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A surtax is a tax levied upon another tax, also known as tax surcharge.


Canada

The provincial portion of the
value-added tax A value-added tax (VAT or goods and services tax (GST), general consumption tax (GCT)) is a consumption tax that is levied on the value added at each stage of a product's production and distribution. VAT is similar to, and is often compared wi ...
on goods and services in two Canadian jurisdictions,
Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
and
Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island is an island Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. While it is the smallest province by land area and population, it is the most densely populated. The island has several nicknames: "Garden of the Gulf", ...
, was formerly calculated as a surtax on the sticker price plus the federal Goods and Services Tax. On Prince Edward Island, provincial sales tax was assessed at 10% on top of the federal tax (as of 2013) of 5%, resulting in a total effective rate of 15.5% at the time of its repeal. The Quebec Sales Tax was 9.5%, also assessed on top of the federal tax of 5%, resulting in a total tax burden of 14.975; it, too, was changed in 2013 so as no longer to be a surtax.


United Kingdom

In 1929, the supertax (which had been introduced in the Finance Act 1909 at the rate of 6 old pence in the pound (2.5%) on incomes over £5,000 per year) was renamed to surtax. By 1934, the rate was variable from 1
shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currency, currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 1 ...
to 7 shillings and sixpence in the pound (5% to 37.5%). It was replaced by
income tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...
in 1973.


United States

Previous examples of a broadly-levied surtax in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
include one imposed to help finance the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
during the Lyndon Johnson administration. It essentially consisted of calculating one's ordinary federal income tax liability and then adding another 10% to it, the amount of the surtax. As the US income tax system at the time was highly progressive, the surtax was much higher on those with higher incomes, as a 10% surtax imposed on a tax rate of 20% would result in an overall rate of 22%, and the same surtax imposed on a rate of 50% would result in an overall rate of 55%. Some antiwar protesters refused to pay the tax and stated that while they were not
anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...
s and understood the need for and the positive role played by
government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...
in many areas, they wanted none of their tax money going to a war that they felt was immoral. The surtax was repealed well before the Vietnam War ended. Surtaxes can be imposed on other taxes. They are usually imposed on the grounds of moral justification, as they affect only persons who are already paying taxes, rather than extending taxation to new areas or persons who are not previously being taxed. A surtax of 4.3 percent was recently proposed by Congress on incomes over $500,000 to alleviate the alterations to the Alternative Minimum Tax code in the United States. A surtax was proposed as part of the 2009–2010 health care reform in the United States.{{cite web, last=Donmoyer , first=Ryan J. , url=https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a3wUXb42NPX0 , title=U.S. House May Include Surtax on Wealthy in Health-Care Package , publisher=Bloomberg , date=2009-07-07 , accessdate=2014-01-25


See also

* Battle for trade *
Double taxation Double taxation is the levying of tax by two or more jurisdictions on the same income (in the case of income taxes), asset (in the case of capital taxes), or financial transaction (in the case of sales taxes). Double liability may be mitigated ...
* Federal Unemployment Tax Act


References

Taxation in the United Kingdom Taxation in the United States