Exercise 4
Answer the following questions: 1. What do you know about the Revenue Act of 1861? 2. What were new excise taxes imposed on during the Civil War? 3. What happened after the war? 4. What did the income tax debate result in? 5. What happened to exemptions and taxes during World War I? 6. Why were tax rates raised in 1932? Exercise 5 Guess the meaning of the words by their definitions: 1. To become smaller, weaker, or less important. 2. More than normal, necessary, or permitted profit. 3. To prosper vigorously and rapidly. 4. A highly organized market for the purchase and sale of stocks and shares, operated by professional stockbrokers and market makers according to fixed rules. 5. The act or process of making tax laws. 6. A set of principles or rules. 7. To establish by law. Unit 7. THE HISTORY OF THE TAX SYSTEM IN THE UNITED STATES Exercise 1 Practise reading the following words and collocation: a) economy; passage; significantly; excess; however; bureau; identification; amendment; periodically; economic; fair; efficiency; principle; among; through; liability; resumption;
b) Social Security Act; unemployment compensation; the aged, the needy, the handicapped; certain minors; employers and employees; exemption level; war effort; the lowest-paid workers; usual pattern; social security coverage; accounting, collection and forms-processing organization; individuals and private foundations; budget deficits; income tax liability; vast majority; personal exemption allowances; in excess of; projected future increases; Economic Growth and Tax Relief and Reconciliation Act; marginal tax rates;
c) to lead to; to be supported by; to lower; to withhold taxes from; to simplify; to be expanded; to simplify; to safeguard; to ensure; to be distributed equitably; to bear the tax burden; to be indexed for; to be refundable for; to regain.
THE HISTORY OF THE TAX SYSTEM IN THE UNITED STATES (Part III)
The social security tax The state of the economy during the Great Depression led to passage of the Social Security Act in 1935. This law provided payments known as ‘unemployment compensation’ to workers who lost their jobs. Other sections of the Act gave public aid to the aged, the needy, the handicapped, and to certain minors. At first, these programs were financed by a 1% tax, paid by both employers and employees, on the first $3, 000 of the employee’s salary or wage. The tax rate and the wage base have been increased greatly since then, as have the social programs that are supported by this tax.
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