Taxes are investment in future

April 15 has new meaning for me. This year I celebrated by having a party to thank all the volunteers who prepared taxes at no charge for hundreds of people who need assistance. I am so proud to work with these people, as they are true patriots who understand that being an American means more than waving a flag. It requires service and sacrifice.

As a volunteer for Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, I have gained a new understanding not only of our tax system but of our taxpayers. Unexpectedly, it has also provided me with new perspective on our country and its values. At the Central City Community Center VITA site we focused our efforts on helping low-income taxpayers who were new to this country and often do not speak the language. The taxpayers who came to see us were from all over the world and often worked several jobs with numerous W-2 forms. Frequently the whole family was working to help make ends meet.

I remember the first time I told a young refugee who was both working and going to school that he did not make enough money to owe any income taxes and that he was eligible for an Earned Income Tax Credit refund that would help offset the payroll taxes that place such an inequitable burden on low-wage workers. He was surprised and grateful. I explained that we wanted him to work hard, succeed in this country, and make lots of money so in the future he could pay lots of taxes. I asked him to save his tax return so in the future he could look back and remember how far he had come. Unlike so many Americans, he understood paying taxes as a responsibility of being in America and income taxes as a measure of success.

Benjamin Franklin once said, "Taxes are the price of a civilized society." Too often Americans see taxes only as a burden. We love to recognize people on those occasions when they donate their time or money to charitable causes, yet we continually fail to even acknowledge the investment taxpayers routinely make to the community. We even seem to admire those taxpayers who avoid paying their fair share. I have often heard comments that "poor people don't pay taxes" and that income taxes "punish success." But everyone pays taxes and some bear a much greater burden than others.

Sales taxes fall most heavily on low-income families because they must spend a bigger share of their income on taxable goods, while better-off families spend more on services that are not taxed. This is especially true in Utah where the sales tax even applies to groceries. Utah is one of only seven states that tax food purchases the same as other purchases yet provide no offsetting tax relief.