--- title: Do You Pay Your Fair Share of Taxes? Americans Are Split description: Everyone complains about taxes, but a surprisingly large number of Americans say their income taxes are fair and about the right amount. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 497 covers: - Taxes - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Taxes - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2022-04-18T17:15:25.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T12:51:18.000Z' section: Taxes tags: - News - Taxes word_count: 476 canonical: https://money.com/pay-fair-share-taxes-survey-politics/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Collage of a hand with a thumbs up and a hand with a thumbs down next to a pile of money and a 1040 Tax Return form](https://img.money.com/2022/04/News-Are-Taxes-Fair.jpg?crop=0px%2C94px%2C1814px%2C1020px&quality=85) Think you pay too much in [taxes](https://money.com/how-to-file-taxes-for-free/)? Your answer probably has a lot to do with how you vote and how much you earn. A CBS News-YouGov [poll](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tax-pay-too-much-opinion-poll-2022-04-18/) released Monday asked more than 1,600 U.S. adults: “In general, do you feel you pay more than your fair share in federal income taxes, less than your fair share, or is the amount you pay about right?” A plurality of respondents, 47%, said what they’re paying is “about right.” Meanwhile, 45% said they feel that they’re paying more than their fair share. About a quarter of respondents expect to owe [taxes when filing](https://money.com/best-tax-prep-software/) this year (as opposed to the overwhelming majority who expect [tax refunds](https://money.com/wheres-my-refund/)), and this group was far likelier to report feeling that they pay too much. Another 8% of poll respondents said what they’re paying in taxes is less than their fair share. Male respondents (9%) were more likely than female respondents (7%) to say they feel like they’re paying less than their fair share. Age also played a notable role. The group most likely to say that they feel that they’re paying less than their fair share was people under age 30, at 19%. Perhaps the biggest underlying factor that guides Americans' perception of tax fairness is political ideology. Of those who identified as conservative, 55% said that they feel like they’re forking over more than what’s fair — compared to 43% of moderates and 37% of liberals. Interestingly, 9% of moderates reported thinking they’re paying less than a fair amount, the highest of the three. These political divides from the new poll generally jive with historical data. [Gallup](https://news.gallup.com/poll/349541/half-think-taxes-high-fair.aspx) has been tracking Americans’ views on their taxes since the ‘50s, and research from the firm shows that 58% of conservatives (and 60% of Republicans) hold views that their income tax is too high. On the other hand, only 32% of liberals (and 39% of Democrats) would say the same. Of all Americans, 50% in 2021 said their federal taxes were too high, while 55% said the taxes they pay are "fair." Political views trump even income, according to Gallup, though what someone earns does play into how fair they think their tax burden is. According to a Gallup [report](https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/349955/driving-americans-views-taxes.aspx) from April 2021 that reviewed survey responses over the previous 10 years, Americans who earned $150,000 or more were 9 percentage points more likely to say their taxes were too high. “These are not huge differences,” the report states, “but they do suggest that Americans making significantly above the national median income have somewhat of an enhanced tendency to complain that their federal taxes are too high.” [10 Last-Minute Tax Questions and Answers You Need to Know](https://money.com/tax-questions-answers/) How to Get an Extension on Your Taxes [Interest Rate for 'Inflation-Proof' Savings Bonds to Top 9% for First Time Ever](https://money.com/inflation-proof-bonds-high-interest-rate/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/pay-fair-share-taxes-survey-politics/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Taxes", "item": "https://money.com/taxes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Tax Returns", "item": "https://money.com/tax-returns/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Do You Pay Your Fair Share of Taxes? 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