4 SS4

LO 4

Tic Tac Taxes

Formative Assessment:

· Why do we pay taxes?

· Why do we pay so many kinds of taxes, and what is the benefit to us?

· What are the goods and services that the government provides for us?

· How does the government pay for those goods and services?

Instructional Strategies or Activities:

Our governments, at all levels, provide us with goods and services that are sometimes more difficult for companies or individuals to provide. A paving company wouldn’t be able to charge individual drivers for the roads it creates. A hospital can’t collect from people who can’t afford to pay. Governments have a role in our society to provide some of these goods and services on behalf of all citizens. But governments have to pay to get the job done! Those costs are called expenditures. The government doesn’t have its own paving company, and even if it did, it would have to pay the people who work there! How do governments pay for the goods and services they provide? They pay for these things through a system of taxation, to gain necessary revenues.

Name some goods and services that are provided by the government. Brainstorm a list of these items with a group of classmates. Why do governments provide these services?

Have students go to the following website: http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.cfm?lesson=Em370.

Use “The Economics of Taxation” on the website to find out more about the kinds of taxes governments collect, and the goods or services they provide.

Which of the goods and services you named are provided by the federal government, which are provided by the state government, and which by the local government?

Use the Activity Sheet on the website to place the goods and services where they belong. If a good or service is provided by more than one government, place it in both columns.

How does each level of government get the money or revenue it needs to be able to provide the goods and services you have listed? There are three main kinds of taxes:

· Income Tax

· Sales Tax

· Property Tax

Work with a partner to define each type of tax. Go back to the Activity Sheet on the website and add each tax to the appropriate column in the revenues section.

Discuss with the class the types of taxes they learned about. What kinds of services or goods does each one help our governments provide?

Summative Assessment:

Students will work with a partner to play the Tic Tac Taxes Game on the website. They will need to use the ideas they learned about to win the squares.