Please sit down in your seats and clear your desk. All you will need is a writing utensil, and I don’t care if it is a pen or a pencil. Taxes…how do they affect you?

 “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.”  “I shall never use profanity except in discussing house rent and taxes.”  “The power of taxing people and their property is essential to the very existence of government.”  Albert Einstein  Mark Twain  James Madison

Discussion Questions 1. Who decides what taxes you pay? 2. Why do you think that taxes need to be collected? 3. What would happen if there were no taxes paid in the next 20 years?

 Taxes are collected to pay for public works that the average citizen does not directly pay for….like roads, schools, police, fire protection, government salaries, military and other public facilities and services.  Taxes are levied on income, purchases, property, business and commerce. These taxes pay for the government to operate.

 Local roads, signals, and signs  Libraries  Community Parks  Streetlights and sidewalks  Police and Fire Protection  City Courts  City Jails  Health Clinics and Hospitals (sometimes)

 State highways and bridges  State colleges/universities  Assistance with funding local schools  State police and highway patrols  State prisons  State courts  State parks  Job training programs

Goods and Services  National defense  Veteran’s programs  Military and economic assistance to other countries  Foreign embassies  Agricultural programs  Transportation  Space program  Prisons  FBI  Tax collection  National parks  Federal Reserve System  Scientific Research Transfer Payments  Food Stamps  Housing payments for the poor  Social Security and Medicare  Health care for the poor (Medicaid)

First week’s wages……………………………$ Federal Tax Withheld…………………………$9.00 State Taxes……………………………………$5.00 Social Security Tax……………………………$8.40 Medicare Tax………………………………….$2.90 Total deductions………………………………$25.30 Net Pay(what you take home)…………………$174.70

1. You will receive 10 M&M’s and a card telling you your role in the tax process. (Congress, IRS tax collector and citizen) 2. If you are in congress, you have 5 minutes to decide on 5 things to tax and how much to tax them, on a scale of 1-5 M&M’s. (For example 1 M&M for Nike shoes) 3. At the same time, as a citizen, you need to write down the 5 most important things you own and the 3 most important food/drinks you consume. 4. If Congress decides to tax your items, you have to pay with your M&M’s. If they don’t, you keep them. But, as an income tax, everyone pays 3 M&M’s. 5. The IRS agents collect the taxes and give them to the Congress, but they keep 10% of them to operate the agency. 6. If you are lucky, you will not have all your M&M’s taxed, if you are not, you may lose them all. * Here is the bottom line…taxes pay for many of the things we all take for granted, but sometimes, we don’t know what all the taxes are. So, you need to be prepared to pay taxes on many things your entire life!

1. JAGS- Do you think that taxes are necessary? Why or why not? 2. JAGS- If you were in the government, would you try and decide to change the way taxes are collected and what is taxed? 3. JAGS- How do taxes affect you? Explain.