In the USA the poor generally pay a disproportionately high amount of taxes for various reasons. Among the resaons are:

• They pay a greater proportion of their income than wealthy people do for sales taxes, payroll taxes (FICA and Medicare), and excise taxes.

• They are more likely to be renters rather than homeowners, and thus can deduct neither mortgage interest nor property taxes from their taxable income. Their landlords, on the other, avail themselves of those deductions, even though they pass those expenses onto their tenants in the form of increased rent.

• They are less likely to file for refunds of overpayments taxes withheld. Furthermore, they are more likely to fail to claim credits, deductions, and exemptions to which they are entitled.

• They spend a greater prprtion of their income on state lotteries, an insiduous form of taxation that acts to redistribute wealth in the wrong direction.