Americans don't feel too great about how they are taxed

Tax season is here and for many Americans, it’s less about filing forms and more about airing frustrations with a system they feel isn’t working for them. 

For years, the palaver surrounding taxes has been constant like background music in the US economy. But lately, that noise is getting louder and it's almost deafening. As per the data from Gallup 2026, 59% of Americans say their taxes are too heavy an obligation, that’s barely budged in 4 years while only 47% think the taxes are justified. 

American’s frustration with the federal tax system doesn’t just stem from the size of the bill, it's more about what taxpayers think they’re getting in return. Why pay more and when others aren’t paying equally seems to be the common sentiment as 61% think the wealthy aren’t paying enough tax and for 51% this whole tax system is too convoluted.  

For some Americans, dissatisfaction isn’t just a noun, it's a verb, which is no longer confined to opinions, and morphing into action. As reported by The Guardian, a minor but growing group of Americans are opting out entirely like one instance where a Chicago lawyer is withholding $8,800 in federal taxes as a sign of protest. Collective interest in organized resistance is on the rise too, the NWTRCC held its War Tax Resistance 101 training, drawing over nearly 500 attendees and totaling 110,000 unique visitors in website traffic. 

At the core of this pushback is an underlying pertinent question: where is all the money going? For critics, the answer isn’t reassuring, let alone convincing, especially when around 13% of federal income taxes are spent on the military. For taxpayers they are left with the question of whether their dollars even align with their values. 

Furthermore, layered on top of this predicament is a broader economic backdrop that’s hard to dismiss. An analysis in The Hill notes that the top 1% have ownership over one-third of U.S. wealth in other words that is what the bottom 90% holds. Over time, that disparity has widened on a dramatic scale, with incomes among the richest households growing 27 times faster when compared to the bottom 20%.