In the past 12 years, Americans have never felt so ripped off by taxes as they do now, according to a Gallup study released Monday.
Only slightly more than half — 55 percent — of Americans consider their income tax rates fair this year. This is the lowest proportion since the 51 percent who considered their taxes fair in 2001. It is also a 4 percentage-point decrease from the 59 percent of 2012.
Household income didn’t have much effect on satisfaction. The largest indicator on whether sometime considered taxes fair was political affiliation. Sixty-six percent of Democrats, 51 percent of Independents and 49 percent of Republicans consider current taxes fair.
The highest satisfaction recently with taxes was in 2003, shortly after President George W. Bush signed tax cuts and the Iraq War started. At that time, 64 percent saw taxes as reasonable.
For comparison, during World War II, 87 percent considered taxes fair. This 1943-to-1945 era is historically the highest for tax satisfaction. Only one year after the war ended, however, the satisfaction rate dropped to 61 percent.
While a little more than half of Americans consider taxes too high, 2 percent consider them too low.
EMAIL: alovell@deseretnews.com