erikspartan

You might be forgetting U.S. federal income tax which all U.S. taxpayers pay. I lose 30% of my paycheck to the feds. As for "necessary funding to the individual [jurisdictions] that need it" -- as a resident of California, I am financing the poorer states such as Mississippi. California taxpayers send about $2.50 to Washington for every $1 we get back in the form of federal spending. So 60% of my federal taxes are not being spent on California bridges and highways, but elsewhere. In turn, poorer states are basically receiving "foreign aid" from the richer states. And by "richer" I mean the taxpayers themselves, not the state's coffers. The U.S. does indeed have "pay as you go" income tax. My taxes are deducted from every paycheck (7 different taxes total) by my employer and paid immediately to the government. Every year there's a reconciliation where I pay or receive the difference between what was withheld from my paychecks and what I actually owed. For a salaried employee, that amount is usually negligible.