What Is a Regressive Tax?

The term regressive tax refers to a tax that is applied uniformly regardless of income. Regressive taxes take a larger percentage of income from low-income earners than from middle- and high-income earners. As such, the tax burden decreases with regressive taxes as income rises. It is contrasted with a progressive tax, which takes a larger percentage from high-income earners. Common forms of regressive include sales tax, excise tax, and payroll tax.

Understanding Regressive Taxes

Taxes are contributions made by individuals and corporations by governments. They come in many different forms and are levied at different levels, including federal, state/provincial, regional, and local. The types of taxes vary but tend to fall into three distinct categories, including progressive, proportional, and regressive taxes.

As noted above, regressive taxes affect people with low incomes more severely than those with higher incomes because they are applied uniformly to all situations, regardless of the taxpayer. While it may be fair in some instances to tax everyone at the same rate, it is seen as unjust in other cases. As such, most income tax systems employ a progressive schedule that taxes high-income earners at a higher percentage rate than low-income earners, while other types of taxes are uniformly applied.

The United States has a progressive taxation system when it comes to income tax, which means that earners with higher incomes pay a higher percentage of taxes each year compared to those with a lower income. But taxpayers do pay certain levies that are considered to be regressive taxes. Some of these include state sales taxes, user fees, and to some degree, property taxes.

Types of Regressive Taxes

Taxes come in various shapes and sizes. The following section contains information on some of the most common types of regressive taxes that taxpayers must pay.

Sales Taxes

Governments apply sales tax uniformly to all consumers based on what they buy. Even though the tax may be uniform, such as a 7% sales tax, lower-income consumers are more affected.

Imagine two individuals each purchase $100 of clothing per week, and they each pay $7 in tax on their retail purchases:

• The first individual earns $2,000 per week, making the sales tax rate on her purchase 0.35% of income.
• In contrast, the other individual earns $320 per week, making her clothing sales tax 2.2%.

Although the tax is the same rate in both cases, the person with the lower income pays a higher percentage of income, making the tax regressive.

Excise Taxes

Excise taxes are levied on specific goods such as tobacco, alcohol, gasoline, and luxury items. These taxes are often added to the price of the goods and are paid by the consumer at the point of sale.

An excise tax can be regressive if it is the same for everyone regardless of income. This is especially true for products consumed by low-income individuals, as these earners are likely to spend a larger proportion of their income on taxed goods than high-income earners. For example, excise taxes on cheap beer is regressive, especially considering how consumer demands may play a factor.

It's important to keep in mind that excise taxes can also be designed to be progressive. For example, if the tax rate on luxury items is higher than the tax rate on necessities like food or clothing, the tax would have a greater impact on high-income earners who are more likely to purchase luxury items. In this case, the tax is progressive because the low-income individual would likely never purchase the luxury good.

Tariffs

Much of the same regarding excise taxes can be said about tariffs. If tariffs are applied uniformly on all imported goods regardless of their price or the income of the people who buy them, they can be considered regressive taxes.

Lower-income individuals tend to spend a larger proportion of their income on imported goods than households with higher incomes. Like before, this may depend on consumer preferences and may be progressive for tariffs placed on more luxurious goods.

User Fees

User fees levied by the government are another form of regressive tax. These fees include admission to government-funded museums and state parks, costs for driver's licenses and identification cards, and toll fees for roads and bridges.

For example, if two families travel to the Grand Canyon National Park and pay a $30 admission fee, the family with the higher income pays a lower percentage of its income to access the park, while the family with the lower income pays a higher percentage. Although the fee is the same amount, it constitutes a more significant burden on the family with the lower income, again making it a regressive tax.

Property Taxes

Property taxes are fundamentally regressive because, if two individuals in the same tax jurisdiction live in properties with the same values, they pay the same amount of property tax, regardless of their incomes.

But they are not purely regressive in practice because they are based on the value of the property. Generally, it is thought that lower-income earners live in less expensive homes, thus partially indexing property taxes to income.

Flat Taxes

Often tossed around in debates about income tax, the phrase flat tax refers to a taxation system in which the government taxes all income at the same percentage regardless of earnings. Under a flat tax, there are no special deductions or credits. Rather, each person pays a set percentage that is levied on all income so everyone effectively pays the same rate.

The tax burden on those with low incomes is often heavily compared to those with higher incomes—even at the same rate. This means that the proportion of income that is taxed is higher for low-income earners. As a result, flat taxes may be considered to be regressive.

Payroll Taxes

Payroll taxes may be considered regressive, as they are typically levied as a flat tax rate on wages and salaries up to a certain limit. This means that everyone, regardless of their income level, pays the same percentage of their income in payroll taxes.

In the United States, Social Security taxes are levied at a flat rate of 6.2% on wages and salaries up to $168,600 in 2024. This means that someone who earns $50,000 a year pays the same percentage of their income in payroll taxes as someone who earns $100,000 a year.

Sin Taxes

Taxes imposed and collected on products that are deemed to be harmful to society are called sin taxes. These are added to the prices of goods like alcohol and tobacco in order to dissuade people from using them. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) considers these taxes to be regressive because they are more burdensome to low-income earners rather than their high-income counterparts.

Regressive vs. Progressive vs. Proportional Taxes

Regressive, progressive, and proportional taxes are different types of tax systems that are used by governments to generate revenue. Each type of tax has a difference in how they are calculated and the people it affects (primarily depending on different income levels).

Progressive Tax

A regressive tax system is one in which the tax rate decreases as the taxpayer's income increases. A progressive tax system, on the other hand, is one in which the tax rate increases as the taxpayer's income increases.

In a progressive tax system, people with higher incomes pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than those with lower incomes. Examples of progressive taxes include income taxes and estate taxes.

The argument against progressive taxes is that individuals shouldn't be penalized for having higher incomes and pay for public benefits that a less wealthy individual may be more likely to utilize. This system may also disincentive innovation and capitalism as there is less motivation for success.

The argument for progressive taxes is that individuals with lower incomes should not pay higher effective rates simply because they do not have the same income as somebody else.

Proportional Tax

These two contrasting tax systems meet in the middle with a proportional tax system. This tax is one where everyone pays the same amount in proportion to their income, regardless of how much someone makes.

Though individuals with higher incomes will pay higher proportional taxes in terms of dollars, every individual will pay the same percentage of their income. Some may argue this is a lose-lose situation, higher taxes are not collected from the wealthy nor are higher taxes collected from lower-income individuals who may utilize more public services.

The Bottom Line

Regressive taxes represent a tax structure where a higher burden is placed on low-income individuals. This is because a larger proportion of their income must go towards paying the tax. A regressive tax system is opposite of a progressive tax system where the wealthier are tax more, though the middle-ground tax system is called a proportional tax system. Common forms of a regressive tax system are sales taxes or excise taxes on certain goods.