Comments about ‘Utah Legislature: Most Utahns paying less under new 5% flat tax, study says’

Anyone who believes these charts don't pay any taxes so they wouldn't know. I have to wonder how they manipulated incomes, tax credits, EIC, and tax exempt illegals in to these charts.

This chart has drawn a line at $500,000 as the upper tax payers paying more taxes and that is just a tad bit higher than it really is, like about $475,000 too high.

On retired income just barely above the nationally established poverty income of about $32,000, my taxes have gone up every year by 3 digit numbers on state and federal taxes. And this chart is not even including the increases in other state, city, and county taxes and fees we also pay. If you discount all the EIC and other tax credits you would find that a flat 5% tax on base incomes is not so flat or low. Before this 5% flat tax, many of the low income to middle income tax payers were paying less than 5% tax, but they didn't understand or realize that fact.

So they come up with this hoax to deceive and pass misinformation.

Despite a reduction in my income of around 6,000, my Utah Income Tax went up. My Tax preparer told me that he saw similar results for almost all of his "retired" customers. I protested to the Tax Commission and have yet to receive an explanation for how it is possible.

The drastic cuts to important programs paid for by state tax revenue tells me that these tax cuts were poorly timed and ill-advised.

My taxes went up under this system. I am a middle income earning small business owner.

My taxes went up slightly under the new system. People earning within $30,000 of what I do, one way or the other, saw a small change. People earning $1 million more than me are paying tens of thousands of dollars less and that money is coming directly out of Utah schools.

My taxes went up a little under this "so-called" flat tax. According to my accountant, most clients' taxes went up some. He said the big winners were the wealthy who saw decreases in their taxes. This is not a true flat tax since true flat taxes do not allow for any deductions whatsoever. I believe in flat-taxes and I challenge the legislature to make this tax a truly flat one. The only true flat tax in Utah right now is tithing.

This flat tax is the direct cause of our budget problems.

Who is paying for it?

Our children.

My middle income must also be part of that SMALL group of taxpayers who saw an increase in taxes.

A consumption tax is the way to go. You consume government resources. You pay. Simple as that.

The secret to all these tax woes would be to get EVERYONE to pay their taxes. If the state would enforce the tax laws and go after those who do not pay their taxes at all, the rest of us wouldn't have to pay as much. It is very simple...eliminate all the exemptions, deductions, and credits and then and only then will it be a flat tax.

I believe that there is something wrong with poor families not paying taxes, even though they benefit from the spending of those funds. Everyone should be participating in paying for our state's needs. A progressive tax is bad for our state and country. I am fully supportive of this new tax system.

went up as well. I think their theory that most people are paying less under this system is hogwash (the middle class; the backbone of the economy) are paying more. I just hope those rich people who received a tax break via the flat tax are using that money to start of expand businesses and hire more people as all the hard right wingers say they will; that theory doesn’t seem to be working does it?

The caption is not true for most taxpayers. Most pay more though it is a little more. A very few pay less, and it is a LOT less. It skews the totals to create a false impression. The results are grouped in a way that present predrawn conclusions. We see the statistics they want us to see.

We are retired with good retirement incomes; and have no problems paying our share to keep education and law enforcement, two areas that need budget increases not decreases, from being cut. However, that said, our Utah income tax for 2008 was up several hundred dollars with the same income; and higher medical costs. Something is wrong in the new formula. We continue to feel that Utah's property tax is rediculously "low" (we are 11 years out of CA); and should carry the the entire education cost. And all food tax should be eliminated. The current sytem does not make good sense.

Our annual contribution to state taxes went from approx $24,000 per year to over $45,000 in 2008. We have lived in Utah our entire lives and I am sick of paying for all these big families.
We are doing like many of our friends and becoming residents of a state that does not force us to pay such big taxes -we will buy a house or condo in WY, NV or another state. For $45,000 I can buy one heck of a place to be a resident and yet still live in Utah -hey it is done all the time, just look at all the high end cars in this town with WY or NV plates-they aren't here for Medical treatment or to shop at Nordstroms

I am a middle income Utahn. My taxes increased by a thousand dollars! Tired of hearing how most taxes were decreased. Don't treat us like we are stupid.

I am truly tired of paying for everyone else. Tired of taxes for lazy butts who don't want to work and mooch off of everyone else!

I work hard. I should be able to keep some of my money rather than paying for everyone else.

My state taxes have doubled under Huntsman's flat tax, with only a modest salary increase.

I am not sure why folks blame it on the "large families" as there is no large family convention that sets tax policy. This was Huntsman's idea, even though many groups opposed it, including my "large family".

My bro-in-law moved to Texas and got a raise because taxes are less even though they reduced his salary. The irony is that they claim the tax burden is on home owners, but they pay less than us.

Flat income tax + Property tax + gas tax = move to another state

What do they consider "middle-class" income? I'm paying about 5 times as much as I was under the old system.

paying less under this flat tax, but the fact remains that it is still the most well to do Utahn's that got the biggest break from this particular tax. The most well to do Utahn's are the ones who need it least.

Most Utahns who got a break from this tax (the middle income tax payers), got a very small break, I have newspaper articles and the middle class who did get a break with this tax got a very small break compared to the wealthy.

There has been talk of revoking the decrease in food tax. No talk at all about revocation of this tax that was targeted at the rich.

Why is it that the Republicans always give tax cuts where those who need it least get the most. Yet when there is talk of having to raise a tax, the food tax is the one that comes to mind, which is a tax that hurts the least able to pay, the most.

This is why I vote democratic.

"Like most tax studies, this one is complicated, with lots of charts, graphs and analysis"

If it were not for the comments posted here and the incompetance of the avergaee citizen when it comes to almost anything analytical I would be offended by the comment above but teaching in higher-ed in Utah has convinced me that such a statement is about right- further evidence we should get rid of the 12th grade since we have taught and "learnt" all we can by that point