how progressive a tax structure is depends upon how much of the tax burden is transferred to higher incomes a tax code with tax rates ranging from 10 to 80 would be more progressive than one with rates ranging from 10 to 30 
advantages of a progressive taxa progressive tax system reduces the tax burden on those who can least afford to pay they only have to pay 12 of their top dollars of income if they re single and earn less than 47 150 a year as of 2024 a single filer who earns more than 609 350 annually must pay 37 on their top dollars of income 2this leaves more money in the pockets of low wage earners who are likely to spend more of it on essential goods and services and stimulate the economy in the process a progressive tax system tends to collect more taxes than flat taxes or regressive taxes because the highest percentage is collected from those with the highest amounts of money those with greater resources fund a larger portion of the services that all citizens and businesses rely on such as road maintenance and public safety disadvantages of a progressive taxcritics of a progressive tax system argue that it s a disincentive to success they also oppose the system as a means of income redistribution which they believe punishes the wealthy and even the middle class unfairly opponents of the progressive tax are generally supporters of low taxes and correspondingly minimal government services progressive tax vs regressive taxa regressive tax is the opposite of a progressive tax a rate is applied uniformly across all levels of income so the tax burden decreases as income rises a sales tax is an example of a regressive tax both individuals would pay the same amount of sales tax on an identical bag of groceries even if one earns 300 000 a year and the other earns 30 000 but the less wealthy individual has shelled out a greater percentage of their income to purchase that food 3progressive tax vs flat taxlike a regressive tax a flat income tax system imposes the same percentage tax rate on everyone regardless of income the federal insurance contributions act fica tax that funds social security and medicare is often considered to be a flat tax because all wage earners pay the same percentage but the social security tax does have an earnings cap it applies only to income up to 168 600 in 2024 you wouldn t have to pay this tax on 1 000 of your income if you earned 169 600 4the medicare tax applies to all wages there s no earnings cap on this as there is for the social security tax 5