States the whites speak well of the Blacks but think bad about them, whereas the Blacks talk bad and think bad about the whites. Whites fear Blacks, because they have a bad conscience, and Blacks hate whites because they need not have a bad conscience.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)
“The United States is a republic, and a republic is a state in which the people are the boss. That means us. And if the big shots in Washington don’t do like we vote, we don’t vote for them, by golly, no more.”
—Willis Goldbeck (1900–1979)
“A sincere and steadfast co-operation in promoting such a reconstruction of our political system as would provide for the permanent liberty and happiness of the United States.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)