Americans’ view of federal income taxes hits two-decade low

Americans’ view of federal income taxes hit a two-decade low with six in 10 saying they are paying too much, according to a new poll. 

The Gallup poll released on Friday showed 60 percent of respondents believe the amount in federal income taxes that they pay is too high, the most since 2001, while only 36 percent said they pay about the right amount. 

More people have said they pay too much in income tax than the right amount in most years that Gallup has asked the question, but the difference between the percentage who chose each of the options has not been quite as large.

Pollsters also found 46 percent said the income tax that they will have to pay this year is fair, the lowest since 1999. Just more than half said it is not fair, the most in the history of the poll. 

Gallup said the last time that Americans were so critical of federal income taxes came right before President George W. Bush signed his tax cut laws into effect. Income taxes have not significantly risen for low- and middle-class Americans since then, but wealthy Americans and companies have seen their taxes rise during the Obama and Biden administrations. 

Respondents overall indicated that they believe that the federal income tax is the worst, or least fair, tax that they pay. Just more than a third said the federal income tax is the worst, a 14-point increase from the 20 percent who said so the last time Gallup asked the question in 2005. 

The tax previously considered the worst, local property tax, fell from 35 percent in 2005 to 29 percent who chose it as the least fair now. 

The researchers also found a political component also exists when it comes to people’s attitudes about the fairness of the income taxes they pay. More than 70 percent of Republicans said their taxes are too high now, with a Democratic president in office, while only 46 percent said so in 2020 with former President Trump in office. 

Democrats’ views have remained mostly consistent, hovering around 40 percent, while the percentage of independents who view federal income taxes as too high rose from 46 percent to 62 percent in that timeframe. 

Gallup said in its analysis that the extent to which worsening views of federal income taxes are because of people paying more in total number of dollars, macroeconomic factors like inflation or misperceptions about the status of the income tax, possibly influenced by political beliefs, is unclear. 

It said most of the recent shift in views can be attributed to Republicans having more negative views of what they pay under Biden than under Trump. 

The poll was conducted from April 3-25 among 1,013 U.S. adults. The margin of error was 4 points.