Taxes: What Do Taxes Pay For: Income Tax, Financial Literacy, HS Math

What do the taxes you pay do? This high school personal financial literacy, life skills, and applied math project is designed for your students in 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade when they are learning about all kinds of taxes and how the money collected by the government from income tax, property tax & sales tax is used in our society.

How to Use:

1. Print five pages of worksheets per student.

2. Read through page one together and discuss the kinds of taxes that the government collects.

3. Next, students investigate the local services their government funds with tax money.

4. For some of these government services, it may be quite easy for your students to research a private alternative cost (for example, they find the tuition cost for a private school in their city).

5. For other services, it will be definitely be harder to find a private alternative cost. Encourage your students to make reasonable estimates. Being exact is not crucial; the goal is for students to think about how much money it would cost to replace all the public services with private options.

6. On the third and fourth pages, students will read about a fictional family: the Browns. They will use information and amounts provided in the simulation to total all of the expenses the Browns would have to pay out of pocket in a community that has no taxes. Would it really be better that way?

7. Finally, on the fifth page, students will write a reflection about what they have learned about taxes from this project.

8. Lead a class discussion to allow students to share their ideas and opinions.

9. A complete answer key is provided for easy marking.

What's Included: 7-Page PDF: Ready to Print and Use!

• Teacher Instructions

• 2 Pages: Research Local Programs Funded by Taxes and Private Alternatives

• 2-Page Realistic Simulation (with Spreadsheet)

• Reflection

• Answer Key

Grades to Use With:

This financial literacy, applied math, and life skills project is designed for your high school students in a variety of classes: consumer math, personal financial literacy, career & personal planning, applied math, or life skills.