Taxes: What They Are and What They Pay For
Aligned to JS:EI-3 — Jump$tart National Standards in K-12 Personal Finance Education & Advance CTE Career Clusters.
What this lesson teaches
Taxes are money collected by governments to pay for things individuals cannot buy alone — roads, schools, fire departments, courts. You meet several kinds: sales tax added at the register, income tax taken from pay, and property tax on land and buildings, which renters pay indirectly through rent.
Worked examples
Example 1
A $50 pair of shoes in an 8% sales-tax state costs $54 at the register. The extra $4 never belonged to the store.
Example 2
Income tax is progressive: higher slices of income are taxed at higher rates. Moving into a higher bracket taxes only the money above that line, not everything you earned.
Example 3
Five states have no statewide sales tax and several have no income tax — but those states raise the money another way, usually through higher property taxes.
Practice questions
- Calculate the total on a $85 purchase with 7% sales tax.
- Name three things your taxes pay for that you used this month.
- Explain why earning more never leaves you with less after taxes.
Watch the lesson
Every lesson comes with a video taught in English and Spanish — the same video the QR code in the printed workbook opens.
▶ Watch this lessonEn español
Los impuestos: qué son y qué pagan
Los impuestos son dinero que recaudan los gobiernos para pagar cosas que nadie puede comprar solo — caminos, escuelas, bomberos, tribunales. Te encuentras con varios tipos: el impuesto sobre ventas que se agrega en la caja, el impuesto sobre la renta que se descuenta del pago, y el impuesto predial sobre terrenos y edificios, que los inquilinos pagan indirectamente en la renta.
Ejemplo 1: Unos zapatos de $50 en un estado con 8% de impuesto sobre ventas cuestan $54 en la caja. Esos $4 extra nunca fueron de la tienda.
Ejemplo 2: El impuesto sobre la renta es progresivo: las porciones más altas del ingreso pagan tasas más altas. Pasar a un tramo más alto solo grava el dinero por encima de esa línea, no todo lo que ganaste.
Ejemplo 3: Cinco estados no tienen impuesto estatal sobre ventas y varios no tienen impuesto sobre la renta — pero esos estados recaudan de otra forma, normalmente con predial más alto.
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