What Do People Think About Taxes? They Are Partisan, Dazed, And Confused
The newly-published results of an extensive survey of public views on taxes find deep partisan divisions and a widespread lack of understanding about federal income and estate taxes. The survey also shows that people’s perceptions of how government spends revenue may have a powerful effect on their views of the tax code. The conclusion: Partisanship defines not only what people think about taxes, but how they think about taxes.
The study, by Harvard University economist Stefanie Stantcheva, was published in August by the National Bureau of Economic Research (paywall). It...