Research Paper on:
Economic Impact of Taxes

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
tax burden and growth" (nd). This same organization provides a table to illustrate economic growth since 1950, according to three measures: Years GDP GDP per capita Productivity 1950-73 3.9 2.4  3.1 1973-95 2.5 1.5 1.3 1950-60 3.3 1.6 2.8 1960-70 4.1 2.8 3.3 1970-80 3.1 2.1 1.9 1980-90 2.9 1.9 1.4 1990-95 1.9 0.9 1.2 (Source: The Century Foundation, nd).  These three factors that measure growth in the economy have each declined since the 1960s but the tax burden of the federal government has not changed a great deal since  the 1950s (The Century Foundation, nd). In the 1950s, federal taxes accounted for about 18.4 percent of the GDP; in 1994, that figure was 20.5 percent (The Century Foundation, nd).  What has increased is the taxes on Social Security and personal income but in terms of the tax burden of the federal government, these increases have been offset by a  reduction in corporate taxes (The Century Foundation, nd). It should be remembered that corporate taxes are always passed on from the corporation to others, that could mean lower wages for  workers or higher prices for consumers or it could mean lower dividends paid to investors (The Century Foundation, nd). Data reveal that total taxes, which means both state and  local, increased over the years: they averaged 24.7 percent of the GDP in the 1950s, rose to 27.8 percent in the 1960s and rose again to 31.5 percent in 1996  (The Century Foundation, nd). Even so, experts tend to believe that the increased state and local taxes had anything to do with a slower growing economy (The Century Foundation, nd).  Taxes have an effect on just about everything. For instance, taxes reduce the rate of return for investors (The Century Foundation, nd). Theoretically, when person income taxes are cut, there