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Americans Question Fairness of Tax System

Regardless of any changes made to the tax code, many Americans continue to question the fairness of what they have to pay.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 40% of American Adults believe people who makes twice as much as they do pay less than twice as much in income taxes. Only 14% think those individuals actually do pay twice as much in taxes, while 12% say they pay more than twice as much. One-in-three adults (34%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
 

These results are similar to those found last year and in 2009.  But in March 2008, nearly half (48%) believed people who make twice as much paid less than twice as much in taxes.

Conversely, 38% of adults now believe that people who earn half as much money as they do pay less than half as much in taxes, down from 44% a year ago. Seventeen percent (17%) think those individuals do pay half as much in income taxes, while only nine percent (9%) believe they pay more than half. Thirty-six percent (36%) of adults are undecided.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls).  Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook. 

The survey of 1,000 Adults nationwide was conducted February 19-20, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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