Taxation and Regulation In the United States of America, taxes and regulations are imposed upon the citizenry

at the local, state, and federal levels of government. The most prominent national tax is the income tax, which was authorized by the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and exacted by the Internal Revenue Service. National regulations, on the other hand, are imposed by numerous laws and federal agencies, but information on all regulations can be found at the Federal Register.1 Annually, the federal level of government creates approximately 80,000 new and proposed regulations.2 In comparison with most other developed countries, the United States is a nation with low taxes. Around 24.8% of the nation's annually produced wealth is collected in taxes, which is lower than every industrial country except Chile and Mexico. The United States also differs in the type of taxes is exacts at the federal level, as the United States chiefly taxes income and not consumption.John Stossel, What's in all the laws?, Fox Business, March 21, 2012, accessed September 15, 2012, http://www.foxbusiness.com/on-air/stossel/blog/2012/03/21/whats-all-laws. 3 Somewhere near half of taxpayers do not pay any federal income taxes whatsoever, but they do pay money at the state and local level. In the year 2007, 70% of all federal taxes were pulled from the top 20% of Americans that earn the most money. This same top 20% earned 60% of the nation's pretax income.4 The 2008 recession has vastly changed the national attitude toward regulations, and, because of this, new regulations have been passed to prevent a new financial collapse. One of these regulations is the DoddFrank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which creates new government agencies to watch over financial institutions like banks.5 Only time will tell if new regulations are effective or if they are ineffective at preventing another recession from happening in a similar manner as the 2008
1 2 3 4 5 Federal Register: About Us, accessed September 16, 2012, https://www.federalregister.gov/policy/about-us. John Stossel, What's in all the laws?, Fox Business, March 21, 2012, accessed September 15, 2012, http://www.foxbusiness.com/on-air/stossel/blog/2012/03/21/whats-all-laws. Eduardo Porter, America;s Aversion to Taxes, The New York Times, August 14, 2012, accessed September 16, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/15/business/economy/slipping-behind-because-of-an-aversion-to-taxes.html. Eduardo Porter, TaxesWho Really Is Paying Up, The Wall Street Journal, April 15, 2012, accessed September 16, 2012, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304356604577338122267919032.html. Dodd-Frank Financial Regulatory Reform Bill, accessed September 16, 2012, http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dodd-frank-financial-regulatory-reform-bill.asp#axzz26lx3A41n.

recession.