Data:
- According to The Balance’s “New York City Income Tax” New York City has five tax brackets ranging from 2.907 percent to 3.876 percent. Also, according to NYC official website [nyc.gov] “Business NYS Sales Tax”, purchases above $110 are subject to a 4.5% NYC Sales Tax and a 4% NY States Sales Tax. In other words, for all purchases above this amount, NY residents are being taxed double, for City and State. Something other States do not do.
- (Levin, Mark H.) Married taxpayers filing jointly with taxable income:
- between $26,000 and $40,000; 5.90%,
- between $40,000 and $150,000; 6.33%, and
- between $150,000 and $300,000, 6.57%.
| Goods and Services Subject to Tax Read More | Tax Rates |
| Clothing and Footwear Read More |
Clothing and footwear under $110 are exempt from New York City and NY State Sales Tax. Purchases above $110 are subject to a 4.5% NYC Sales Tax and a 4% NY State Sales Tax. |
| Most personal property (i.e. alcohol, furniture, electronics, etc)
Gas, electricity, refrigeration, steam, telephone, and telegraph services Detective, cleaning, and maintenance services Occupancy of hotel and motel rooms Food and beverages sold by restaurants and caterers Admission charges to places of amusement Credit rating and credit reporting services |
The City Sales Tax rate is 4.5%, NY State Sales and Use Tax is 4% and the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District surcharge of 0.375% for a total Sales and Use Tax of 8.875 percent. |
| Beauty, barbering, hair restoring, manicures, pedicures, electrolysis, massage, tanning, tattooing and other, similar services.
Health and Fitness clubs, weight control salons, gymnasiums, and similar establishments |
The City Sales Tax rate is 4.5% on the service, there is no New York State Sales Tax. If products are purchased, an 8.875% combined City and State tax will be charged. |
| Parking, garaging, or storing motor vehicles | The City charges a 10.375% tax and an additional 8% surtax on parking, garaging, or storing motor vehicles in Manhattan. If you are a resident of Manhattan and own a motor vehicle registered in Manhattan, you may be eligible for a Manhattan Resident Parking Tax exemption from the 8% surtax. For those who qualify, the tax will be at a rate of 10.375% instead of 18.375%. |
Policy Focus:
The only people who are able to interpret the tax codes are essentially lawyers. It’s a little bizarre to me that aside from paying taxes and providing income and profit to the city, we don’t know much about why this money is being taken from us and what this money is being used for. Due to this, I would like to focus my policy around creating a less complex, accessible, and readable, text document that will explain our tax rates in NYC, as well as how and why those tax rates came to be.
Location/sites of original data collection:
- Bibliography
- Annotated Bibliography
Revision of research questions:
- Why can’t we understand tax documents?
- Why is it so hard to read tax code?
- What is our tax money being used for?
- Compared to other states, why are NYC resident income tax rates as well as sales tax, so high?
Secondary Sources:
- Why are taxes so high in NYC? – Quora
- Aaron Brown – Regular Columnist for Wilmott Magazine, publish writer HuffPost and Forbes, former risk manager at AQR Capital Management
- “The answers so far have concentrated on why the NYC wants or needs to collect so much. But that’s no mystery, governments usually want to collect as much as they can and find ways to spend more than they collect. The more important aspect of the question is why people pay the taxes. And the answer is that for many people New York is not only worth the money, it’s a bargain. It’s not just the taxes. Rents are high, restaurants charge a lot, parking is expensive, the list goes on. But there’s no other city in the world like it. It has some of the best professional opportunities, networking in almost any field, culture, vibrancy, diversity and energy. Clearly some people prefer cheaper, quieter, slower places. Some people like homogeneity and predictability. Some people like expensive places but different ones: Hong Kong, SanFrancisco, Paris, Geneva, Monte Carlo, whatever. But there’s no shortage of people lining up to buy New York’s deal.”
- Samantha Morales
- I just read this study that the top “marginal” income tax rates for some folks (especially the self-employed) can reach 69% in New York City.
- A Guide to Several Taxes Imposed by New York City
Expectations & goals:
- I hope to find enough data to so that I can give some insight into questions that many people in our city have.
- I expect to be able to find more accessible data that will explain tax rates better, or at least explain a little.
Plan for visualization of data/research (video, charts/graphs, images, maps):
- Prezi presentation
- Poster
- Video
- Images and small captions
- charts
This sounds great so far!
Thanks, Professor!