Question

When the share of individual income tax collected by the government from people with higher incomes is smaller than the share of tax collected from people with lower incomes, then the tax is ____________________.

Answer 1

Regressive

Step-by-step explanation:

Under a regressive tax system, low-income earners pay a higher amount of their incomes in taxes compared to high-income earners. This is because the government assesses tax as a percentage of the value of the asset that a taxpayer purchases or owns. Regressive tax, therefore, has no correlation with an individual's earnings or income level.

For example, any tax on necessities, such as food purchased at a grocery store, is regressive because lower income people must spend a larger share of their income on these necessities and thus in taxes.