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Teacher main page The Hows of Taxes Understanding Taxes home page Student Site VITAe3 Tax Trivia Site Map Links Glossary Help The Whys of Taxes Tour

The Whys of Taxes

The Whys of Taxes examines the theory and history of taxes. The Whys of Taxes includes six tax-related themes, divided into a total of 24 lessons. Each theme examines a different set of tax concepts, and includes a variety of interactive activities and assessments. The first lesson of each theme contains a PowerPoint™ presentation providing a pictorial overview of the entire theme.
The Whys of Taxes modules
Theme 1 Your Role as a Taxpayer
Lesson 1: Why Pay Taxes?
Lesson 2: How Taxes Evolve
Lesson 3: The Taxpayers Responsibilities
Lesson 4: The Taxpayers Rights
Theme 2: Taxes in U.S. History
Lesson 1: Evolution of Taxation in the Constitution
Lesson 2: Early Tax Issues
Lesson 3: Income Tax Issues
Lesson 4: The Social Security Act of 1935
Lesson 5: The Wealth Tax of 1935 and the Victory Tax of 1942
Lesson 6: Tax Reform in the 1960s and 1980s
Theme 3: Fairness in Taxes
Lesson 1: How to Measure Fairness
Lesson 2: Regressive Taxes
Lesson 3: Progressive Taxes
Lesson 4: Proportional Taxes
Lesson 5: How Taxes Affect Us
Theme 4: What is Taxed and Why
Lesson 1: Federal/State/Local Taxes
Lesson 2: Taxes in a Market Economy
Lesson 3: Income Tax Facts
Lesson 4: Direct and Indirect Taxes
Theme 5: Impact of Taxes
Lesson 1: How Taxes Influence Behavior
Lesson 2: The Politics of Taxation
Theme 6: Understanding the IRS
Lesson 1: The IRS Yesterday and Today
Lesson 2: Your First Job
Lesson 3: Methods of Filing

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