Americans often say that there are only two things a person can be sure of in life: death and taxes, Americans do not have a corner on the "death" market, but many people feel that the United States leads the world with the worst taxes.
Taxes consist of the money which people pay to support their government. There are generally three levels of government in the United States: federal, state, and city; therefore, there are three types of taxes.
Salaried people who earn more than a few thousand dollars must pay a certain percentage of their salaries to the federal government. The percentage varies from person to person. It depends on their salaries. The federal government has a graduated income tax, that is, the percentage of the tax (14 to 70 percent) increases as a person's income increases. With the high cost of taxes, people are not very happy on April 15, when the federal taxes are due.
The second tax is for the state government: New York, California, North Dakota, or any of the other forty-seven states. Some states have an income tax similar to that of the federal government. Of course, the percentage for the state tax is lower. Other states have a sales tax, which is a percentage charged to any item which you buy in that state. For example, a person might want to buy a packet of cigarettes for twenty-five cents. If there is a sales tax of eight percent in that state, then the cost of the cigarettes is twenty-seven cents. This figure includes the sales tax. Some states use income tax in addition to sales tax to raise their revenues. The state tax laws are diverse and confusing.
The third tax is for the city. This tax comes in two forms: property tax (people who own a home have to pay taxes on it) and excise tax, which is charged on cars in a city. The cities use these funds for education, police and fire departments, public works and municipal buildings.
Since Americans pay such high taxes, they often feel that they are working one day each week just to pay their taxes. People always complain about taxes. They often protest that the government uses their tax dollars in the wrong way. They say that it spends too much on useless and impractical programs. Although Americans have different views on many issues, they tend to agree on one subject: taxes are too high.
【課文譯文】
稅、稅、還是稅
美國人常說，人的一生有兩件事可以肯定會發生：死亡和稅收。美國人并不壟斷死亡市場，但許多人卻感到美國以最重的賦稅領先于世界。
稅指人們為支持政府而繳納的資金。在美國通常有三級政府：聯邦政府，州政府及市政府，因此就存在三種稅。
收入超過幾千元的工薪人士必須向聯邦政府繳納一定比率的稅金。這一比率因人而異，取決于各人的工資數。聯邦政府實行累進收入所得稅制，也就是說，稅率(14%～70%)隨個人收入的增加而增加，由于高額稅收，人們在4月15日很不愉快，因為這一天是繳納稅款的日子。
第二種稅是繳納給州政府的，這些州包括紐約，加利福尼亞，北達科他以及其他47個州中的'任何一個。一些州的收入所得稅的收取辦法同聯邦政府的相似，當然其稅率要低一些。一些州設有銷售稅，即對你在該州所購買的任何商品所收的一定比率的稅金。比如，某人想買一包25美分的煙。如果該州收取8%的銷售稅，那么買這包煙要花27美分，這一錢數就包括銷售稅。一些州利用收入所得稅外加銷售稅的辦法來提高稅收，各州的稅收法規五花八門，令人費解。
第三種稅是向市政府繳納的。這種稅有兩種：一種是財產稅(擁有房屋的人都必須交稅)，另一種是本國消費稅，即對城市汽車所征收的稅金。城市將這些資金用于教育、警察和消防部門、公共設施及市政建設。
由于美國人須付高額稅金，所以他們經常感到每周有一天純粹是在為繳稅而工作。人們總是在抱怨稅收太高。他們常常抗議政府濫用他們的稅金。他們說政府將太多的錢花在無用且不符合實際的項目上了。盡管美國人在很多問題上有不同的看法，但他們在一個話題上的意見總是一致的：稅收太高。
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