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Show Utah Boasts Broad Tax Structure, 1 Distributes Tax Burdens Equally Utah Imposes most of the major ma-jor kinds of taxes employed by state and local governments throughout the United States. Uuh Foundation, in a special study of state and local tax structures, points out that Utah along with Alabama, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and New Mexico are the only states that make use of all of the 12 leading lead-ing kinds of taxes. Foundation analysts note that most tax authorities who have studied the State's tax structure have concluded that Utah's broad tax coverage is a strength rather than a weakness. These tax authorities suggest that the breadth of Utah's tax structure enables everyone to participate in paying for the cost of state and local government without placing an unduly restrictive! burden on any one group or segment seg-ment of the economy. In its examination of the tax structures of the 48 states, The Utah Foundation notes a marked diversity In tax patterns owing to economic differences found in the several states and varying philosophies concerning tax policy. pol-icy. Foundation officials observe, however, that Utah's tax structure struc-ture is somewhat unusual in that it corresponds so nearly to the composite of the Mountain States and to that of the United States as a whole. The following table shows the percentage of total to-tal state and local tax revenue derived from the various tax resources re-sources in Utah, in the Mountain States, ai d in the United States. Source of all State and Local Tax Revenue in Utah, the Mountain Moun-tain States and the United States 1957 Per cent of total State and local tax revenue Vlah Mt. States U.S. Property tax: 40.9;S 41.1 42.1 Sales tax: 16.0 13.4 11.1 Individual Income tax: 6.9 6.1 5.1 Corporation Income tax: 5.6 1.7 3.2 Highway user tax: 14.2 16.8 13.8 Liquor taxes: 3.4 2.5 2.8 Other excise taxes: 3.1 3.9 5.5 Other license taxes: 1.8 2.1 2.4 Severance tax: I 1.9 1.6 1.3 Unemployment tax: 3.7 3.3 4.0 Other state taxes: .6 .8 1.6 Cthe. local taxes: 2.0 3.8 6.0 TOTAL State and local: 100.07e 100.0 100.0 Llquor taxes include liquor monopoly profits in those states that operate liquor stores. |