We have all heard the stories. College students living on ramen noodles and high school students working long hours in boring retail stores. And as more and more teens turn 15 and get jobs, more and more teens are learning how disappointing a first paycheck can be when income taxes are applied. Students should not have to pay taxes on their income, because every day teens spend more hours behind the counter, trying to earn extra money, than they do studying.
The 2011 income tax bracket for singles making less than $8,500 is 10%. This is the bracket that almost all teens will fall, and pay into. Now 10% doesn’t sound like much right? Wrong. That’s 850 dollars. And for a student earning just over minimum wage, that’s 113 hours or almost 5 days of working. In a world where American students are falling behind other countries students, we need every hour of studding we can get. Take American car companies for example, they used to make the best cars on earth, now Japanese automobiles have taken over the market. If American students do not have enough time to study, they will not be able to keep up with the global economy, and instead of just cars, we will fall behind in every industry.
Now what you might be thinking right now is that “taxes are necessary, and government needs income”. This is true; taxes pay for everything the government dose. But in a country where the wealthiest 1% of citizens collectively has more wealth than the bottom 90%, what is $850 going to do? Students in this tax bracket are the lowest of the low income group. Bill gates, the founder of Microsoft, alone has more wealth than the bottom 40% of Americans. With a government that spends 100 million dollars on a single F- 35 fighter jet, $850 is nothing. But to a college student, 850 could pay for rent, text books, food, and anything in between.
Most teens start working the second they turn 15 or 16. And at that time they are in early high school. For many years they have envied their parents income wishing they had their own to buy what they wish. But once they start working and buying video games and fast food with their money, they work more hours and spend less time studying. Less time studying means bad grades. Bad grades mean they won’t get into college. If they don’t go to college they will continue to earn minimum wage. And if they earn minimum wage they will stay in the same 10% tax bracket instead of moving up to a 25 or 28%. Thus causing the government to earn LESS money, because they are not paying as much taxes.
It can be clearly seen. Taxing students is not the way for the U.S government to earn money. It hurts teens and hurts the government in the long term. So let’s stand up, and get income tax outlawed for students.