Taxes are an important part of our economy, yet over 61% of Americans don’t understand how they work. Eastmont High School provides various classes to assist students in learning how taxes and the economy work.
Mrs. Telenna Peterson, a financial literacy and civics teacher at the high school, spoke to us about taxes and deductions.
Peterson said, “Taxes are the government’s paycheck. They are collected in many ways. The most common are sales taxes when goods and services are purchased/paid for and income taxes (state and federal) that are deducted from your paycheck.”
Taxes towards the government are helpful. They benefit us greatly even though we lose a small margin of money. They come with a multitude of benefits for the United States society.
Additionally, Mrs. Peterson gave us a little view of the benefits of taxes for the people and the economy.
She said, “Taxes are used by the government to provide public goods and services that would otherwise go unprovided in a pure market economy. These include, but aren’t limited to, protection from exterior and interior threats (military and police), emergency assistance, roads, public parks, programs for the sick and elderly, aid to the poor and disabled, etc.”
Finally, we got insight from Mr. Mark T. Bloom, another teacher for financial literacy and civics teacher at the high school, about the difficulty of taxes.
Bloom said, “For someone who just has one or two jobs, filing your taxes is extremely easy with all of the online options available. If you own multiple businesses and have lots of investments it becomes a little harder, that is why I pay an accountant to do my taxes.”
